Web Design – You get what you pay for…

Have you ever seen one of those advertisements stating that you can have a website designed for $199, or someone will do your web design for some ridiculously low amount of money? The saying “you get what you pay for” is very true, especially when it comes to web design! A cheap website is just that – a cheap website. Web design is very important, especially when you are promoting your business or organization. Your website design will introduce your business to the world and I don’t believe a $199 effort would make a very good statement. It will have more exposure than print would ever have a chance at doing and I doubt you would get far with that little of money in print! Web design can be and usually is a lot less expensive than print over time, but it still is the most cost effective way to promote your organization in the long run.

Web design is an art and a science that is learned over time. Not just anyone can do it and do it well; therefore it is critical that you talk to your web designer and get to know him or her. Some web designers are very good artists, others are very good at code, few are good at SEO (search engine optimization) and even fewer are good at all these areas. Some of the larger web design companies have teams of people to make up for what each of their different designers may be lacking, of course,  common sense implies that the more people that are working on a website design, then the higher the cost will be. Now, the more expensive the web design doesn’t necessarily mean the better the web design. This is where you need to talk to the actual designer who is designing your website and get to know them. Trusting your own judgment and gut feeling goes a long way! You need to like and trust your designer especially since you might be working with them for a long time. Web design is not a “fire and forget” business and it shouldn’t be; although several designers today tend to operate in that fashion. For most businesses the ideal scenario is when you have a web designer that can be on hand anytime you need to make changes to your website.

The days of a static web site are over. In the ever-changing world of the web, a dynamic website is where the focus is. Website designs today require content that is ever-changing and constantly updated. News, blogs, images, events, inventory and many other aspects of your web design will need to be changed or updated frequently. The ideal platform is one where you have a content management system (CMS) and a web designer. The CMS will allow you to update basic items without knowing code and your web designer will be there when you need them to bail you out of something you broke or incorrectly modified.

So what should all of this cost? Well, it depends on a lot of factors. Several things determine this such as how many pages are needed, how much content will the client provide and how much content will the web designer have to create, how many images and graphics will have to be created or modified, whether flash and JavaScript is used or not, how many forms need to be created and how complex will they be, and the list can go on and on. I would say that a web design should run at least $1,000 and up. Get a web design under $1,000 and you probably aren’t getting much if anything. Most websites that are under $1,000 will more than likely be one page or a few pages at best and be very basic design. They are what you would call a brochure site and you usually don’t get much business from a brochure website. Most decent business websites will probably be around $2,000 to $3,000 and ecommerce would start around $3,000 to $5,000 and up. Serious corporate sites would start at $5,000 to $10,000 and up. So if you spend $199, expect a $199 performance, if you spend $1,000 expect a $1,000 performance, and if you spend $3,000+ expect your site to look, perform and produce like a high quality web design.