If you have been thinking about building a WordPress website, you know you have two options: you can do it yourself, or hire a WordPress website designer to give you a hand.
On the one hand, WP is marketed as an easy-to-use, beginner-friendly platform that can help you create a website in minutes.
On the other, there are so many freelance WordPress designers you can hire that can build you a professional website without you moving a finger. You can find them on freelancing platforms like Toptal or Fiverr. Additionally, there are thousands of WordPress design agencies out there you can turn to for help.
So, the question is: should you hire someone to do it for you?
And the answer is: it depends. It depends on your business goals and budget.
To help you decide whether to take on a website building project or to outsource it, we will share when and when not to hire a WordPress web designer. We will also highlight the pros and cons of working with one. Let’s get started!
Can you design your own website?
Of course! Even if you don’t have experience in web design, you can create a WordPress website. Nowadays, WP is more user-friendly and accessible than ever. And there are two reasons for that.
The first one is the Gutenberg editor. The Editor was released in 2018 and at the time, it was an editor that could help you create blog posts using ‘blocks’. Blocks were units that contained media (text, an image, a button, etc.), which you could, with a drag-and-drop method, rearrange to create posts.
Fast forward to January 2022, when the WP 5.9 was released. From that moment, Gutenberg has completely taken over WordPress: it is now the Editor you can use to create ALL parts of your website. So, you can design an entire website within one interface. And the best part is that you can do so by dragging and dropping media, texts, buttons, etc.
The second reason is the Full Site Editing (FSE) features. This list of features is there to help you build a website quickly, allowing you access to templates (page designs and layouts created with blocks) and multiple styling options so you can quickly change your website’s background color and typography settings.
To help our users build their sites faster, all the themes we develop come with the FSE features and support the Site Editor. If you are interested, you can check out Themes Kingdom FSE-ready themes.
Having Gutenberg and FSE as your website building allies makes the whole process so much easier.
Additionally, here are three reasons that will motivate you to consider creating your own website:
1. You can do all the steps of the website building process all by yourself.
If you have no previous experience with creating websites, you might think that you won’t be able to build a site from the ground up. This is far from the truth. As long as you plan your steps correctly, you will have no trouble creating a site.
So, our advice is to approach the site creating process from a strategic point of view. You need to make a plan. We recommend you check out GoDaddy’s seven steps to help you plan actions before designing your website.
When it comes to actual website resources, you can register a domain name and choose the right hosting provider first. Then, you can move on to finding a well-designed WordPress theme that will help you achieve your business goals.
If you don’t want to bother researching all hosting providers, take a look at Themes Kingdom hosting. Within our hosting plans, you get a TK WordPress theme of your choice, an SSL, premium support, and personal, and commercial licenses. Check it out to see which plan would suit your needs the best!
2. If you need any help, you can turn to the WordPress community.
As you probably know, WordPress doesn’t have official support agents you can reach out to. But it has a well-developed community of thousands of developers and designers.
So, if you ever get stuck designing your site, check out the official WordPress.org Support; it contains a lot of resources that can help you resolve the issue. Additionally, before you reach out to the devs, check out free WordPress tutorials. There are thousands of tutorials available that can help you get started with WP. A good place to visit is the WPBeginner tutorials.
Plus, if you have purchased a WordPress theme from a reliable source, the theme makers should provide you with their in-house support. That being said, if you have been using a Themes Kingdom theme, you can always reach out to our support team to give you a hand. 🙂
3. You can create branding elements yourself, as well.
Branding elements are pieces of your brand identity puzzle. They can ensure that your brand is memorable and stands out from the competitors.
Some most common digital branding elements you should use on your website are your brand’s name, logo, color, slogan, graphics, and typography.
When it comes to your brand’s name and slogan, we are sure you have already defined that. Additionally, WordPress themes allow you to choose among thousands of different colors, hues, and typography一so you don’t have to worry about this.
The only thing that is left to do is to create a logo.
The good news is that you can also do it yourself. To help you with this process, we wrote an article How to make your own logo from scratch. In the post, our designers, Ivan and Marko, shared the beginner-friendly tips they use when creating logos. And if you don’t want to spend hours designing the logo, you can always turn to online logo makers, such as Adobe Express.
So, as you can see, you can create a WP website almost hassle-free. This brings us to the next part of our article.
Should you hire a WordPress website designer? If so, when should you do it?
Well, we recommend hiring a professional to do it if you are unsure of your skills and don’t have the time to do it yourself. However, you have to have a budget to pay a WP website designer.
But before you embark on the journey of finding the designer to create your website, be sure to read the pros and cons of partnering with a WordPress website designer.
There are many pros to hiring a WordPress web designer.
1. You’ll get a unique and creative website.
Having a unique, user-friendly website is a must, no matter what industry you are in. And a WordPress website designer can ensure you get one. They know just how to make sites that won’t blend with the competition and how to incorporate the branding within your website. If you hire an experienced, professional web designer, there is no doubt that you will get a one-of-a-kind website that will attract your target audience.
2. Your website will get extra functionalities.
When it comes to a website, you’ll see that there are a lot of functionalities you wish your website had. In WordPress, if you want to add extra features to your website, you have to use plugins. But, the catch is that too many plugins can slow your website’s performance, leading to potential security risks. A professional website designer will know just what plugins to add and how to make the most out of what each plugin has to offer.
3. Your website will have the best user experience (UX) possible.
User experience (UX) design is a process designers use to make products meaningful and relevant for the users. This means designers integrate branding elements, usability, and functionality within one product.
WordPress web designers know exactly how to incorporate UX when designing a website. Another thing to remember is that a good UX will make sure site visitors stay on your website longer, making your website more relevant. This, ultimately, means that your website will be ranked higher on Google, as Google ‘rewards’ the sites that are more visited.
4. Your site will be SEO-friendly.
When it comes to SEO, web designers know how to implement on- and off-page SEO tactics so your website performs well in rankings.
On-page SEO consists of steps site owners do to optimize different parts of their website, like improving page speed, optimizing content, adding relevant keywords, title tags, alt text, etc.
Off-page SEO focuses on your domain’s authority by getting links from other websites.
Another thing to remember is that back in 2015, Google decided to boost the rankings of sites that are mobile-friendly, and WordPress website designers know that well. They’ll do anything to make a professional site that is responsive and performs well on all screens and browsers.
Now that you are aware of the pros, you need to be familiar with the cons of hiring a WordPress website designer:
1. You’ll probably have to spend thousands of dollars on website building.
If you are considering hiring a WordPress website designer, we are positive that you are primarily considering the costs. And regarding this matter, we don’t have good news.
According to WebFX, freelance web designers cost between $500 and $5,000, while design agencies can charge anywhere between $3,000 to $100,000. That’s a lot of money to pay upfront, especially considering you have so many other options.
What other options, you may ask?
Well, as we mentioned above, you can choose a WP theme and start building a website yourself. If you hit a bump in the road, you can always hire a developer/designer to give you a hand, and you won’t have to spend thousands of dollars on it.
If you’re looking for a team of professional designers to help you with your website and whose services won’t break your bank, partner with our award-winning designers, developers and marketers.
Let us build your kingdom! Click here to get a quote!
2. Top web designers might not be available.
While we are on the topic of costs, we have to mention that the hourly price of a web designer depends on a designer’s experience. Senior WordPress website designers know just much they can provide you and they charge accordingly. But no one tells you that top web designers are usually off the market and unavailable. Why? Because major clients had a chance to work with them and hire them full-time. Big fish clients also have the resources to hire them for more extended periods, leaving you in the dust, trying to find experienced designers to hire.
3. Web designs have expiration dates.
It might sound strange, but web design trends also exist. And the problem is that they are ever-changing and quite challenging to keep up with.
And if you hire a web designer, there is no doubt that you will be satisfied with the outcome: the site will be high-performing, ultramodern, and will get you the conversions you need. However, in just 2-3 years, your site’s design will seem a bit outdated. So, if you do the calculations, you will spend thousands of dollars on website design that will look good for no more than three years. Are you sure that’s a good investment to make?
4. Hiring a web designer is NOT a quick process.
As a site owner, you can’t just hire a WordPress website designer in hopes that you can leave it to them to design the site and do everything that’s necessary.
You’ll have to do a bit of planning. A lot, actually.
First, you’ll have to make a project brief, a document that details everything that you want the designer to complete when it comes to your website. There, you’ll have to mention the project’s scope, potential buyers’ journey, brand messaging, functionalities you wish you had on your website, etc.
Then, it would be best if you moved on to finding a web designer.
We recommend you select the top 5 web designers you are interested in partnering with. You should check out each designer’s portfolio website to learn more about their completed projects and work ethics. Additionally, it would be best to look for testimonials to see what their previous clients had to say about them. If you like what you see, you should schedule a meeting with them, preferably a video call.
The video call will allow you to pay attention to what a designer says, but also how they say it, which is just as important. Keep in mind eye contact, facial expressions, and voice tone. The necessary thing is to allow the web designer to show you how they intend to approach working on your project.
Next, for each designer you are thinking about partnering with, you should propose to complete a test project. Believe it or not, you can hire a web designer to complete a small project on your current website if you have one. This step allows you to evaluate your working relationship with them. And the good news is that WordPress web designers are willing to do a test project at a much lower rate than what they usually charge, so you won’t lose much money if you end up unhappy with the result.
After the test, you can select which designer you should hire.
At last, once you have found the web designer that will help you build the website, make sure that you have everything in writing. Most commonly, the web designer you hired creates the contract, so check that each line in the contract is how you discussed it, especially the terms of payment and your company’s intellectual property.
Are you ready to start building your website?
Now that you know which two directions a website building process can go, have you decided to build your website or hire someone to do it for you?
Both approaches have their pros and cons.
If you choose to take on the role of a web designer, you’ll have to invest time into learning new skills and doing a lot of research to help you build the website just how you want it.
If you choose to hire a WordPress website designer, you’ll have to spend time finding the right designer but also spend a significant amount of money on the process.
So, which is it going to be? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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