What a cheap website design really costs your small business.
With so many companies promoting “cheap” websites, or low cost websites for small businesses, it’s more often the case the final result is not only a cheap website design, but a cheap looking, poorly performing website.
So, why do so many small businesses in Australia throw away their hard earned income, and sell themselves short by searching for “cheap websites” for their business?
What does a cheap website cost?
A cheap website may cost you very little in economic value, however when the end result often matches what you’ve spent, it often will cost you much more.
When branding your small business, you don’t get a second chance at second impressions, so when a customer arrives at your small business website, what is it saying about you, your brand and what you’re offering? When you’re not paying much for your small business web design, know that you’re also not getting much time spent on consultation of your goals and needs, site strategy and architecture, as well as consideration to things like content design, web design, functionality and usability.
When customers come to your website they have 4 basic intents:
Informational - Looking for information ie. “How much is a cheap website?”
Transactional - Looking to purchase, or make a transaction ie. “Buy Cheap website online”
Navigational - Looking for directions or location ie. “Web Designer near me”
Commercial - Looking for reviews or to compare ie. “Melbourne Web Designer review”
When purchasing a cheap website online, are you getting these sort of considerations for your business?
More than just a website
These days having a successful small business website design is much more than simply having an “online business card” or poster for the front of your business. Your website should be a carefully crafted business tool that serves many purposes, 4 of which we covered off above. Your website should be created so your audience can find you online via SEO, then when they find you and click through, your content should be crafted so they can find relevant information to then make a decision to contact or purchase from you.
This then needs the right consideration for prominent and relevant Calls-to-Action (CTA) on the site so people can Call, Contact, Buy, Download, Book etc what they need. Will a cheap website deliver this for you? Probably not.
Think about this. Have you ever seen someone in a cheap bad fitting suit? What was your first impression? More importantly what was your lasting impression? - I’m sure you just thought of someone then. Right? The same goes with having having a cheap website design. You won’t know about the clients or customers you didn’t get.
Cheap vs Value
Now let’s not get these mixed up, as they definitely aren’t the same thing. Some people may think going to a cheap restaurant is great value, however if the food, service and atmosphere is rubbish, then it would be considered low-value for money, or other terms “You get what you pay for” however if you went to a mid range restaurant and had the best meal and experience in your entire life, you would rate that as high value return. Value has more to do with the “perceived” worth of something, opposed to the price of something alone. So when you’re looking at your small business web design, check to see if you’re getting good value for money, not just a cheap website price.
Ever been to Bunnings and bought a cheap item, however a month later you’re finding yourself back at Bunnings buying its better cousin. You would have been better off investing in the quality item which last for decades first off and save yourself the $$ and headache. Last thing you’re going to want to do is keep spending money changing your cheap small business website because you went for the cheap website option opposed to the affordable great value website option. You could be left with an expensive non- functioning, cheap looking website. How would that serve your business and customers?
