Starting a new business is tough, there’s a lot to do, endless forms to fill out, money seems to be disappearing rapidly with all the extra bits you probably haven’t budgeted for or even knew you needed.
Now you’re trying to sell your services, get your first client, and you’ve decided a trades website design is the way forward with thousands of people searching for your service and having an online presence is the best way they’ll find you, perfect!
A quick google search reveals a multitude of various ways to get started, and the easiest by far would be using a website builder such as Wix, Shopify or WordPress etc. Website builders are essentially the backend of a website, rolled up into an easy to use front-end website builder. But you don’t just want a website, you want a great website and these builders tend to lean towards a type of site, i.e. Shopify is best suited to e-commerce. More on this below.
Now, do you go down the DIY route or invest in an agency? Which one is right for you? How much do they all cost? Can I do it myself? What else do I need?
Let’s take a look at the two options getting online and which one suits your business.
Website Templates
The Good
Cost effective
Most of the pre-made templates on website builders such as WordPress are actually free. You can browse their library of designs and pick the best one for your service, they usually offer more advanced options for a small fee too.
Simple
All the work has been done, along with all the pages, layout and design. Add your logo, colour scheme and content into their pre-made website design and away you go. They offer monthly subscriptions to their hosting, including your domain and set up all of the backend for you.
Fast
Design ideas don’t come overnight, even for website designers. This one’s already been made and cuts the time down for you getting online by about a month, meaning you can start offering your services straight away. Hurrah!
Design
Especially important if you’re not blessed with design ideas, and even if you are in your field, a website doesn’t just have to look good, but perform well, and be optimised for users with the flow and layout. Having a professional already completed this part has actually been very beneficial.
The Not So Good
Self service
Once you have downloaded your template, you’ll have to do all the work to get it looking the way you want. Adding your logo, branding, text, content etc. This may seem like a simple task, but not all website templates make it so easy.
Limited design
Although the design usually looks great on the template, they’re universal and not suited to every business type. How easy is it to change that booking form page to a service page? Unfortunately, most website builders like WordPress don’t offer much support to alter the templates, why would they? It was free after all.
Website design agencies will be able to make changes for you for a small fee, and if this is the route you chose and need some help, contact us
Support
The lack of support can be frustrating at times, trust me, I know! A simple task like adding an image might appear to be a 5 minute job, but not everything goes the way you plan and watching many Youtube videos to try and find the answer to your solution can be a draining task. That’s not to say the answer isn’t out there, but having someone on hand to just show you is much better.
SEO
Templates tend to be built with design in mind, and lack the necessary SEO setup your website needs. Adding additional pages for your services really heightens your chances of being found and without these your online presence will be lurking around page 10 on the search results. SEO for trades is important to effectively rank for your services.
Expense
The monthly fee’s for hosting and domains seem quite cheap to get started, but they add up over time and although it may be tempting to take the easy route having it all set-up for a fee, doing it yourself is quite easy, take a look at my Website Hosting & How to Host a Website For Beginners blog.
Custom Build Websites
The Good
Design
Custom designed websites will give you a bespoke look & feel to suit your business, branding and requirements. Have your branding or start from scratch and give your business a new lease of life with a trade website design and create something amazing to work for you and your customers.
User experience and flow of a website is very important to keep your reader interested and help them find the information they need quickly. If a website is too complicated or difficult to follow, users will drop off. There are over 175,000 trades in the UK, competition is fierce, ensure you have something easy to read and navigate.
SEO
SEO for trades is an important part of having your page rank for your services if you want it to gain organic traffic. A custom built website will allow you to have multiple pages to showcase your services to cover all search results your customers will be tapping into Google – which is a key element for your SEO and the base for a successful website.
Unlimited potential
Along with service pages to get traffic to your site, once there, convince your customers they should pick you. Showcase your work in a portfolio with before & after imagery and give them confidence your work is as good as your new website. Including blogs on your website to offer solutions to your customers most searched problems – they may find they need a tradesperson to resolve their issue, that’s where you come in. The possibilities with additional content pages are endless with a custom built website.
Freedom
If you’re concerned about the layout and way your website portrays your business, a custom build gives you the freedom to work with your designer and get your business and personality across. Customers are more likely to contact you if they feel like they already know and like you and get a pinch of personality across your website.
Support
As good as the internet is, things break, and there’s no exceptions here. Our multi-page trades website design service offers 3-6 months post completion support to ensure no teething issues. Forgot how to add blogs or more content to your site? No worries, send us a message and we’ll advise you on what you need to do.
Expertise
I’m sure you’re great at what you do, and as that saying goes, the right person for the job. Knowing you’ve trusted an expert in the field to complete your website to its full potential probably means you’ll be online sooner and having got it right the first time. After all, your website is your first impression to customers searching online for your services.
The Not So Good
Cost
Time is money, and building a custom website takes plenty of time. A custom build will be more expensive than a pre-built template, but the long term benefits definitely outweigh the financial output at the start.
Timescale
Takes quite a while too. Getting set-up from start to finish usually takes around a month, which you may not have time for if the business cards need sending off to print yesterday. Rome wasn’t built…..wait I’ve already used this one over here in our services page.
Commercio Digital Trade Web Design
Take a look at our trades website design offering, we offer website packages to suit all trades at an affordable price.
