Why should you hire instead of do it yourself?

There are so many do-it-yourself websites out there, and some of them are even free. So I get asked all the time: why should anyone hire me, or any other web designer? After all, its easy to make a website, right? Well, not really. Is it easy to make a page on the internet? Absolutely. Is that page optimized for search engine crawlers? Does it do anything beyond show information? Is it appealing enough to not only bring people in, but keep them there? Is it easy to edit and add information? Is there helpful support to set up and run your site? Not always. In fact a lot of the do it yourself website builders are limited, difficult to use and update, or nickel and dime you on features. Some are better, but how many of them will you go through before you find the right one for you?

Even when you find the right tool, there is so much that goes into making an effective website for a business. A web designer knows not only how to keep your customers on your site through to the action and purchase, but how to bring in new customers through search engine optimization and social media connections. Web developers can also help add extended functionality like project management, client management, payroll, eCommerce, food delivery systems, and anything else you can think of – all within one login.

So, why should you hire a web designer?

1. You are buying our expert knowledge, skill, and efficiency.
   • You aren’t just buying a website, you are buying our knowledge of how to set it up, how to draw attention, how to use design aspects, and so so much more. Good designers have years of experience creating websites to solve a client’s business problems.
2. You are buying our research, so you don’t have to worry about scams.
   • If you are creating your own site, you will need to research type of services like hosting and functions or plugins you need. You will need to research plugins on their merit, their trustworthiness, their ease of use, and their features. Designers and developers already have a set of plugins for practically everything. We have already spent the hours researching plugins and learning how to set them up, or building custom ones to better our clients. We know which ones are easy for clients to use, and which ones interact well with other functions. These are hours that you don’t want to spend, and you don’t have to.
3. You are buying our time, so you can use yours how you need to.
   • How much time do you have to get the site up and running? From what we have seen, it usually takes the first timers, even the ones using “easy site builders”, about 6 months to learn the system enough to set up, find the right plugins and calibrate them. Even then, there are usually problems with the systems, broken links, security holes, and other issues. We have seen lots of people even pay for way too many premium functions/plugins because they don’t know about better options. We have done all of this before so much that on our fully custom sites, setting up all of those functions, working on multiple sites at a time, we can get them set up in sometimes less than 2 months – even with getting you properly trained. For our more simple out of box sites, we can get you up and running – fully trained – within a week.

Why should you hire us?

As a web design and development company, our job is to make you functional websites. However, we believe we have more of a responsibility than giving you a functional and attractive website   and walking away. We believe you should be able to easily use the tools to post your own content. We also believe that as the host of your site, backups and protections should always be a part of the package, and that updates to the software within your site should be our responsibility to manage. We want you to feel comfortable enough with your own site that you don’t need much help, but when you need it, we will be there.

In short, Solarflare is not just a website design company, a social media management company, or even a graphic design company. We feel we are a web services support company. We support all of your online and web endeavors from beginning, through set up, and throughout its use.