In order to get Maudience off the ground two years ago, I was forced to walk door to door to businesses practically begging them to let us build them a website for money. The three main objections I would get were:
1. My site is okay, nobody goes to it anyways.
2. I don’t need a website.
3. My friend is building it.
All three objections I had no come back to, so I left my business card and went on down the street and kept up my begging. I did notice as Maudience grew I kept getting more and more emails from those people who told me originally their friend was building the website for them. I would tell them how much it was going to cost for us to build them a site, and they would be flabbergasted and tell me “well my friend was building it for $500!” I would eventually get a call later to discuss more and typically get a sale. I was curious on why this was happening and I kept getting the same complaints of the works working on the site.
There are many avenues for amateurs to enter the web design and develop game, but nothing beats a professional web design and developer! Let’s take a look at why the friend usually fails.
Knowledge
As web design professionals web sites are something, we take serious and strive to become better with every design. Technology changes every day so goes the web, and new techniques are arising in the web design world. The friend probably works another job and isn’t invested like a web design professional would be. This lack of knowledge will show with the final product. You as a business owner may or may not care, but the one person who cares is your visitor/customer. Poor website interface and usability will kill significantly diminish your website experience lowering your conversion/leads on your website. Good quality website design affects more than just the look and feels and you MUST take these things into consideration when building a website.
Maintenance
Websites are a lot like homes. They need to be invested in, maintained, and cleaned, or you’re going to have a mess that affects your quality of life. With friends, you’ll likely get some basic HTML website, or if you’re very lucky, a CMS system that will allow you to make updates. You likely won’t have anyone available to help you if something breaks, and if they went the CMS route, they might not know how to fix the website when it DOES break. When you work with a web design firm to build your site, you’re paying for that web design knowledge to keep your website running and performing at an optimal rate.
Search engine optimization is the most important part of a website today. Search engines are very picky and are looking for a certain set of standards. Even as web design experts we don’t know everything about SEO (but have a pretty good idea). The friend won’t even know where to begin when thinking about web design, development, and how that impacts SEO.
Time
As a business owner, you just want to feel comfortable with you website being completed on time, so you start generated leads. Friends often get a little in over their heads when they start building a website. Timelines start being pushed back, and sometimes radio silence starts occurring. With a web design agency or firm, this doesn’t happen (if it does you fire them).
So when thinking about a friend for your next website project, please consider more than just price. Websites aren’t all that expensive anymore for small businesses and the assurance and results you get outweigh the cost, in the long run.
Other Articles To Look at About Freiends and Websites
http://premieresocialsolution.com/shouldnt-let-family-friends-make-website/
