As a professional website designer, I’ve seen a lot of things! And yes, I’m talking about websites. There is absolutely nothing wrong with believing you can buy a WordPress template off the shelf and create your own masterpiece, but more often than not, I’ve seen people end up overwhelmed, stressed and exhausted by going down the DIY route.
In this article, I want to bust some of the website design myths and give you some pointers on how to make sure the website you build really does your business justice and leaves you free to do what you do best, which might be something other than website design!
Myth 1: Anyone can design a website, can’t they?
It’s true; with all the amazing templates and platforms available, website creation is much more accessible. But with so many options, it’s also become more confusing, and many new businesses don’t know where to start.
It’s important to remember that proper website design is more than just publishing a set of pages; it’s about creating an optimised, strategic web presence that aligns with your branding and business goals.
While you absolutely can design your own website, sometimes it’s worth finding a professional who will invest time in understanding the essence of your brand who, together with their understanding of market trends, design psychology, and good fundamentals, will be able to design you a website that isn’t only visually appealing but also strategically aligned to your business and that will engage and convert visitors.
Myth 2: As long as it looks good, that’s all that matters
Of course, looks are important, but they are really just one part of the picture when we’re talking about websites that engage and convert visitors. Above all, a well-designed website needs to be functional and create a seamless experience for visitors.
A good website will have a user-friendly interface, logical navigation, and content that is easy to read and interact with, so it serves the most important primary purpose of engagement and conversion.
Balancing lovely-looking visual elements with technical performance, like load times and responsiveness, is also essential for keeping your visitor’s attention, which is ultimately what you are looking to achieve.
Myth 3: The more features, the more they’ll like it
Lots of people think that if their website has all the bells and whistles, their visitors will believe they’re getting more value. In reality, a website that’s full of every feature you can think of does nothing more than look cluttered and create a confusing and overwhelming experience for your visitors.
Your website design needs to be simple and have a clear purpose. It should streamline your visitors’ experience by building in features that improve your site functionality without overwhelming anyone.
Focus on what is essential to your visitor’s journey and avoid unnecessary distractions.
Myth 4: Now my site’s published, I can sit back and relax
Everyone’s website needs ongoing maintenance to stay relevant and effective. Regular updates, security checks, and tweaking content are all part of keeping a website up-to-date. Having a website designer who will keep your website up to date with a monthly maintenance plan is great. They’ll be on hand to help you keep up with all the security, performance, and content updates, as well as new technology and design trends that need to be built into your website. If you want peace of mind that your website is in good hands, check out my monthly Worry-Free Package here.
Myth 5: SEO can wait till after the website is built
Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, can make or break your website. Essentially, SEO does the heavy lifting in terms of getting your website seen by the people who matter, and even a well-designed website that’s not optimised for search engines will struggle to show up.
SEO needs to be considered at an early stage in the design and build process. Design decisions like the site’s architecture, navigation structure, and image sizing can profoundly impact SEO. Optimising keywords in page titles, meta descriptions, and image alt tags also makes a difference. Google looks for these key indicators when returning your web pages in search results. To ensure your website gets seen by your target audience, try to incorporate SEO best practices in its design right from the start.
Myth 6: Hiring a web designer is too expensive
While it’s true that hiring a professional web designer to build your website requires an investment, it should be seen as just that: an investment. The increased traffic, higher conversion rates, and greater brand recognition you’ll get from a professionally designed website will quickly outweigh the costs. And they’ll save you the time you could be spending working with paying clients, too.
There are lots of very reasonably priced website designers who offer affordable small-business packages; you can check mine out here!
Myth 7: It’s quicker to do it myself
When you see all the lovely WordPress website templates available to you, it’s so tempting to jump in and start building your website yourself. Of course, you can do that, and I have seen some great results, but more often, overwhelm sets in, the tech gets too much and before long, you’ve got yourself in an exhausted muddle with a bit of a mess of a website on your hands.
But that’s not surprising; you’re not a website designer, so well done if you even got out of the blocks! So, while building your own website might look like the quickest and cheapest option, it rarely is. A professional website designer will be able to use all their skills and expertise to create a website for you in a fraction of the time it might take you.
Myth 8: No, really, I’ve found a great template
Templates are great as a starting point, and you can share the look and feel you like with your website designer, but ultimately, they need to be unique and align perfectly with your brand.
A professional website designer can take your ideas and transform them to suit your specific requirements. They’ll ensure that every element of your site reflects your brand identity and has all the functionality you need to run your business as you want it to. This level of customisation is much more than tweaking the colours or adding your logo; it will ensure that your website looks, feels, and functions exactly as you need it to.
Summing Up
I hope this article has busted some of those website design myths you had lurking at the back of your mind. While, of course, you can have a go yourself, it really is worth getting in touch with a professional website designer to see if they have a package that might be affordable. Meaning that you get all the benefits of a well-built website that perfectly aligns with your brand and that gets you seen in the search results while avoiding the stress and overwhelm of trying to build your website yourself.
If you’re thinking of building your website soon, why don’t you drop me a line to see if I can help? I’ve got a great essentials package that might suit you perfectly and a website maintenance service, so get in touch for an absolutely free, no-obligation call to see if I can help.
