You’re no April fool, Learn why a cheap website is not good value!
A cheap website can make a fool of you?
People can be thoroughly confused when they get quotes for a new website. Prices range from extremely expensive to downright cheap! The project is the same, the requirements are the same, so why are the prices so different? It’s easier to identify with price differences when we understand the product, for example; an off the peg suit that costs £80.00 will have low expectations. It is unlikely to be made from superior quality materials, it will not fit the body shape perfectly because it’s cut from a standard template pattern, a one size fits all. The purpose of the website will be met in the short term but it won’t last long and therefore it’s not good value in the long term. A tailor made suit costing in the region of £500 is expected to be unique, without short cuts in the design process and hand made by a skilled expert. An expensive suit will be durable and made from premium materials; it will fit perfectly and last the long term. A cheap website will not have hand written code; it will utilise a generic template, it will not be unique with bespoke features or functionality and it won’t perfectly fit your business goals. A ‘one size fits all’ website is a budget option, it won’t meet your needs for long, and there is no room to grow. Your website needs to measure up.
When cheap becomes expensive
“Good work isn’t cheap and cheap work isn’t good!” There are many elements involved in building a high quality website, there are no short cuts. A website needs secure foundations; this takes time and expertise from skilled developers and costs more than a ‘take away’ website. A good website will achieve results; it should generate a return on your investment and quickly recover the cost of producing the website. A cheap, website, with boring or inadequate content quickly disengages users, lost traffic is lost revenue. A bad website can damage your brand, a huge cost in terms of lost business opportunities. Defective copy content can lead to penalties from Google and ultimately make a website invisible. If you discover all of these pitfalls, the only choice is to start again and build a new website, hardly a ‘cheap’ option and certainly not good value! A cheap website will ultimately cost your business more; it doesn’t pay to skimp on design or copy writing because sophisticated visitors today won’t give your website a 2 second glance. Cheap does not always make economic sense.
It is about the price tag
A website needs to be updated regularly, it doesn’t maintain itself and it should be an ongoing process. It does matter what the price tag includes. The cost of a website should include after care. A web developer will monitor performance and the return on investment, continually tweak and polish to maintain consistently good results. A so called ‘cheap’ website can quickly become expensive with hidden updating fees, or worse, be left to become stagnant and worthless. A cheap website might look visually pleasing at first but without expert development it’s no more than an enticing shop window display, in a shop that is permanently closed, situated in a road that nobody uses! It becomes easy to understand why a cheap website does not equal good value.
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
