Website design is a little like fashion – trends come and go. The key is not to let your website wear a leisure suit.
You might not wear the cutting edge of fashion. I don’t. But I also don’t wear the sweater vests or scarves that I did in high school.
Website design trends change fairly rapidly. Over 10 years in business, most of our clients get 3-5 years out of a theme (that controls the design) before their site starts to look seriously dated.
Do you change your own oil? I don’t. I could. I understand how to do it. But it’s totally worth the cost in the time & effort involved to pay someone else, so I can focus on other things– the things that only I can do, like grocery shopping for my family and paying the bills (although there are services for those tasks too!).
I don’t do my own vehicle repairs anymore either. I have — I replaced a carburetor once. But cars have changed, and with all the electronic systems, it makes more sense to hire a trusted professional. My “car guy” doesn’t just fix the thing I pointed out as the problem, he looks out for other issues that might be going on, and helps me get the best performance from my car.
You need to redesign your site – or even build your very first site. Should you do it yourself? Hire a freelancer? Find an agency? There are so many options, and the right answer for you depends on a combination of your business needs, your technical skills, your time available, and your budget.
While there are lots of options in between, this post will consider three main options for building a site: do-it-yourself (DIY), freelancers, and web development agencies.