Cheap Web Design Will Cost You

Running a business is expensive. It seems like someone else has their hands in your pocket every time you take a step. Watching dollars fly out the door to your various service providers and vendors can be both painful and discouraging. It’s no wonder some entrepreneurs are enticed by ads offering $29 websites or websites in an hour. In a world where you get what you pay for, cheap web design will cost you…

Website Pricing Explained

Simply having a website is no longer enough to compete in this business landscape. Customer expectations are extremely high and their patience for anything sub-par is dwindling. Companies that put thought, research, time (and money) into their online presence are at a tremendous advantage over those who do not.

With that said, what really goes into making a website? A professional, thoughtful design takes many hours to execute. If you factor in custom development, styling, content migration, testing, revisions, and launch, it’s almost inconceivable for even the most basic project to consume less than 40 hours of labor. Keep that number in mind as you’re considering cheap web design quotes. If the time required is high and the price is low, something has to give–and it’s usually quality.

Freelance Falls Short

Many of our new clients approach us after choosing an individual to create their website. Often, it’s a family member or acquaintance. Perhaps it was Craigslist kismet that brought them together. No matter how it came to be, one truth is constant–the company took a convenient, inexpensive option and now has to spend more to undo the damage.

Are individual freelancers capable and talented? Absolutely. Is it likely that the best website designer for your business just happens to be your nephew? Probably not.

When a business trusts a freelancer to create and manage their online presence, they are at the mercy of that person’s skill set, schedule, and personality. There is a reason you never hear, “yes, we have a guy who does our website, and we’ve been happy with him for years.”

Fact is, freelancers aren’t on the line for your ongoing success. They move, change numbers, switch careers, lose interest, join priesthoods, etc. If reliability, accountability, and quality are important to your business, put your project in the hands of an agency–not a person.

Build Your Own Headache

We see television commercials promising websites you can build in minutes without any help. It’s not necessarily a false claim, but a cringeworthy notion regardless.

Let’s suppose you really could drag and drop some photos and words into a template and walk away with a new site in less than an hour. Does that sound like something a successful business would do?

There’s a reason big companies don’t utilize website-building platforms. Lack of customizability, flexibility, and creative control to name a few. Selecting from dozens of half-hearted, generic page templates can truly narrow your inspiration as well.

Not to mention, the code that these tools spit out tends to be a real mess (which search engines frown upon). These website builders, as affordable as they may appear, make their money from inflated hosting charges and membership plan upgrades, so be wary of hidden costs over time.

It may seem like there are at least a couple cheap web design options these days. Do yourself a favor and carefully consider the undeniable importance of your company’s online presence. Skip the mistake so many clients make before coming to us.

A website is no longer a neat supplemental feature, but instead a marketing engine that can make or break any business of any size in any industry! An effective website is an investment–not an expense. Leave this one to the pros…