It’s said that the person who defends themselves in court has a fool for a client. The stakes aren’t as high when it comes to a new business website, but we would agree with the general sentiment: Just because you can do it yourself doesn’t mean you should.

1. Efficiency

Even the simplest DIY web design platform will have a learning curve, and the likelihood is your business gets the most value when your time is spent on product development, sales, or customer relations—not researching HTML or CSS code to change a font or image aspect ratio. Money invested with a professional web agency is money you earn through the productive time you gain. It should also be said that not all web design agencies are created equal. Peak efficiency is achieved when your agency offers complementary services like video production, digital marketing and hosting. When you’re building a website that includes visual design and powerful multimedia content, a single point of contact (a project manager) will save you time and help you build brand continuity. Here at Informatics, we’re proud to work with some of the Cedar Rapids area’s best project managers, and with a proven process that ensures we accomplish every step in a timely manner (see it below):

2. Experience and Expertise

It should go without saying, but a web design agency with decades of experience can troubleshoot pesky obstacles in a cinch. That includes problems with things like:

• Forms and APIs
• HubSpot and other CMS integrations
• Image formats and file types
• Template designs
• Website tags and tracking
• User interfaces or the overall user experience (UI/UX)

If you don’t even recognize some of these terms, it’s a good sign that you should call a web design agency, as you’ll be spending more time learning than building. More importantly, an experienced web design agency doesn’t learn how to solve problems on your dime—they already have that knowledge. Here at Informatics, we also pride ourselves on collaborating and working across teams, so you get access to the specific expert you need, regardless of your project’s scope or price. Relying on your team, or even an independent web developer, doesn’t give you that kind of broad knowledge base.

3. Customization

Your website is the front door to your business and your chance to make a first impression. Studies show that people form an opinion about your site in just .05 seconds (or 50 milliseconds). If your site is a vanilla template that the viewer has encountered a thousand times before, you’ll have to work that much harder to convince them your product or service isn’t also run-of-the-mill. Beyond visual customization, a full-service web design agency can serve up a purpose-built website with the right SEO strategy, and navigation, menus and graphical elements that truly reflect your business and help accomplish your specific goals. A properly built site should:

• drive visitors to take the actions you want
• offer valuable industry-specific value or information
• precisely capture the data you need—minus data and functionalities you don’t really want.

Focusing on just the most essential elements can also make your website faster. Every additional element, file or image requires loading, and in the web design world, milliseconds count. Websites that load in under two seconds have an average bounce rate of 9%, but that number skyrockets to 38% for sites that take five seconds to load. Customization and performance go hand-in-hand. The only way to get a truly purpose-built site is by working with a web-design agency that has a data-driven and outcome-focused approach. At Informatics, all web design clients are guided through a comprehensive analysis that looks at the website as just one element in a business’ overall strategy. That kind of planning and preparation is rarely included in DIY website timelines.

4. Support and Maintenance

It’s exciting to launch a new website, but really, that’s just the beginning of the process. Your team needs to learn how to manage it and keep it updated, which is critical to a healthy web presence. A full-service web design agency should always offer in-person or virtual training, along with the ability to handle the maintenance for you if your time runs low. The DIY site builders may offer chatbots and links to frequently asked question sheets, but that puts the onus on you and your team to cut through the jargon and find the answer yourselves. When your website is designed by an skilled agency, there are real people who are intimately familiar with the nuts and bolts of your site, why it was built the way it was, and how to update it with necessary improvements. Don’t undervalue this point, because something on your website will always go wrong or require updates.

5. Security Considerations

You should know that not all DIY website builders employ the same security measures. For example, design platforms built with open source code may be more susceptible to outside attacks than those using a closed source. DIY website builders may also have limitations in terms of encryption, authentication methods, and overall security configurations. Additionally, a reliance on pre-built templates and plugins can introduce potential security risks if they are not regularly updated or come from untrusted sources. Is your business ready to take on that kind of risk? Working with a trusted web design agency can alleviate many of these questions.

6. Peace of Mind

Researchers estimate that we make 35,000 conscious decisions in a single day, with our decision quality decreasing as the number rises. For business owners, a day can feel like it requires 35 million decisions. If your marketing plan includes a new or redesigned website, you owe it to yourself and your business to work with a web design agency. Because while you might not be sure you can afford an agency, you definitely can’t afford a website that doesn’t work.