WordPress Archives

August 29, 2023August 30, 2023

Can you build your own website?

Young man holding his head in front of a laptop screen with an error message.

We need a website but we don’t have the budget for what we need. What can we do?”

We hear you. New business. Small marketing budget. It’s a dilemma for small business owners or startups. But you need to be able to market your business. And the most efficient way to do that is with a website.

The Cost of a New Website

Generally, you can expect to pay a minimum of $6,000 for a standard 6-10-page professionally designed website. No e-commerce.

But what if you can’t afford that?

You have some options:

You could build your own…. if you know enough about coding.
You could use a platform like SquareSpace or Wix which makes it easier for non-professionals to create a website
You could take a class to learn web design…if you have the time.

Odds are it will look like you built it rather than the professional look you’re aiming for. So one more option:

You COULD opt for a customized template.

Since we believe an amateur website does more harm than good, we recommend the latter. And of course hiring us to build your site.

Why, you ask, should you pay us to build a site that uses a theme?

Simple answer.

Even when we work with a theme, we’re still using our design chops (well, Iris’s).

And a designer brings skills to the table that you don’t have. Unless you’re a designer.

The Benefit of Working with a Designer.

Among other skills, a designer knows how to:

customize a theme so your site doesn’t look like it started with a template.
customize navigation so visitors can easily find what they‘re looking for.
use plugins for added functionality.
Introduce a custom color palette and fonts that make your product or service shine.
work with a developer to customize additional features (think popup boxes, CTAs, forms, contact pages, etc).
suggest other options you never thought of.

The benefit to you opting for a professionally designed custom template? Considerable savings since we’re not building a site from scratch.

Take a look at EdgeIQ one of the sites we built using a WordPress theme which we customized.

Other concerns if you’re building your own website.

Let’s play Devil’s Advocate. Suppose you decide to build your own website. What do you need to know?

Concern #1: We’ve heard about websites crashing due to bad themes that aren’t updating.
WAGW: Make sure you buy your theme from a reputable company with lots of users. Satisfied users.

Concern #2: How do we know which webhost to use?
WAGW: Same way you research themes. Read reviews to see what people are saying about the various hosting companies. Look for one that’s robust, dependable and keeps you informed about updates.

Concern #3: What about email setup? Which email program should I use?
WAGW: Hopefully you have an IT person who can help with that.

Concern #4: How do I coordinate all these moving parts?
WAGW: Spreadsheets are great for keeping track of all the elements you need to complete a site.

More complicated than you expected?

Don’t forget that you still need to write the site content and do SEO (search engine optimization).

That’s why people hire professionals to design and build websites.

The time you’ll save by hiring experts is the time you’ll free up to do what you’re good at. Refining your product, service or sales process. Hiring an assistant or an intern. Marketing your business.

The tasks for a small business owner are endless. Smart entrepreneurs delegate whenever they can.

Read more about marketing your business.

7 easy-to-implement tips designed to help you stay top of mind with clients.

Why marketing matters more than ever

Why you need to have a monitoring program set up for your website.

screens showing website monitoring graphs

After your WordPress website goes live, you may think the website work is finished. Not so.

WordPress is the most popular content management platform in use today and is constantly evolving. With its popularity comes security risks. This means that the core version of WordPress is constantly being updated as well as the plugins that are used to develop a site.

It’s important to regularly update these since many of them are security safety fixes. Think hackers getting into the back end of your website.

However, updating plugins can sometimes cause conflicts…. which might cause downtime.

When to update plugins.

We recommend waiting a little while to update plugins because bugs can cause your site to go down. If you wait a few days, the plugin creator should have ample time to fix any unexpected issues that arise.

Ongoing WordPress website monitoring is important to make sure that when plugins are updated they won’t cause your website to go down. And if it does, it can be fixed quickly.

It’s also important to monitor website uptime in case something happens with the web host.

Occasionally, we’ve had instances where either the hosting or SSL certificate was not renewed because the credit card on file had either expired or the account number had changed.

Unless someone is monitoring your site, this can go unnoticed. Which means you may be losing business!

These are only a few reasons we include six months of website monitoring and maintenance for all websites we build. After that, our clients can purchase ongoing monitoring for a very reasonable fee ….which most of them do.

It’s a small price to pay for knowing your online store or business is always open.

if your website is dated and no longer filling your business needs, we’re happy to chat. The start of a new year is the perfect time for a website revamp.

Fun with Chrome Developer Tools

We love the WordPress community! This was the weekend of WordCamp Chicago. As usual, it was a time to learn, to share, and to meet old and new friends. We’ll be posting some of the interesting sessions here as soon as they’re posted on WordPress.tv.

Steve was a speaker this year, on the topic of “Fun with Chrome Developer Tools.” (Yes, developers think this is fun!) Thanks to the many people who came to the presentation and offered comments and compliments!

How do I change the font size? Why is the background blue? These are questions easily answered through the Chrome Developer Tools. Anyone wanting to do any customization of a web site needs to be familiar with them.

View this full size in your browser from Google Docs or download Fun with Chrome Developer Tools as a PDF.

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