If you’re not a web designer, don’t design your own website.
- Dentists have accountants.
- Accountants have doctors.
- Doctors have secretaries.
Why do so many people with no graphic talent or HTML knowledge design their own webpage?
Now, if you’re gifted (which is entirely possible) good for you. Really. But that person is a needle in a haystack. I see so many websites where all I can do is stare and try to picture the moment that the designer sat back, sighed, smiled and said “Yeah. That’s it. Perfect.”
When what I’m looking at is a train wreck.
Right now I’m listening to someone doing a podcast and pushing Nvu like a crack dealer – he’s saying templates are bad and you should code your own page.
Why??
When WordPress (or even TypePad for goodness sake) has hundreds of lovely templates that can be easily customized and used right out of the box. Even if you don’t customize it at all, that’s still better than some awful HTML page you made from scratch with awful colors and bad superbig text.
So this is my open letter (plea?) to everyone starting a business and thinking about making a site when they’ve never worked with HTML, PHP, or CSS before. At this stage of the game you don’t even need a webpage. You could just put out an Internet presence on a bunch of social networking sites and Google will find you and your chosen company name far faster than if you have a webpage on your itty bitty corner of the internet.
Do that, and pay someone to do the website when you can afford it. That or use WordPress or TypePad to create a static website, or a website with a blog element.
Potential customers do care what your site looks like, because if your site is bunk, they’ll think your skills and products are bunk as well.
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