4 Reasons Cheap Websites Will Cost You More

4 Reasons Why Cheap Websites Will Cost You More

The Truth About Cheap Website Design

These days, everyone knows someone who can create a website - from a student in his dorm room to your cousin who works for Microsoft.  With so many available options, choosing the right people to create your online presence is key in presenting your brand effectively to the rest of the world.  You website works 24 hours a day and can act as your best sales resource or worst brand killer.

For many businesses, your first "touch" with a client may be through your website. What will their first impression be? Your website needs to be a tool that you can utilize for sales, marketing and automating process. There are many moving parts that need to work together well in order to reach the desired outcome (new customers or additional revenue, for example). Spending the right amount of time and money on your website design in the beginning will ultimately save you both time and money in the future (as well as generate the results you are really looking for). Here are 4 reasons why cheap web design will cost you results in the long run:

1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In an organic Google search, the first ten listings are prime. And if your site does not show up on the first page, good luck. According to Gravitate Online, over 94% of search engine clicks happen on the first page. There are many elements that need to be a part of the initial development for a site to rank well.  This is similar to baking a cookie.  After you bake a cookie, do you throw chocolate chips at it and hope that they stick?  I sure hope not.  The chocolate chips are baked into the dough. If the developer is not well versed in the science of SEO, a lot of factors contributing to good search positioning are missed. SEO needs to be a part of the site structure when it's being built, otherwise your cheap web site will have very little value.

2) Call-To-Action Design

Did you know that you only have about 3-5 seconds to capture a customer from your website? Your chances of doing business with prospects greatly increase if they immediately find value in your website, and "calls to action" are very important. Examples of this include eye-catching buttons whose text has been written specifically for a desired action, such as "Call now for a free consultation!" Prospective customers want a quick and easy way to get what they want or need, and many cheap website designs fail to incorporate such important components.

3) Automated Process Through Custom Solutions

Custom development and programming allows for solutions that are tailored to your specific needs, saving you time and money in every day business process. Consider custom programming with a shipping calculator, for example, which integrates with major shipping carriers and displays an accurate shipping cost for customers depending on the zip code. Without this functionality built in, your customers may have to call in every time a purchase is made. (And you might even lose them to another site that is easier for them to use.) This extra time you have to allocate towards answering the phones could be better spent on something else, but your low cost website is not designed for such a "complicated" task.

4) Website Maintenance and Service

In many cases, your website developer is the only one who can make updates to your site if you have a budget website. What if your business model changes? What if you add a new product or service? You will have to call your developer (and hope he answers the phone) every time you want to make a change. You will oftentimes pay for these changes to be made, and then you will have to wait for the developer to get the work done. You should have the ability to fully manage your website, in real time, from content to blogs to product specials and discounts. Unfortunately, cheap websites do not generally come with an intuitive content management system. Though you may be able to hire a cheap website designer for a few hundred dollars upfront, you must consider the additional costs of being reliant on a website designer to make any future changes. 

There are many reasons why a cheap website may not be the best solution for your online marketing needs. A website must allow for growth, enable customer engagement, and increase ROI. All of the moving parts that are required to successfully execute an online marketing strategy need to be part of the equation.

Online Marketing & Custom Website Design by efelle

efelle, located in downtown Seattle, has created hundreds of successful online marketing campaigns, from selling cookies to full service law firms.  Our clients are given more than a website.  We offer a fully managed, fully supported complete online marketing platform that integrates content control, SEO, call-to-action marketing and ecommerce manageability.  All of this is controlled from one, easy to use dashboard. Check out our portfolio or call us now at 206.384.4909 for a free consultation! We listen, understand, then execute.

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