Why You Don’t Want a $295 Website Design
There are many reasons you don’t want a $295 website design. First, you won’t impress your customers or clientele with a three-page website that looks like it was designed from a cardboard box. You will be hard-pressed to find anyone that thinks something designed on-the-fly with little or no effort is the “real stuff” and shows your commitment to your own business. Secondly, the so-called designer who is going to create your site is likely someone who is sitting on a website assembly line spitting out websites that are so close in design, you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart if they were missing the photos. Not only are you selling yourself and your customers short, your setting yourself up for little or no respect from Google or the other search engines.
- Do you design your own business cards and flyers?
- Would you draw up architecture plans for your own home?
The answer to those questions is likely no. Your website is no different. It’s there to represent your business and let others know around the world that you “mean business” and take pride in that business. You should definitely take the time to find a qualified web designer, by contacting a few firms and getting a feel for what your new website will cost and start thinking about what your truly willing to spend. At the very minimum, if you want that business of yours to succeed on any level, you need to consider spending $2000 or more. Granted, I know start-ups are difficult and usually lack the resources to create a beautiful website from the very start, but trust me on this, you’ll be glad you followed my advice. Being a professional web design company owner and designer, may make me a bit bias in this matter, but hear me out on the why you should invest in your business website from the very start.
The Do-Over Website
I can’t tell you how many of our clients have come to us with a website that has either been hacked or simply broken. Do you want your customers coming to you in the near future to tell you that you have Viagra or Cialis all over your website pages and showing up in Google’s search as being compromised? (ie hacked) Of course you don’t. It’s embarrassing, and it shows your customers that your not paying too much attention to the marketing or maintenance of your website, therefore, they can probably jump to the conclusion that whatever your selling, your not very dedicated to that endeavor either. sure, their likely wrong about that conclusion, but it won’t matter if their no longer visiting your website for your product or service. The other do-over seems a bit more promising, but is still not a good idea. Getting your website designed by a foreign designer or design team outside the country you’re doing business in is a mistake you will likely pay for time and time again. Most of these business owners come to us with a website that is far from finished. It’s usually a bit too expensive for us to take over one of these sites and finish the design, so most have to be completely redesigned. So the business owner has wasted his or her time, money and effort and essentially ends up with a site that has to be designed from the ground up. The money that that they thought they were saving, is now gone and they have to start over. I won’t even go into the language barrier and cross-communication problems that these business owners go through when trying to communicate their wishes and desires to a foreign web designer or company.
Marketing with a New Website Design
The one thing that most of these business owners didn’t realize when creating either a free or absurdly cheap website is how much all their marketing efforts will be in vain. Let me clarify. When we build a custom website for our clients, we’re going to incorporate all kinds of marketing strategies directly into the architecture to make sure that Google “sits up and takes notice” the minute we publish your design and your website goes live the very first time. In a free or highly discounted website design, you’re lucky to get enough pages for the major search engines to even bother with indexing and listing your site within their search. Content is still King, and without any relevant content other than just a few pages like an about or contact us page, your not going to provide enough content to your customers or the search engines. This is why the major search engines are “not” going to move you up in the search for your products or services keywords.
Why Others in Your Industry Will Ignore Your Site
One of the key factors to ranking in search engines like Google is quality back-links from other similar websites or from a website that already has authority. Do you think a website that has similar subject matter, products or services is going to link their readers to your 3-page or free website? No, you guessed it. Website owners that have been marketing their web site for a while realize they need to link to authoritative websites (sites that Google has determined relevant) within their industry and cannot afford to link to sites that clearly have made no effort to build a beautiful, compelling and high quality content-laden website similar in quality to theirs. They have something to offer of value, but you won’t have anything of value to return with your cookie-cutter website. Therefore, the likelihood of every playing at their level and reaping the rewards will almost certainly elude your grasp.
Business Decisions that Make Sense
It makes sense to apply your off line business principles to your online business. Would you buy swamp land in Florida for a new location for your brick and mortar business? Purchasing a lousy website design or doing it yourself for free isn’t much different. You’re sabotaging your own website and online business before you even have a chance to get started. Don’t risk creating something that you will put all your time and effort into when its doomed to fail from the very start. If your unsure of what steps to take next, give us a call for a free consultation and maybe we can help. At the very least, we can help you understand your next step in the process and give you a better strategy for building that successful online business!
