Few people dig out the yellow pages anymore when searching for services or products. Almost everyone turns to Google. If at this point your business cannot be found on the first page of the search engine or if you don't have a website, you are out of the competition.

If you want to remain competitive and grow your business in the long term, your company must have an efficient and professional website.

Since you are considering creating a website, you surely already know all this.

At this point, you might be wondering whether to create the website yourself or leave it to a professional. Another question is, how much will all this cost?

In summary, you can create a website yourself at a low cost. However, you don't need to spend tens of thousands of euros on a professionally made website, as there are affordable solutions available on the market. Our principle at Growly is that everyone, including small businesses, should have the opportunity to acquire a website that helps increase sales and business both quickly and in the long term.

Should a company outsource its website or create it in-house?

Ultimately, the choice between creating a website yourself and outsourcing it is a matter of results. The question is, how well does a self-made website deliver results?

A website often painstakingly assembled by oneself does not achieve the desired results when published. The entrepreneur has to have the website redone by a professional, which wastes time and costs money due to lost sales from a poor website.

Additionally, an entrepreneur building their own website may encounter problems that stall the entire project and may ultimately require expert assistance to resolve.

In addition to time and money, an entrepreneur saves nerves when the work is left to professionals.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule: if the purpose of the homepage is merely to serve as a digital business card, and the entrepreneur, for example, is not interested in whether it brings more sales and inquiries to the company, the page can be safely created by oneself.

Building a website that serves business objectives involves much more information and work than it appears on the surface. Success requires both deep technical expertise and an understanding of marketing and the customer.

If an entrepreneur plans to advertise a self-made and poorly converting website on search engines or social media, the project will become even more expensive. When the website initially fails to convince about the company's offerings and convert visitors into customers, even a large amount of traffic will not bring about a change.

There is financial benefit from professionally made websites.

Ineffective websites waste time and money when a potential customer who has already visited ends up abandoning the site and purchasing from a competitor.

The company's homepage should explain why the customer should buy from you specifically. Well-executed homepages convert, meaning they sell effectively, because they are designed with the customer experience in mind and to serve the business objectives.

A specialist in conversions has the expertise to build websites that differentiate the company from its competitors and present the product or service in a way that captures the visitor's interest and turns potential into sales.

In practice, conversion means that a visitor performs an action on the website desired by the entrepreneur, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

If a hundred visitors visit the homepage per day and no one buys, the sales and conversion rate is exactly zero. If one out of a hundred becomes a customer, the conversion rate is 1%.

The goal of the homepage is to generate maximum conversion, meaning to achieve as much sales as possible, and a professional knows how to do this.

If thanks to the new homepage, instead of one visitor, two complete a purchase, the conversion rate is 2%. In this case, the revenue coming through the homepage has doubled.

A good website conversion rate is at least 2-5 percent, but often the percentage for self-made sites is even lower because not all factors affecting conversion and sales have been considered. Generally, it is significantly faster and more likely to achieve a higher conversion rate with the help of an experienced professional.

However, if you decide to create the company's website yourself, at least consider this:

Creating a website always begins with a goal that you want the customer to achieve. This goal will dictate the entire project. Everything that goes on the site should be considered in terms of whether it serves the goal and the customer.

Your goal may be, for example, calling a customer, submitting a request for a quote, making an appointment, subscribing to a newsletter, downloading an e-book, or familiarizing yourself with a product and later making a purchase in the store.

When you know exactly what you want to achieve, you can ask and encourage the customer to act in the way you desire, making it more likely that they will do so. Additionally, when you have built the website according to the goal, everything on the website directs towards this, and the customer is even more likely to respond to the call to action.

Of course, other aspects must also be in order, such as the speed and user experience of the site. It should be easy to navigate, and the pages should contain relevant and customer-beneficial content.

When the basics are in place and you have first done the necessary work for the company's website, the website will work for your company. However, if you skip steps or build your website entirely based on intuition or your own interests rather than around your customer, the implementation cannot sell effectively.

You can therefore build an effective website yourself at a low cost if you have the time and interest in the subject, and can follow the best practices in the field.

There are many guides and instructions available online for this. However, it is significantly easier to outsource the work and immediately get a website for the company that is sure to sell.

WordPress: the right platform for a company's website

The overwhelmingly best platform for a company's homepage is WordPress. It is a cost-effective, flexible, and reliable content publishing platform.

Over 60 percent of all websites in the world are built specifically on the WordPress content management system.

If or when your company's goals or operations change, a WordPress website scales with you. Other platforms are not as agile, and due to a wrong choice, you might have to build an entirely new website in the face of change.

At this point, it's worth noting the two different WordPresses.

WordPress.com is very limited and therefore cannot be recommended for company websites. When we talk about WordPress, we mean the self-hosted WordPress.org, which offers significantly more freedom and flexibility for business needs. In addition to the platform, you will need a web host for your website, such as Zoner, and possibly a maintenance service if you do not intend to update the site yourself in the future."

WordPress also has many other advantages that go beyond scalability. The platform is search engine friendly, and there is a wide range of plugins available that allow for the creation of a customized homepage entirely without coding. If necessary, an online store can be easily added to the homepage.

In other words, you have full control over the appearance and functions, unlike many other platforms such as Weebly, Wix, Squarespace, or GoDaddy, etc.

The homepage must provide sufficient accurate information.

To generate sales through your website, a potential customer must understand your offerings and the associated benefits and value.

If the message is unclear, the customer feels the same about your company. And if the same things are better presented on a competitor's site, the customer will go there.

Provide the customer with sufficient essential information on the company's website to make and support a purchasing decision, and make obtaining the information as easy as possible. If the information is not easily and quickly accessible, but instead hidden behind several clicks, the customer will not find it.

Almost everyone wants things to be quick and easy, so most visitors don't even try to search for information on the homepage but simply leave it.

When creating websites, it's important to remember that a customer can arrive at any page via a search engine, so it's not advisable to leave important information solely on the homepage. Information that the customer seeks about the company, product, and operations should be available throughout the site, for example, on a dedicated FAQ page.

The homepage should also have a common thread that ties the separate pages into a cohesive whole and guides the visitor to continue further on the site.

If customers do not seem to understand the value of your product or service from your current website, the first step is to review the page structure and content.

If these seem to be in order, we can consider whether the brand is in good shape. A carefully and correctly designed brand stands out from competitors, inspires trust, and creates the impressions that the company wants to convey to its target groups. When working on a brand, it is often beneficial to collaborate with marketing professionals.

We are ready to assist your company also in brand planning.

The homepage should be optimized for people and search engines.

A beautiful and professional homepage is important. It is also possible to achieve easily with WordPress or, for example, with ready-made themes from Elementor.

However, a goal-oriented website involves more than just a pretty exterior.

More important factors are fast loading speed, site structure, compatibility with different browsers, scalability for tablets and phones, and relevant content. If your homepage does not meet these basic requirements, it will have problems appearing in search engine results, attracting traffic, and making sales.

Search engine optimization (SEO) of a homepage is crucial for the visibility and traffic of the homepage on Google. Conversion rate optimization (CRO), or the lack thereof, in turn, affects how much of the traffic and potential customers convert, i.e., turn into paying customers.

Optimizing for keywords alone is not enough to gain visibility in Google's organic or natural search results, as the technical aspects must also be in order.

An entrepreneur can try to advertise their website aggressively if visitors are not coming from Google. However, this will not be effective if conversion optimization has not been done.

In such a situation, the homepage requires optimization for both people and search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (improving Google visibility) and conversion optimization (increasing the number of purchases, appointments, calls, etc. of desired actions) are therefore key in terms of the effectiveness of websites.

Most self-made websites fail precisely in these most critical areas because there is so much involved that it is often impossible to internalize or learn everything at once during a single project. Of course, information can still be found by googling for those who wish to search for it, but it is considerably easier to leave the matter to an experienced party – like us – once again.

If your company's homepage does not appear high in Google's search results or if your business has not gained momentum online, our experts can help.

Remember cybersecurity

Ready-made company websites must be maintained and updated.

If you do not keep the site up to date, it will quickly become susceptible to security threats and attacks. This endangers both your customers and your business.

It is advisable to enable automatic updates for the system and plugins in WordPress, so you don't have to manage it constantly yourself.

Search engines and, of course, customers also prefer secure sites. Obtaining an SSL certificate from a web host enhances the security and reliability of a homepage. SSL protection creates an encrypted connection between the website and its user, which safeguards both data transmission and the user's personal information.

In addition to ensuring data security, it is advisable to regularly monitor and test the website for potential bugs or errors, as sometimes due to an update, the theme or a specific function may not work as intended. This, in turn, can lead to a decline in user experience and sales.

Additionally, content such as texts and images should be updated from time to time, as this helps improve rankings in Google's search results. Regularly updated content also appears more reliable in the eyes of search engines and customers than outdated information or completely abandoned websites.

In practice, websites are never completely finished, as they require continuous maintenance, updating, and development. These tasks can also be outsourced to a specialized company.

It is advisable to create a schedule for the homepage project.

It is advisable to set goals and create a realistic schedule for a homepage project.

Without a plan, the completion of the website may be delayed longer than expected.

Also consider the time used for search engine optimization and marketing of the new website, as well as conversion optimization if you are not doing it while building the website. These are also things that are continuously implemented even after the page is published.

Be prepared for setbacks that inevitably occur during the process, and that resolving them may sometimes take more time. Occasionally, an entrepreneur may need to seek the help of an expert when Google is no longer sufficient.

Company Website – Preferably Have It Done by a Professional

Succeeding online requires effective websites that stand out from the competition.

The company's website can definitely be made by oneself. However, because the process involves so many factors, the entrepreneur must have a strong desire to learn about it and do it.

As outsourced, the entrepreneur does not have to worry about anything. With the right provider, you can be sure to receive a turnkey solution that works in every way and delivers results for the company immediately in the form of sales.

At the same time, you save time and money in sales that you would lose due to a poorly converting or selling homepage.

With Growly, you get exactly the kind of website you want. Visually, functionally, and content-wise. With us, you can be sure that your company's website will serve its goals from day one. You can focus on your business instead of wondering why the right things aren't happening.

You can outsource only certain areas to us, such as technical implementation, and create the content yourself. In addition to an efficient website, we help you gain more customers through brand design, search engine optimization, and digital advertising.