Should You Hire a Professional to Design Your Web Site

Should You Hire a Professional to Design Your Web Site?<= /span>

When your business is ready to make its initial foray onto the Internet in the f= orm of a business Web site, your first thought may be, "Wouldn't it be che= aper to just hire the kid down the block to build my Web site?" If your goa= l is to publish a basic Web site with only a few pages and no special fea= tures, you might indeed benefit from paying a student or a novice to create your site. Hiring "the kid down the block" certainly would save y= ou money in the short run.

For more advanced projects, however, cut-rate Web developers may not be able to= do the job. Large Web sites require developers who understand how people will = use the site and how best to set up the site's navigation tools. Scripting, multimedia and other advanced features can wreck a site if they aren't used carefully — for example, a script that works perfectly on one user's machine might crash another's. Graphic design issues raise another challeng= e: It is surprisingly hard to prepare images that download quickly but still l= ook good, or to select color schemes that make your site attractive and easy to read.

Don't forget your competitive situation. If your competitors offer sloppy, thrown-together sites, you've got a great opportunity to wow customers with= a professional design. If you're competing against first-class Web efforts, c= an you afford to offer anything less?