Websites are a critical part of your operation. Whether you are building a business, a blog, or an online community, a website will help get you where you want to go. There are many options when you want to hire someone to build a website.
Software services like Wix and Squarespace will allow you to build out your own website with user-friendly tools, but they will limit what you can do with your site and how much you can customize it.
On the other hand, you can also build a website using WordPress, but that can take a long time to learn how to use, and you will find yourself frustrated quickly and easily almost as soon as you get started.
There is no shame in hiring a web developer to help you build out your website, especially if you are a serious business owner looking to make the most out of your site and free up your time so you can run your business.
Here is what you need to know to hire someone to build out your website.
Have Goals for the Website.
Before hiring anyone to build out your site, it is crucial to have a firm grasp on precisely what your site will be used for.
This goal will help you communicate with the developer that you hire what aspects of the website are essential and what elements are not.
Having a clear picture includes understanding what the website is for, the website’s main goals, how many pages will be on the website, and so on.
For example, you might be a real estate company that wants a website where you can capture new leads and create content in the form of a blog or podcast.
Ideally, those aspects of the website will be attached to an even bigger overall goal.
Have a Basic Understanding of Website Development.
You do not need to learn how to code or set up any DNS settings or SSL certificates to have a website. However, it would be a good idea to do a little bit of research on the very basics of setting up a website.
This understanding is essential because you will want to know how your website is being set up, even if someone else is doing it.
You don’t necessarily want to hire a professional web developer to develop your site and then find out they are using a cookie-cutter site off of Wix that you could make yourself.
Set a Budget for Your Website (Creation and Maintenance).
You can find yourself paying to keep a website up and running a wide range of prices. You might be able to find developers charging as low as $200 to create a website for you.
Then other advanced professionals may charge you thousands of dollars to get one up and running.
Know before going into your website creation whether you need someone to design and build the site or need someone to continue to manage the site day in and day out as you move along.
You do not want to find yourself hiring a professional developer to build your site only to have all of the pieces of that site changing later on down the road, and you have no idea how to update the website.
Common Mistakes When Hiring Someone To Build a Website
Hiring a Web Designer to Build the Site.
One common mistake that people will make when hiring someone to build a website is hiring a web designer rather than a web developer.
Make sure you look into the background of any potential employees or agencies you want to hire and understand exactly what the service is that they will be providing you.
Ballen Brands is owned by my brothers Jeff and Paul Helvin. They are web developers.
Not Paying Enough for the Site.
Another easily avoidable mistake that some will make is merely paying a too low price to expect a quality website.
This attempt to go cheap leads to paying multiple times, over and over again, for low-quality sites that will eventually add up to the cost of having paid the right price in the first place.
On top of that, when you do not pay enough to have your site built right the first time, you also end up spending your time and energy attending to that process.
Time and energy that could be spent growing your business.
I would add that owning the website is a key in this decision as well. Do you own it? Can you back up the WordPress database and take it with you to a new host? If not, I’d pass.
Paying Too Much for the Site
On the flip side, you will see businesses and individuals that pay far too much to have a website professionally designed and created when they do not need all of the bells and whistles that come with that price.
There is a difference between running an entire e-commerce store online and starting a simple blog.
If it makes more sense for you to have a simple website that you can manage yourself, then get a simple website that you can manage yourself.Â
Web Designers vs. Web Developers.
A web designer is someone who will work with the “front-end” of your site and design the appearance, the buttons, and the other elements of each of your web pages.
Designers will mostly work with different graphic editors and similar tools.
A web developer is far more important for your site’s “back-end” functions and providing the implementation of your site.
A developer will write code and write scripts to make sure that your site is functional and serves its purpose, whether that be selling products, attracting new customers, etc.
It is entirely possible that it would make the most sense for you to hire both a designer and a developer to build out your website.
In that case, you can also consider hiring an agency that offers to take care of all of your website needs for you.
Full-Time Specialists vs. Freelancers.
Full-time specialists are the better option if you are looking to hire someone to build, design, and manage your website.
This will be best if you are a medium to a larger business that can afford to hire out an employee (or independent contractor) to take care of this side of your business. They will manage everything for you.
Freelancers could be the better option if you are on a tight budget or only need a few modifications to your website.
Freelancers will be far cheaper and sometimes more specialized in specific tasks than full-time specialists. The gig economy is real, and you can find many freelancers to help you with your needs.
Full-cycle agencies are another option that can be great if your business is big enough to want an “IT department” but not big enough to hire out a full-time IT department in-house.
These agencies will often be a way for you to work with multiple specialists that help create and manage every aspect of your site.
Best Developers to Hire to Build a Website
In no particular order, the following list of web developers can get your research underway. My brothers Jeff and Paul Helvin own Ballen Brands.
1.) Ruckus Marketing
Ruckus marketing is an agency that provides services to help you build your brand.
They offer branding services, design platforms (including websites), create marketing campaigns, and also offer photography, film, and other creative services.
Ruckus marketing is your “one-stop-shop” for any branding services that you may need.
2.) Ballen Brands
Ballen Brands is a family-owned digital marketing agency specializing in coming up with the tools, strategies, and resources to drive business success for real estate agents, bloggers, affiliate marketers, and small to medium-sized businesses.
They offer services and solutions for website design, development, customer relationship management, social media and internet advertising, and more.
3.) Warschawski
A full-service marketing services agency that boasts personalized care for each one of their clients.
Warschawski offers services advertising, design, web development, videography, photography, social media, Amazon PPC management, and even more.
4.) Adlava
Adlava is a Las Vegas-based web design agency with services in-app and software development, web design, content creation, digital marketing, branding and identity, and consulting and strategy.
They combine data-driven strategies and smart technology to drive branding and advertising strategies that help their clients grow their businesses and stand out.
5.) Hawke Media
Hawke Media also offers services in branding, strategy, media buying, social media, content, photo, and video.
They consider themselves your “outsourced” CMO, meaning that they have everything that you would get from hiring a chief marketing officer, likely at a much lower cost.
6.) Vocso
Vocso is a “digital experience agency” that also helps with website design, website development, and online marketing and advertising.
Their services match the goals of their clients.
Take Aways
There it is. That covers everything that you need to know about starting a website for your business.
Having a website will play a massive role in boosting your branding and online presence.
For the most part, having a website is an expectation for businesses in today’s world, although not quite a requirement depending on your business’s nature.
To make sure your website is healthy, make sure that you do some research before paying for any product or service to help you create the site.
For some businesses, it will make more sense to stay within your budget and create a simple website for yourself, and for other companies, it will make more sense to pay for consulting, design, development, and management of your website.
You want to make sure that you are not basing your decisions for your website on how much money you want to spend, but rather on what makes the most sense for you in your situation.
If you have all the money in the world but only need a simple website, it will make more sense to create a simple website for yourself.
On the other hand, if you are starting out and still strapped for cash, it might make more sense to put a high percentage of your budget into your website.
An e-commerce store that does not invest in its website will not last long, Guaranteed!
FAQs
While the final answer to this question is mostly going to depend on your goals for your website, Wix, Squarespace and other similar services will often be better if you are on a tight budget.
However, if you go this route, be prepared to expend a lot of your own time and frustration on your website.
Go with a website developer or agency like Ballen Brands at (702) 917-0755 if your website is something that needs to be managed and running smoothly without you being there. This will be the far better option in the long run in terms of creating a system for your business.
The easiest way to get a website up for your business would actually be to hire a developer or agency that can take care of everything for you. That is, of course, if you have the budget to do that, and there is no guarantee that your website would be up and running today.
If you are in a hurry to get a website up, you will have to pay for that, whether that be in terms of money, energy, or opportunity cost.
If you want to jump in feet first with your website you can sign up for hosting at WP Engine, get a WordPress site, and find a WordPress theme like Essence Pro that will work for now.
As mentioned earlier in this article, the price range for starting a website can vary wildly depending on the complexity of the site, whom you hire, and what you are expecting to get out of your website.
A freelancer might cost as little as $100 or $200, while some agencies might charge thousands of dollars per month in order to create and maintain your website for you.
This is actually an option that you can use to try and hedge the cost of hiring a full-service web developer. It might be more affordable for you to pay for a service like SquareSpace or Wix and then hire a freelancer that can work each of those softwares well for you.
It is recommended that you do your research when hiring a freelancer, in this case, to make sure that there is a purpose for hiring them. Wix and SquareSpace are fairly user-friendly so you do not want to hire someone to do a job that you can do yourself. Hire someone either because they have better skills, or because they’ll save you time.
This would also be a great option if the main purpose of your site is for content, like a blog. Then you can log in and change the content of your website fairly easily, and have your freelancer on hand to make tweaks and changes that you do not know how to make yourself.
Not all websites are created the same and e-commerce websites continue to gain popularity in today’s world.
Regardless of what type of website you are creating, it would be wise to do background research on the software, platform, developer, or agency that you are planning on using in order to create your site.
There are tools that are geared towards blogging, and then there are other tools that are geared toward e-commerce. One of these options is Shopify. Another is Woo Commerce for WordPress. Understand the difference before going all-in on your website.
Many of the platforms like Wix and SquareSpace will offer solutions for e-commerce now, but then you also have Shopify which has been the leader in creating e-commerce sites for a long time now and does not look like they will be moving from that spot any time soon.
This is a great question to ask and might even be one of the leading causes of dissatisfaction with websites.
Websites are a crucial element of your business, but they are not magic money-making machines. In reality, not every business needs a website and it oftentimes will not be the first thing that you want to focus on as a business owner.
The first thing that you should focus on is getting customers to your business. Whether you are selling a product or selling a service. Customers will produce the cash flow that you need in order to create a better website.
The upside to getting customers first is that you will start to generate that cash flow and you can then afford to have a better website as your first website. It isn’t uncommon to see new businesses with bad looking websites pop up, and in some cases that can do more damage to your brand before you even get started.
