Since your website is the online face of your business, it needs to represent your brand. However, creating one can be incredibly expensive, especially for small businesses with limited resources. The solution lies in finding a balance. You don’t want a low-cost website that can’t help you grow your business, and you may not have the means for a costly website that can. We will discuss ways to combine the best of both worlds a get an affordable website with a strategy in mind.
Downfalls of inexpensive web design
There is a downside to super affordable web design in that it is often surprisingly expensive. A highly affordable website can drain the time and resources of your business when you factor in hidden fees and mediocre functionality.
Small businesses have two main methods of finding cheap web design options: building themselves or using budget web design companies.
DIY Web Design: Is It Cheaper?
A DIY platform is a popular alternative to hiring a web design team. The following points are worth mentioning, however:
- Flash elements slow down web pages
- DIY looks can turn off potential customers
- Poor or nonexistent technical support
- Limited (or nonexistent) analytics access
The fact is, many of these DIY options are not as affordable as their sales pitches indicate. Free themes are available – but only if you’re in no hurry to create a responsive website, use a premium theme, or add plugins to enhance the site’s functionality.
A key objective of your website is to ensure that your target customers are found. Search engine optimization (SEO) achieves this, and DIY builders seriously lack in this area.
Cheap Website Design Companies: Can they be trusted?
Budget web design companies are probably ultra-affordable for a reason. There are two common reasons for this: they are inexperienced in web design or use templated approaches.
You’re likely to know someone who has a friend who can develop your website for a couple of hundred bucks. Like DIY solutions, he can build out the online front end of your business, but he does not know how to design and build a strong SEO-friendly website with a strategy in mind.
Whatever the reason, your business suffers when an amateur developer overestimates his abilities or a web design company takes a less-than-honest approach to get you an “affordable” website.
Downsides of highly customized web design
The most obvious downside of highly customized websites is that they are expensive, but that isn’t the whole story. There is only a certain amount of customization you’ll require for small businesses, and companies that are solely focused on customization could fail to see the big picture.
Another issue with a highly customized website for a small business is when the web design agency pushes you to incorporate internet marketing tactics that aren’t directly related to your site.
Avoid paying for customizations your business doesn’t need. When a web design firm that acts more like an advertising agency tells you that you need all of those things for your website to be launched, they’re adding a lot of additional work and, therefore, a lot of extra expenses.
Custom & Affordable Web Design: Finding a Balance
A customized website for your business needs to strike the right balance between features that make sense for your business. The following features are recommended for any small business website:
A full copywriting solution
It is no surprise that content is the main reason for design delays, and creating content that is SEO-friendly and user-friendly is one of the biggest challenges every client faces. If your web design company does not offer a copywriting solution, you will be on your own to deal with this problem. Choose one that offers both in-house content work and content marketing services.
A functional website
In some cases, hyper-custom web design firms create each new site from scratch. Creativity is good, but the main focus must be on functionality. A web design company may find it too easy to get lost in innovative ideas and neglect well-tested usability and organizational practices.
A conversion strategy
Your new website should contain conversion points (or calls to action) after you and your web design company define your primary and secondary goals. The design of your website should enable visitors to complete actions in a playful way, which will increase engagement and subsequently result in more sales.
SEO included in price
Launching a website requires three key elements: content, design, and code. Each of these fields has its own best practices for getting your site ranked highly in search. It’s not that the web design company has to take on your entire SEO campaign. Still, they cannot launch a great website without understanding SEO and how these three key areas together work to enhance your rankings in searches.
A small business that understands your needs
A similar-sized business has a better understanding of each other in B2B. You’ll be able to filter out many of the too cheap and too customized options by choosing a company that’s also a small business. Their pricing tends to align more closely with your budget because they have the right mix of experience and knowledge.
Customized or affordable website? Choosing is Not Necessary
I provide a nice middle ground between creating the website yourself and getting a custom website with a hefty price tag. I create completely Pre-built websites! All you need is a hosting account and a domain name and the entire set-up process is done. Just adjust your colors, font, content, and pictures. The colors and font can be changed globally, so you only have to do it one time. I also have created custom training videos for each website. You can view them here!
These websites are perfect for you if you are looking for a no-code web design, attractive, search-friendly, WordPress affordable website or personal website templates ready in under 24 hours – WITHOUT the hefty price tag. Our done-for-you pre-built WordPress websites are fully responsive, customizable, easy to manage and update.