Someone asked me recently: "why do I need to pay for professional website design? There is plenty of software around these days that can create a professional-looking site, at a fraction of the cost".

My response was to say that many businesses do indeed take that approach - then six months down the line they wonder why they are not getting any business through their website.

There is in fact a great deal that a professional designer can do for your website and your business.

• Firstly a custom design will result in a site that actually reflects your business, and says what you want to say about your business, in a way that a site created from a template never can.
• Secondly the design and structure of your site can substantially affect your search engine rankings. A good designer can improve your rankings by ensuring that the content of your site can be understood by search engines.

In the worst cases that I have seen, some of the 'easy' site-creation software that is available these days can result in a website that cannot be crawled at all by search robots - resulting in a website that could not even be listed in Google. A good designer would never allow a mistake like that.

The irony is that this kind of site-creation software is often not cheap. A professional designer would be more expensive, but probably not much more so for a simple site. These days the internet is increasingly complex. It pays to consult a professional who understands how it works.