Cheap Web Design
As an experienced professional web designer it is understandable why I take competition from individuals and companies offering cheap web design for rock bottom prices seriously. But should I be concerned?
I could produce you a really cheap website, and then quickly move onto the next, and the next, and so on. But the main thing that stops me from doing that is that I know I would need to heavily compromise on what I produce you, and on the level of service you get before, during and afterwards.
I also know that you'll be coming back asking if anything can be done to make your website load more quickly, display properly on your mobile phone, and attract more customers because it's not performing well on the search engines and you may be losing business as a result.
Do you feel comfortable when compromising on your own standards?
Put simply, I don't feel comfortable knowing that I'm compromising on the standards I know most clients expect, and I would much rather know that I'm doing something to help your business than hold it back.
So when you ask How much does a website cost?
and start being attracted to the cheapest quotes, be certain that you know what you'll be getting, and be aware that there may be many corners being cut in order to build you a cheap website!
Cheap Websites on a Tight Budget
It would be reasonable to expect that a website containing 5 pages would cost more than a website containing 3 pages, and less than a website containing 10 pages, but there is much more to consider when having a website built.
For example...
If you're approaching this with a small budget of between... let's say £200 and £400, you can certainly get a cheap website built, but you might find that it will be built by a part time web designer with limited skills and knowledge, who is happy to build you a basic website for a bit of additional income on the side. Or maybe you'll find that you're using a web designer who works as part of a larger organisation from one of the countries in the far east.
Cutting corners could be detrimental to the success of your website
So your cheap web designer could be doing this part time, or be 1000s of miles away, or is new and keen to get business by undercutting everyone else. Web designers who can only attract business because they're the cheapest are likely to cut corners which could be very detrimental to the performance and success of your website.
It could result in your website being slow, poorly displayed on mobiles, difficult to find in search engine results, and if it goes wrong you might need to hire someone with experience to fix it. That might cost you more than your cheap website cost you in the first place, and in the mean time you might be stuck with a website which doesn't work.
Will your website be designed to display all devices and screen sizes?
Will your website be designed to display all devices and screen sizes, and will it have been tested to ensure that it works correctly?
Will your website be designed to display all devices and screen sizes?
Carefully consider your needs and expectations
Besides actually building a website for you, if your expectations are that your web designer will:
- spend sufficient time with you over the phone, Zoom or face to face discussing your business, needs, goals, and preferences on styling, etc;
- liaise with you at various stages of design and build;
- design your website so it will work properly on all screen sizes, devices and orientations;
- properly optimise images, code, styling definitions, etc., so they don't slow your website down;
- be forthcoming with advice and suggestions on the best way to handle some of your requirements;
- incorporate key features which can help with search engine optimisation;
- carry out competitor analysis on your behalf and make any necessary adjustments to keywords and content on individual pages on your website to improve each pages chance of being found in search engine results;
- submit your website to Google, Bing and other search engines, and monitor the indexing progress of each page through tools such as Google Search Console;
- monitor your website's progress over a period of time and tweak code and content to achieve incremental improvements in search engine results;
- set up analytics (via Google Analytics) to monitor how well your website is doing, where your visitors are coming from, and which pages they're visiting on your website;
- test your website on each screen size and device from a functional perspective as well as from the perspective of your customers;
- fully test any forms which have been built for your website and ensure that appropriate levels of security have been implemented;
- correctly handle old paths to files which may have become redundant if you're having an existing website rebuilt.
- implement cookie consent functionality;
- create a suitably compliant privacy policy page;
- be there to advise, answer questions, and partner you in your quest to grow your online presence;
- go the extra mile to make sure that you're happy with your new website, and put in the effort behind the scenes to make sure it works for you;
- advise you on how to set up access to the email addresses attached to your website's domain name and many other support services...
... then you might need to significantly rethink your budget if you thought that £400 would cover it, or maybe approach a cheap web designer and ask which of the above list they'll be compromising on.
Targa's approach to web design pricing
At Targa we have the skills, expertise and experience to build you a professional website and support it in the way you would expect. If your expectations also include the level of attention and commitment listed above, then be assured that our approach covers all of those points and more.
That doesn't make Targa the cheapest web designers, but we do go to great lengths to provide great value and personal service which I'm proud to say is perfectly reflected in the following review from a recent client:
It wasn’t until I met Daron from Targa Web Solutions that I even realised how different a web site can be “under the hood”.
Right from the very first meeting the attention to detail, great ideas and skill was apparent. Regular updates and ideas were sent during the building of the site, and the end result is so much better than we could have hoped for.
Having worked with various website builders over the years, my regret is I never met Daron sooner. I 100% recommended Targa Web Solutions.
Neil Gornal - PurerClean [5/5]
Take a look for yourself
Why not try out our online website cost calculator and get an idea of what the investment your new website could be. You'll be able to add or remove features, and learn what benefits each of the features provide. Then if you have any questions or would like to discuss your next website project, simply get in touch for an informal chat.
What could be simpler?
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About Daron Harvey: I began building and managing websites way back in 1996, and I'm now in my 27th year of being professionally involved in website design, UX and eCommerce best practices, including management of large multi-lingual multi $Billion global websites. Following the global pandemic I founded Targa Web Solutions, specialising in website design, Search Engine Optimisation, User Experience (UX/UI), testing and consultancy.
