A good website doesn’t have to cost you thousands of dollars, but it shouldn’t be dirt cheap either. Value is the name of the game. Your website, like the other purchases in your life, needs to be good value for money. Here are some tips to help you avoid paying too much for your website design.
1. Pay for what you need
Buying a website is a lot like buying a car. There are hundreds of different models that do a hundred different things, each made by a different brand, and coming with an array of extras. You can buy a Jeep for the storage room or maybe a Ferrari for the speed.
When you buy a website you need to work out exactly what you want it to do. If all you need is an online business card, then you don’t need too much functionality, and a simple design will suit your needs. If you need a website that includes a member’s space, internal messaging, blogs or something from left-field, you’ll probably have to pay more. Work out what your website needs, and purchase a package that suits it.
2. Research your options
Researching your options is important for any major business decision, and your website is certainly one of those. There are plenty of things to investigate about your potential web developer (here are some). A few basic considerations are reputation, pricing and flexibility.
Like when going out to a restaurant and you look up the reviews, checking up on other customer’s experiences at your potential web developer is essential to finding one that suits you. Pricing is a no-brainer, though not necessarily the most important factor. Remember that it is all about value, sometimes it’s worth paying a little more for a better product.
Flexibility in web design is so important to get a website that works for you. Your website needs to be customised to suit your business, and if a web developer can’t do that, then the finished product won’t be anything like what you’re looking for.
3. Watch out for ongoing costs
Once a website is built it may surprise you to find that you have to pay some regular costs. A website requires hosting and this will result in some kind of ongoing financial cost. The important thing to remember is that hosting shouldn’t be expensive or lock you into a contract. Some companies will charge extraordinarily high prices for hosting that offers no real difference then other, cheaper options. Just make sure your site is hosted in Australia, Google can tell the difference.
4. Make sure you can make changes yourself
Hopefully once your web developer is finished you will be ecstatic with your new website. As your business grows though, your site will need to change. If you can’t make changes yourself, you will end up paying out the nose for every little edit.
Suddenly, what was quite an affordable website could turn into a bottomless black hole of expenses. To solve this, ensure any web designer you hire gives you complete control and access to the site once it’s live.
Use these tips as a basic guide to help you get value for money from your website designer.
