We want many things to be done faster and if possible, make the price affordable as well. I remember having my glasses broken after using it for six years, so I bought myself a new one in much cheaper price from a cheap optic near my house because I was saving at that time (and I thought the quality was not that different than my previous expensive glasses). It turned out, in just six months, the new glasses broke, like the glasses didn’t even fit into the frame but they forced them to fit so the glasses easily came out of the frame until six months the frame finally broke too. From that experience, my eyes are more open when it comes to finding quality. With this in mind, I can’t help but think about web design for business. As a person who works at a creative agency that provides services like SEO, web design and web development for business, I get asked a lot if it is possible to have a good but cheap website that drives sales for business. However, my answer will always be the same; you get what you pay for. Why? My friend who is a Melbourne web designer, explained this to me in simpler ways that I can sum it up for you in this article. Keep reading to find out!
Cheap website: what you will get
Before we dive deep into comparing cheap websites with expensive websites, let’s get to the details of a cheap website first. When it comes to cheap websites, anyone, a beginner or even someone who is not a web designer can basically make a cheap website. The process goes like this (and you can even do it yourself too):
- Choose a domain and buy it (or it can be free)
- Choose a hosting company and pay for it
- Download WordPress for free
- Download a free theme and install it
- Set up your pages, site settings, post categories and post them once you’re done
- Download several plug-ins for first need, such as contact form and ready
After a few days, you can get your own website and this may cost you only $100 for the necessary annual fees for domain and hosting. Now let’s find out what advantages you can get by having a cheap website:
- First, well, it is cheap
- When you paid for a server, you have full access to the files in it; therefore, you have unlimited opportunities to manage your content
- You have a personal domain
Nothing is perfect, and with those advantages I have mentioned above, we can’t deny the fact that this method has its disadvantages as well:
- There is no real branding quality
- Lack of personal design
- Limited site capabilities
- There is no professional SEO optimisation
- There is no extra functionality
What you can learn from this: Cheap websites may only cost you up to $200 or $300, but it is only suitable for you if you don’t have long-term plans for the future of your small business or if your business is only for temporary because cheap websites have no effective functionalities, no personal design and branding, no SEO optimisation which may be difficult for you to reach more audience for your business. With this in mind, let’s go to the next part.
Expensive website: what you will get
Unlike the basic website design, expensive website is done by professionals who know what they are doing. An expensive website is made through these processes:
- Choose a suitable domain. It is highly recommended that you add an SSL certificate to your domain for both the protection and optimisation of your website
- Choose the right hosting
- Hire the professional web designers and web developers
- Build your website. This is a very important part because you have to know what you need for your website based on your business. Basically this part is not much different than the installation of a cheap site mentioned above, you download the WordPress installation archive, install it, set it up to work, and make it a few pages of information, photos and banners you install
- Design properly that includes branding and logo design. Consider a few things like colour, design looks, website responsiveness and many more before launching the website
- Design for UI or UX
- Include SEO for your website
- Add extra functionality
- Test the website
- Start marketing
Now we know the processes of making and designing a good website. So, what will you get from that?
- Since you are adding extra functionality, you can enhance protection and block spam and hacker attacks on your website
- Your website content is more optimised
- Your website is mobile and SEO friendly
- The website has fast load time
- The website is more organised
- Adding extra functionality enables your website to have good quality in terms of usability, readability and reliability
- You are given unlimited opportunities to manage your content
- You have your own domain
- The design is made based on your brand’s needs
- The structure of your website is tailored to the needs of your business and visitors
Well, you have those so what could be your disadvantage?
Yes, they are expensive!
But, yes! You get what you pay for!
And this is how we pay when it comes to website pricing:
TE (Time and Effort) + S (Skills needed) + EX (Expenses for professional tools and software for your project) = TP (Total Price)
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have cheap web design. Cheap web design may be friendly for your website budget, but when you see it from your business perspective, it does not provide what you need in the long run. You should focus on what you want to gain from your business and your goals for your business. Your web design also determines your business’ achievements. Therefore, choose wisely and remember this; you get what you pay for. What you pay for your web design is what you get from your business later.