When to hire a website consultant vs. do it yourself

When weighing whether to fix your website yourself or hire a professional, here are some pointers:

When DIY makes sense

• You have time and curiosity. You’re willing to learn, and the problem isn’t urgent. The majority of basic site updates, maintenance, and content changes are approachable even without a tech background.
• The stakes are low. It’s a side project, a personal site, or something that won’t cost you money or reputation if you mess it up.
• You’ve done something like it before. You’re not starting from zero; you’re building on skills you already have.
• The fix is clearly documented. There’s a clear path (tutorial, plugin, or support doc) and you’re confident you can follow it.
• Your budget gives you no choice. Being caught between a rock and a hard place is no fun, but sometimes it’s reality. Fortunately, there are a great deal of DIY site builders out there. I’m happy to point you in the right direction during a free consult call. No charge.

In those cases, doing it yourself is often the right call. You save money and you learn.

When hiring a consultant makes sense

• Your time is worth more than the job. If an hour of your time earns more than an hour of a consultant’s time, outsourcing makes sense.
• The problem is messy or high-stakes. Your site was hacked, your checkout is broken, or you’re about to launch something that has to work. One wrong move can cost you more than the consultant would.
• You’ve tried and hit a wall. You’re stuck. You’ve followed the tutorials but can’t get it working right, or you don’t know what’s safe to change. A consultant can help you get unstuck.
• You don’t want to be the in-house website expert. You want it fixed or improved so you can focus on your business.
• You’re not sure what you need. You know something’s wrong but don’t know where to start. (Is this a conversion¹ problem? A traffic² one? Something structural?) A good consultant will review, prioritize, and give you a clear path.

The in-between

Many situations are mixed: you can do some of it yourself and hand off the rest. The 80/20 principle³ often applies to websites: approximately 80% of website work involves approximately 20% of the possible tasks. For example, you might update copy and images yourself but hire someone for a redesign, security hardening, or a platform migration. You also might consider hiring someone to set things up and document the basic tasks so you can maintain the simple stuff on your own.

The goal isn’t “always DIY” or “always hire.” It’s to match the work to your situation: your time, your skills, your risk tolerance, and what you actually want to own.

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Footnotes

1. Conversion here means visitors taking a desired action on your site (e.g., buying, signing up, contacting you). ↩

2. Traffic means how many people (and which people) are visiting your website. ↩

3. The 80/20 principle (Pareto principle) means a small share of causes often accounts for most of the results—e.g., a few tasks account for most website work. ↩