September 11, 2026

by Thomas W. Pohl, Owner of Cybervision Web.

In this age of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Website Design platforms such as WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, etc, you may ask yourself, "Why should I hire a website design professional instead of doing it myself?" I'm glad you asked! There are several reasons that most companies and organizations may be unaware of. Some of these reason include:

• YOUR WEBSITE IS YOUR CORPORATE IMAGE - More times than not, your website will be the first exposure and point of contact potential new customers and clients will have to your company. You will only have one opportunity to make a first impression! What kind of first impression do you want to make with them? Do you want them to see your business as professional and having something to offer them or do you want to look like some rinky-dink organization that puts in a minimal effort and doesn't care about their look or reputation? Remember, your website is your corporate image! A good corporate image will give potential new customers and clients the confidence to believe that they will be treated both professionally and courteously.
• EVER CHANGING WEB STANDARDS, TECHNOLOGIES & TECHNIQUES - Website design professionals keep up to date on ever changing web standards In the world of web design, five years in web design is like twenty years in real time. That's how often the industry changes and adapts to the times. A website that was cutting-edge three years ago, may be obsolete tomorrow. Whether it was the ever-changing Website Design Standards (late-1990's-early 2000's), the Browser Wars (1995-2012), Google's Mobile Friendly Standard (2016), or the newest trend, Answer Engine Optimization [AEO] (2026), the times are ever changing. As one of my business mentors said recently, "Adapt with the times or die." A great example of this is when Google initiated their Mobile Friendly Standard in 2016. This standard gives more weight and higher Search Engine Rankings (SER) to websites that are mobile friendly.  Overnight, website design professionals were forced to scramble and make major revisions to their legacy websites to make them mobile friendly. If this was not possible, they had to design a completely a new website for their clients. Those who designed their own websites were more than likely to not even know this standard had even come into existence! As a result, their search engine rankings suffered. 
• SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) - Professional web designers take Search Engine Optimization (SEO) into account when they design their websites. Most people who design their own websites may not even be aware of the importance of SEO or that it even exists. Studies have shown that if your website doesn't appear on the first or second page of search engine results, people won't find you. Website design professionals know how to design your website to increase its Search Engine Rankings (SER).
• ANSWER ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (AEO) - This is the latest trend in search! Your website may rank well in Google search results, but is it visible to A.I.? Recent surveys have revealed that 42% of people search using an A.I. platform such as ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, etc. More and more people are abandoning traditional search via traditional search engines like Google, Bing, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Yahoo. I have even been a part of this growing trend myself recently. A.I. Overviews (AIO) sift through the search results for you without you having to click through a link to search for the answer you are looking for. It saves the end user a lot of time as a result. It filters out paid sponsorship results (which may have inferior answers) and gives you the results of your query from the most informed sources. Even Google has joined this new trend by listing their Gemini-based AIO's at the top of their search engine results.