The short answer: For the same reason you should hire a professional to build your house or fill a cavity in a tooth. Web development is both an art and a science wrapped into one. Although there are many people that dabble in it, you shouldn’t entrust your professional image to someone not well-versed in creating and delivering professional, high-quality web solutions.
It may seem more cost effective to have a friend or relative do a website for you or for you to do it yourself, but you need to consider some of the intangible costs associated with that choice. A boring, outdated, broken or ineffective website can cost more in the long run by what it tells visitors about your company. Many times we have seen companies go this route and then come to us when they realize their website isn’t working for them. Why go through the process twice? Going with a professional web development firm will save you both time and money by delivering a high-quality, engaging website the FIRST time around.
A professional web development firm will approach your project by assessing your current business processes and identifying potential areas for streamlining and improving those processes. The experience of a seasoned developer will be invaluable in helping you to define the goals for your website and how it fits into your overall marketing plan.
In web development there are many roles. Rarely is a web developer highly skilled in both graphic design and the actual programming of the site. A firm, however, has various resources available so that you are getting an expert working on every aspect of your site. When hiring a friend or relative to do the work for you, you are generally sacrificing in one or both of those areas.
There are many questions to address when developing an online presence that a professional web development firm will already be very familiar with, thus saving you the expense of any unpleasant surprises during development or after your site is launched.
Is the person you are going to hire knowledgeable about search engine optimization or other methods of driving traffic to your site? What about hosting services? Registering or transferring a domain name? Obtaining or creating high-quality graphics and images? Can they balance usability with efficient, eye-pleasing design? Integrate your site seamlessly with your legacy systems? Create a site that is easily updatable by you? Create a website that sets you apart from your competition? Provide web-based tools specific to your business needs? Do they understand browser compatibility issues and how the site will appear to various visitors? These questions are but a few of the many things to consider when planning a site.
Some may argue that it’s enough to get a website out there, and not worry about the other details. When thinking of it in terms of your business image, however, I would argue that no website would be preferable to a bad website. After all, you’ve worked hard to build your professional image. Don’t neglect the importance of your website in supporting that image.