Our owner was working with a client recently trying to collect on an invoice that had stretched too far, when the client responded with a rather interesting justifcation:
“Well, I just don’t understand what I pay you for? I was talking to my friend and he said that I can do all of this myself.”
Now, this is interesting because his friend is not at all wrong. There exist a number of very slick and very easy to use tools for free or for a relatively low cost that allow people with no knowledge of even HTML or CSS to do large chunks of what I would do in developing and maintaining a website. These are amazing tools, and should not be scoffed at.
With that knowledge in hand, why is it worthwhile to pay for professional web design and development? Especially since we are so much more expensive than the alternatives.
Let’s break down what that extra cost goes to:
A typical website construction project.
1. Skill And Experience:
This one is probably the most obvious. No matter how easy to use the tool is, you’re only ever going to use it for a few hours here and there. We do this at least eight hours a day, five days a week. We’ve dealt with page-load issues, missing resources, Word Press’s white screen of death, PHP version issues, browser compatibility issues, backwards support for older JavaScript engines, code conflicts, DNS poison, registrars who won’t release your domain, mail deliverability errors, infinite re-directs, catastrophic RegEx recursion, bad relative links, and Mozilla floats, just to name a few.
If there is a problem at any point in the lifetime of your website or its development, chances are we’ve encountered it or something very much like it before. We know how to fix these when they happen and how to work to prevent them entirely. Armor has been in the Web Development business for 8 years as a company, and many of our developers have been coding for more than a decade. We’re all very boring at parties, but very good at websites.
2. End To End Solution:
Problems need solutions, and solutions need problems.
If you were not already aware. Armor Techs is a complete solution to your problem, whatever I.T. may be. What does that mean for our web development clients?
It means that if you don’t have a domain, we can sell you one and manage it for you. And please note, unlike some predatory domain companies out there, when you buy a domain from us, even if you have us manage it, it’s yours to keep. We buy it under your name, so you have full legal rights to take it with you wherever you go.
It means that if you need server space, we have it. We manage our own server right here in DeKalb, IL. This gives us immense flexibility both in what we run on the server and how we run it, allowing us to react quickly to client and security needs without relying on 3rd party companies with no vested interest in your success.
It means that if you need a Content Management System, we’ve got you covered. We fully support Drupal, WordPress, and Joomla, but for those of us who want their websites a little faster and a little more business-centric, we have fully developed our own system, Arrow, built around the ideas of getting all aspects of your business to your customers as fast as possible.
It means that if you need a web design, our in-house designer will meet with you, draw a vision of your business from you, and create a design from that. Once approved, our developers will turn that design into a fully functional website on the CMS of your choice.
It means that if you need content, our staff writer will research your business and industry and craft content designed to drive your business.
It means that if you need website management, our team of developers can turn your written content into beautiful and interactive webpages.
It means that if you need marketing, our Marketing Department can tackle any aspect of it for you, from on-page SEO to paid online ads, email campaigns, and print.
3. Time And Value:
Time is money, but it can be more or less valuable based on how you spend it.
One of our favorite metaphors here at Armor is to compare our work to mowing a lawn. Yes, it’s a skill that most people have or can get easily, but it’s very specific and occasionally taxing work, and if you could trade that task off to someone and focus on something you care about more, why wouldn’t you? And if that person has the equipment and the experience to make your lawn more beautiful than you would have managed on your own, that’s just icing on the cake.
There are a lot of tools out there that make web development easy, but there are absolutely no tools that can remove the data entry. If, until now, all of your marketing is in a print brochure or in a digital file that for whatever reason can’t be exported, there is no way to get that information up on your website in a search engine crawlable format than to do manual transcription of the text. To make sure your site is being correctly crawled and has a nice business listing if users try to find you, accounts have to be made and configured. Photos have to be uploaded, and depending on the server, that may involve FTP or any number of other back-end technologies of the web.
The point is, your time is too valuable to be spent learning a skill that you would otherwise have no interest in. Your business needs your attention in so many areas, so why not let us take this one off your plate?
4. Customized Functionality:
Get a solution to fit the problem.
Our framework is designed from the ground up to be fast and flexible. Do you need an appointment module for people to be able to block out sections of time for your employees, while automatically respecting lunches or scheduled meetings? We have that. Want to completely transform your blog into an event module to sell tickets for your main-stage shows? We have that. Want a fully integrated Employee Management solution? We have that. And on top of that, if your needs to feed the specs of our code, we can change it and update it to your specifications.
This is a major benefit to working directly with the team that built the framework. If our framework doesn’t already do what you need, we can modify it to fit your needs.
Your time is valuable, don’t waste it.
So yes, you can do all this for yourself. But chances are you’re going to get more bang for your buck if you don’t. Regardless of your technical skills, we do this all day, every day. We’re faster than doing it yourself. We can offer solutions for every step of your web presence process, and customize those solutions to fit your business perfectly. But most importantly, you don’t have to know what the difference between a “href” and a “src” is.