Sledgehammer Infosystems
Smashing through your information & communication problems since 2021
WordPress and Squarespace and Wix and all of the other easy site builder tools out there are great, don't get me wrong - I've built & helped to maintain a couple of of WordPress & Wix powered websites throughout my career and there's a reason that everybody & their brother uses these things and that a ridiculously high portion of the top websites in the world are run on WordPress. But, I've also had to rescue a few people who have managed to accidentally completely break their site. That's just one of the many reasons that I don't generally build websites, especially small business sites, with these kinds of tools.
One of the big selling points of these easy to use site builder tools is that it makes it so easy for you — a normal, not particularly technically inclined, human being — to design a site in line with your brainding, update your website content, and add lots of bells & whistles without a lot of technical know-how. That is true - but that's not always a good thing. It also makes it easy for you to shoot yourself in the foot and put together a site that is bloated, slow, hard to navigate, and that doesn't project a polished, professional image.
Unless properly managed and designed, the sites generated by these tools tend to be slow. Several factors contribute to this slowness, including inefficient code generated by WYSIWYG content editing tools, unoptimized CSS definitions, and unnecessary use of JavaScript for simple content display. This slowness not only affects your users, especially those accessing your site from slower mobile devices, but it can also hurt your search engine rankings.
It's not that DIY site builders lack robust search engine optimization (SEO) features - but if you don't know how to leverage them correctly, they may as well not be there. For example, automated meta tags, poorly structured URLs, and lack of control over site architecture can hinder your search engine rankings. A hand-crafted site can make sure that all of these things that help search engines fully understand - and therefore better promote - your site, ensuring your site is fully optimized to rank higher in search engine results.
DIY website builders provide a range of templates and design options, but these often result in cookie-cutter websites that fail to stand out. Or, even worse, you can set yourself up with a site that is impossible to navigate or content that's difficult for your audience to read through. A professional web designer can create a custom design tailored to your brand, ensuring a unique and engaging user experience.
Building and maintaining a website using DIY tools can be incredibly time-consuming, especially if you lack technical expertise. Troubleshooting issues, optimizing performance, and staying updated with the latest trends can take away valuable time that you could be spending on running your business. Hiring a professional allows you to focus on what you do best while leaving the technical aspects to an expert.
Accessibility is a crucial aspect of web design that DIY tools often overlook. Once again, even if the tools can handle common accessibility features like alt text for images & multiple header levels, that doesn't mean that the person creating that content knows how to use them. A professional web designer will ensure your site complies with accessibility standards, making it far more usable for people that rely on assistive technology to navigate online. An accessible website not only broadens your audience but helps enhance your SEO efforts and helps avoid potential legal issues related to non-compliance with accessibility laws.
DIY website builders can be vulnerable to security breaches. This is mostly a problem for self-hosted or small biz-hosted WordPress because is a very common target for hackers due to its popularity. Keeping the site secure involves regular updates, security plugins, and proper configurations that the average user might not be aware of. This is something that the static site approach we take to building websites here at Sledgehammer Infosystems largely avoids.
As your business grows, so will your website needs. DIY builders may not be equipped to handle increased traffic, more complex functionalities, or integration with other systems - or may be happy to do so and charge you an arm and a leg for the expanded service. Our approach to building sites and our depth of technical know-how allows us to build a scalable, cost-effective website that grows with your business and offer custom solutions to meet evolving demands and ensuring smooth performance as your audience expands.
By choosing a professional web designer, you ensure your website is fast, secure, optimized for search engines, accessible to all users, uniquely designed, scalable, and you'll free up your time to focus on your core business activities. While DIY tools may seem cost-effective initially, the benefits of a professionally designed website far outweigh the potential pitfalls and long-term costs associated with DIY solutions.
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