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Website design isnt a case of cheapest is best

Written by: Greg Pipe

Article Overview: When it comes to getting a new website or updating your old one, it's not always as easy as getting the cheapest quote. With a little thought as to what you want to achieve from the site before you ask someone to give you prices, you can ensure you get the most for your money.

Website design isnt a case of cheapest is best

We often get asked if we can “put a website together” for a client and one of the first questions we ask is “how much do you want to spend on doing this”? To which clients invariably say they don’t know.

Often this is because they are worried that if they quote a figure then we’ll just say that’s how much it will cost and they won’t get a ‘deal’. This is perfectly natural and we all do it in our daily life. We can all shop around for that new TV we want, or a new microwave to replace the one that broke last week, so as to get the best price. The difference though for all these types of searches is that we are looking for a cheaper price on the same item.

All websites aren’t the same! Different websites have to provide different things to different people. So when you ask two different companies to tell you how much your new website will cost, you have to be sure they are both quoting for exactly the same thing. Only then can you see who can do a good job for you at the best price.

This is where good planning can really help. If you can sit down beforehand and work out some basic objectives for your website, it will give you a head start when talking to a design agency. You should consider who will be actually viewing your website, what sort of a person will they be, what information will they want to see and most importantly, what do you want them to do when they are they.

For a design agency all website projects essentially boil down to two things; firstly, how many pages will the website have; secondly, how long will it take to create each of those pages. This tells the web design company how many hours work your new website will take them and therefore how much they should charge for it. You can therefore use this same calculation when you are trying to work out or compare different agencies proposals.

A well-structured brief to a design agency will allow them to know what you want to achieve and how you want the site to look. You may, for instance, want a lot of ‘flash’ design in your site, as this can really make your website look dynamic and sexy. However, it also takes a lot of time and is therefore more expensive than just having a static page, it also doesn’t help from an SEO point of view. What this does though is allow you to refine your goals to help fit within your budget.

So to go back to my opening point about costs, you may want a Rolls Royce of a website, but unless you want to pay Rolls Royce money to get it, you will need to reassess your goals. But with careful planning both before briefing an agency to pitch for the business and good project management during the build process, it will allow you to achieve the best bang for your buck.

If you would like to discuss this further or to see how we can provide a digital project management service for your particular website, please call us or see our website.

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Article Tags: top tips, website design, website dos and donts



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Re: make real an idea - Hi.. Make sure your website is working for you! There are many Website Statistics easy-to-use and affordable web traffic analysis service that allows you to monitor your web site traffic. Use this information to your advantage, and improve the design and efficiency of your web site. You just go ahead..i'm there with you.. Good luck..!
Website SEO Marketing Consultant from India - Hi all, I am search engine marketing consultant, and has worked on seo marketing of several online websites. In case you need any help or facing any issue related to SEO/SEM, you can post your query. I have 4 yeards of experience in following :- a ) Search Engine Optimization/Marketing b) PPC Promotion c) Website Development too;)
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Re: Kevin's Case Study #2 - The Art of Pitching - [quote="bmueller47":2b727h54]Hi Kevin, I often thought about that. How can you protect good idea? If it is a novel idea, one can have it patented. However, that is not the cheapest and easist route. It requires research and development, often with a prototype etc. If know somebody you can trust to assist, that would be ideal. Lets see, what our friends of the forum have to contribute.[/quote:2b727h54] Hi Beat, The problem is that without a strategic partnership, I don't my t-shirts could stand on their own as it would be too easy for more established competitors to copy the idea. And therefore, it wouldn't be practical to trademark the design before a partner was even found.


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