Careful, this may hurt a little.

It’s not that you didn’t do a good job on your homemade website. You did what you knew how to do and moved on.

But there comes a time when a DIY website needs to be upgraded. We could have used the phrase, “put out of its misery,” but we’re trying to be gentle here.

Seriously, once a website starts getting traffic and generating sales, it’s time to consider something better.

Sure Signs

To keep from getting too technical, we figured a top-10 list would be helpful if you’re considering moving on from your Godaddy, Wix, or Squarespace site. So, here are 10 signs it’s time to go beyond a basic homemade website and hire a true professional.

1. Your website takes longer to load than it does to file your tax return. Slow pages hurt SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and make visitors unlikely to visit again.
2. Customizing parts of your site requires a phone call and 84 minutes on hold. And you still have to settle for a mediocre look.
3. Your analytic tools either tell you nothing or are too complicated for one Albert Einstein. OK, for you younger folks – too complicated for Elon Musk.
4. Not owning your own domain is so 1997. Branding is hard to do with a web address that looks like it could take a visitor anywhere.
5. As an “online sign” your site was good enough, but now it can’t keep up as the marketing hub of your business. It’s like putting a 1984 Firebird in the Daytona 500.
6. The design is so disorganized you’re often embarrassed to tell customers to check you out online.
7. Your business is booming and you don’t have the time or patience to keep handling website updates and errors. You’ve hired someone to stock your shelves, why not hire someone to keep up with your website?
8. You’re spending money adding plug-ins to try and catch up with e-commerce functionality. All-in-one solutions could be more cost-effective.
9. Another e-commerce issue – online sales are booming, but the time you spend on the clunky system is killing your productivity.
10. You completely stop putting effort into your website. Your efforts have produced minor results so you are about to toss in the towel. It’s not that websites don’t work, it’s that your homemade website doesn’t work.

That last one is so understandable! It can be frustrating when so many web hosting companies tell you it’s easy to start a website.

While it is easy to start, it is not so easy to make the most of a website unless you spend years learning design, figuring out technical tricks, and diving into various website building tools. Nevermind the marketing aspects.

Our team could watch a few YouTube videos and learn to do flower arrangements, but that’s not our natural talent. So we would struggle and many unhappy customers would have flower bouquets that needed to be put out of their misery!

Everyone has their own skill set. So we would love to show you the difference a professional website can make. Give us a call.