On of the best parts of my job is having conversations with people who need a website built. When we discuss using the WordPress platform, some people will respond with something like, “WordPress is free and easy to use, why do I need someone to build it for me?” Or, “Why should I pay you to build a website that uses WordPress?”
These are great questions and allow me to explain the process of building a website as well as some of the issues that someone may encounter when building a website on your own.
We are currently working with a client who had an existing website but needed to have it updated with a mobile friendly design. The good thing is the original site was built in WordPress, so all we need to do is install the new theme (design) and everything should work great, right?
Well, maybe it isn’t quite that easy… Here are some of the issues that we have run into when installing this new design:
- The client wanted to have some customization to the header to accommodate their logo. This took a couple of hours of programming to make the needed adjustments.
- They also are using a calendar plugin but it isn’t working properly. After troubleshooting the issue, we found that the calendar was not functioning properly because of the server settings of their web host.
- We are in the process of communicating with their web host but they haven’t been the easiest to get in touch with, so the process has been prolonged.
All of this is “just another day in the office” for our development staff. However, if our client tried to do this on their own, they would be completely lost, frustrated, and not know what do to.
This is why it is so important to partner with a reliable website developer who can do the heavy lifting for you. Then when the site is working as it should, give you a website that you can manage and update yourself.