Frugal Internet Marketing

Are DIY websites all they are cracked up to be?

Learning the pitfalls of do-it-yourself web design

By Teresa Martin

The ads seem everywhere: Build a business website in under 5 minutes! Build A Premium Website for $4.75 that Looks Like a $2000 Pro Site! Website Tonight!

The Do It Yourself Website has always been around, but in the past year the volume has been turned up to a whole other level. What's behind this march?

Economic Pressure

Web developers and small business experts say that two factors are driving it. First, of course is the economy. "Everyone is being more cost conscious," noted Bert Jackson, principal of Koa Interactive Media in Brewster.

Technology Gains

Then there is the technology itself.  Tools have gotten more plentiful, easier, and lower cost over the past few years and this has enabled companies to offer DIY packages.

"Technology has come a long ways - coding languages now make it pretty easy to set systems where someone can set up a simple site with standard options," said Chris Gills, principal of Saltline Studio in Orleans.

"As CSS becomes more powerful, it is easier to skin sites differently - and it is easy to see how content manager input displays differently. Plus, there are more off the shelf content management systems than five years ago," added Jackson.

Skins

A skin is a bit like a chair slipcover - you pick out of the box, put it on and create a look and feel that you like.

The whole notion of "skins" has become popular in software. Operating systems, web browsers, and all sorts of other software tools can wear different skins. A skin is a bit like a chair slipcover - you pick out of the box, put it on and create a look and feel that you like.

Many of the DIY websites are standard templates that are customized by selecting a predefined skin and adding text and images.

More than Meets the Eyes

The beauty of a DIY website is that it is very inexpensive. Many hosting companies, such as GoDaddy, offer DIY websites tools as an incentive to bring in the real businesses, hosting. Hosting is the service of storing a website on a server and making it available to web users.

But you tend to get want you pay for. Those who have worked with DIY sites and those who develop web products for a living say to go into the DIY process with eyes wide open.

Not as Easy as it Looks

Community Development Partnership (CDP) in Eastham ran a program called Tech Smart that helped small businesses deploy technology tools.  Some small business clients chose the DIY approach to their web solutions.

Moira Noonan-Kerry, CDP's Director of Economic Development, learned that most small businesses still looked for a certain amount of handholding through the process and that DIY didn't translate directly into "do it alone."

"People needed a hand or a push in the right direction if they were going with DIY websites, and they wanted help throughout the process." -Moira Noonan-Kerry, CDP's Director of Economic Development

"People needed a hand or a push in the right direction if they were going with DIY websites, and they wanted help throughout the process," she said.

More than Technology

In part, that is because building a website is not only about technology. "The technical underpinnings of the website aren't what makes the website," pointed out Julie Brooks, CEO, eCape, Inc. (disclosure: eCape, Inc. is the owner/operator of this website, CapeCodToday.com).

"What makes it is the text, the photos, and how it all flows together and many people don't have the editorial or proofreading skills to write good web copy," she said.

"Before I design a site, I go through a whole questionnaire and really help them think about their business online," explained Gillis. Both he and Jackson point out that developing the strategy behind the site is critical - and that working with others helps bring that perspective.

Buyer Beware

DIY may seem straightforward, but those who work with web tools say to look carefully before leaping - and that not all DIY sites deliver an equal quality product, especially when it comes to clean code and search engine results.

Gills took a look at some of more heavily promoted DIY sites and raised some important red flags.

For example at Buildyoursite.com ("Build a professional website in less than 10 minutes), the company's own website codes don't validate using a web standards test from the W3C, the web's governing body.

And over at Site Cube (" Build a Premium Website for $4.75) it turns out the resulting site is based in a technology called Flash - which is highly interactive, but not indexed by search spiders.

Where's my Site?

Brooks has found this problem in several small business sites in the past few months. In each case the cause of the unfindable site was the same - a DIY tool that rendered the site in Flash, which is literally invisible to Google and the other search engines.

With search engine optimization being such a hot topic, knowing how the DIY tool renders the site and how search spiders will find that site is an important question to ask up front.

Good Matches

There are some good uses for DIY sites, however. For a small business with very limited funds just getting started, it might be a way to establish a first online presence.

"If you don't have a website, this is the way to get something up while you're getting something custom or specific to your business built. It's better than nothing. Just a couple pages on GoDaddy SiteBuilder might be enough to get you started," noted Gillis.

Niches

For businesses in very specific industries, vertical DIYs can also add value. For example, sites like http://www.dentalwebservices.com offers DIY tools combined with very custom dental content - including tooth images and the ability to upload an office's dental forms.

Sites like http://bandzoogle.com/ ("so easy even your drummer can do it") combine a set of applications specific to musicians and bands, including the ability to sell digital downloads and support for fan interaction.

By offering industry-specific tools, these niche sites can be an appropriate match for a budget conscious small business, as long as the businesses understands what they are  and are not getting for their dollar.

Empowering

"Your website can be the different between just getting by and being very successful, so use the process that gets you the results you need." - Bert Jackson

Another plus of the DIY site is that the business has to learn a bit more about the nuts and bolts of a website. "For some people, we saw that the [DIY] process was empowering," said Noonan-Kerry.

"Use it as a temporary thing, as a learning tool while you are planning and thinking about what you really want to do," advised Gills.

Bottom line = Results

It is easy to be lured into the promise of the DIY website, but like most DIY projects in an arena, having an understanding of the scope of needs and the reality of time and talent constraints is important.

"If you're going to do it yourself - keep it simple, don't try to be a graphic designer if you're not," said Gills.

"And remember," pointed out Jackson, "This is your business. Think about it from a strategic view.  Your website can be the different between just getting by and being very successful, so use the process that gets you the results you need."

Teresa Martin is a well-known Cape Cod technology leader who has served as  C.E.O. of the Cape Cod Technology Council and currently is Vice Chairwoman of OpenCape which is dedicated to fixing the Cape's dropped cell calls and upload issues. Read Teresa's tech blog, Cape Eyes here.