Nowadays creating a website is relatively simple. Do it yourself software comes with hosting packages from large companies like Yahoo! and GoDaddy. However, there is so much more to a well designed website than using an out-of-the-box template.

Web design requires knowledge in graphic communications, page optimization to make it easy to be read by search engines and utilizing best practices in usability and user experience.

I’ve listed the usual reasons that I’ve heard from clients:

1. Save Money. On the surface your site may appear to cost you less if you decide to design it yourself. However, one or two mistakes could cost you in the long run. If your site doesn’t perform you could loose out on potential clients or lost sales costing you much more than the cost of the site.
2. More Control. By designing the site yourself it is true you have control over the design. Be prepared, however, if you are using an online site builder to give up some control due to limitations of the WYSIWYG tools.
3. You Know Best. It would be expected that you know your business better than anyone else. The question is do you understand what your website visitors are looking for? Do you their navigation patterns and how they are searching for information? If not, you may be building your site for yourself and not your visitors.

As you should start to see building a website requires quite a lot of considerations.

Now, let’s look at the benefits of hiring a professional website designer.

1. High Quality. You will get a high quality designed website that will communicate your company’s story.
2. One of Kind. A professional designer will design a one of kind website that will not only meet your business needs but also the needs of your visitors.
3. Easy to Use. By hiring a professional designer your website should be easy to use and simple to navigate. Having an easy to use site will enable visitors to find the answers to their questions or the products they are in search of.
4. SEO Benefits. A professional designer should build your site using web design standards that will help gain organic search engine traffic.
5. Build Trust. A professionally designed website will help establish trust into your products and services. If your website looks amateurish so will your company, products and services
6. Competitive Advantage. A professional website designer will be able to design a site that stands out from your competition giving you an advantage.
7. Focus on Your Business. Hiring a professional designer enables you to focus onyour day to day business. It is one less thing you need to worry about doing yourself.

This is only a short list of the benefits or hiring a professional website designer.

Website design is something that requires numerous skills such as design, information architecture, marketing and SEO. Hiring a professional designer may cost more upfront but the benefits to your business in sales or customers certainly outweigh these initial costs.