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31
Oct
When I give someone a price for a website design, I naturally want to give them the best price I can. I know that comparing prices is as easy as going to Google and typing in “website designers”, getting a list and starting to make phone calls. However, Google cannot tell the difference from a quality website designer or a half ass website designer. The sad part is that neither can most clients.
I have seen prices for a simple 5 page website range from $100.00 to $5,000.00. This is a static website, which means that the content has to be changed manually and you either need to know HTML or pay the Web designer more money to make changes or add more pages.
But that is not where the problem comes in; web developers should be judged on the quality of work they do. If their designs stink, and they appear to be living in the 90’s, then it shouldn’t matter how cheap they are. Developing web 1.0 website designs, with poor graphics and pixilated images are not going to make you money. If their designs are basic and look very similar to one another, they can give their sites away for free and you will still lose money. We are in 2009, Web 2.0, dynamic websites with CMS and professional design structures that have a call to action that will guide the client and move them towards the checkout process, this is the world we are living in today.
What many people do not understand is that by going with a cheaper web developer, it will cost you more money than any amount of money you saved.
The website design industry is an unregulated industry and in recent years it has become extremely easy to through up a sign and call yourself a web developer.
This makes it very difficult for a client to have a clear understanding of why the price structure changes so much from one design service to the next. It is very tempting for many businesses to go for the rock-bottom discount option.
The sad part is that many Web designers drop their prices to compete in this market, causing talented people to undersell their services and in return not put out the quality websites that they are capable of doing.
But like it or not this is the state of the industry that we are currently working in and we need to make our clients understand the value of our design services and therefore the value of the money they will be putting into the website design.
There is a lot involved in building a high quality website, the less you pay a Web designer for development the lower the quality.
When hiring a Web development company the prices often reflect the level of experience of the designer. Of course, this is not always the case but more often than not when you pay a low price for Web development it will show in the overall design and functionality of the website.
A low price website often uses table-based HTML code, they normally do not validate and they lack a consistent navigational path to bring users through the site. Unfortunately a lot of clients do not realize that what they have received is of a much lower quality, than what they would have received had they chosen the candidate giving a higher quote.
As a result the client will eventually end up starting his/her website design process over again. The only good that can come from this is that most clients have learned their lesson and will be looking for a quality Web designer to develop a website that will operate and function properly. However, the money lost from a website that was unable to rank in the search engines or convert the little traffic it got and the clients that have seen the unprofessional website and the gap that this website has created between you and your competition will be a difficult thing to overcome.
But who cares about losing millions when you can save hundreds.
There is not one day that goes by that I don’t talk to someone that has a problem with their past web designer. Most phone calls start something like this, “I had a website built by someone else about a year ago and I really do not like it. I do not receive any leads from it and it does not make me any money nor does it show up in the search engines.”
The sad part is that this shows that a lot of people are receiving low quality websites and end up spending more money when they have to hire another company to fix the problems.
A client should spend more time researching companies, looking at past clients and finding out if those clients are happy with their websites, and if they have a successful online business.
I mean think about it, a Web designer has to judge how much time they can spend on designing something for a client. If the budget is low, he cannot afford to spend hours and hours working and developing a unique design that will blow everyone’s socks off. Every designer wants to work on a project where their creativity can be unleashed, where they can deliver a project that the client can be proud of and the designer can brag about. If you are fair with the designer then in most cases the designer will be fair with you.
It takes time to produce a high quality website and time is money. A website should be looked at as an investment, not an expense. When you are working with a professional and experienced Web designer it adds value to the project and they can tell you why they did something one way or another and ultimately make you money and save you time.
Do not get me wrong, I am not saying to go with the most expensive web developer.
There are opportunities to get a great deal but everything has a risk. I go out of my way to provide good prices, a great service and create great-looking websites, but the reality is that we have to charge to provide a high quality service to our clients.
Tags: Website Design Pricesone
