Creating an engaging and professional online presence is crucial for small businesses. The right web design company can help you achieve this by offering web design solutions tailored to your needs.
However, finding an affordable yet high-quality service can be challenging.
Fiverr reports that a freelance web designer can cost you between $20 and $100 per hour or between $500 and $10,000 per project. Forbes adds to this by saying that small business websites, in particular, can cost almost $10,000, plus another $1,200 per year for maintenance.
Website design and development costs depend on a variety of factors. For instance, you might want the user interface design to look one way on one web page and another way on a different page. You might even want each web page on your site to have different color schemes. This is a bad web page design principle in general, but it’s up to you.
This, of course, is the beauty of custom website design. There are a lot of ways you can wow your site visitors. However, in pursuit of such a custom website design, you mustn’t forget to have a functional site. At the same time, being a small business owner, you can’t ignore the website development costs either.
Here’s a guide to help you make the best choice for your small business website.
Understand Your Needs and Goals
Before embarking on your search for web designers, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of your small business’s needs and objectives.
Define what you want your website to accomplish, whether it’s boosting online sales, attracting more visitors, or offering detailed information about your offerings. Identifying your target audience is equally important, as it shapes the design, content, and functionality of your website to better cater to their needs and preferences.
Many small businesses turn to WordPress for building their websites, but as BizBolster Web Solutions puts it, WordPress may not be suitable. This is mostly because of the tool’s inability to handle security issues properly. Instead, opt for a company that can build custom, SEO-friendly, and responsive websites.
That way, your small or online business will have a good website to look at. Not only that, but web crawlers will also have an easy time ranking the site.
What are the must-have features of a small business website?
A small business website must have a clear and compelling homepage that communicates your brand’s value. Include an easy-to-navigate menu, showcasing your products or services. Ensure mobile responsiveness and fast loading times. Additionally, have contact information and a call-to-action to encourage customer interaction.
Research Potential Web Design Companies
Look for web designers with a solid portfolio and positive reviews. A reputable web design company should have a diverse portfolio that demonstrates its ability to create various types of websites.
Pay particular attention to the user experience of the websites they’ve designed; a well-designed website should be easy to navigate, visually appealing, and functional. Ideally, the company should have a dedicated front-end developer to manage the website design process, ensuring adherence to standard design principles and building the site from the ground up.
Evaluate Their Web Design Solutions
When choosing a web design company, consider the web design solutions they offer. A complete and proper web design solution should encompass a few things. These include custom website design, development, search engine optimization (SEO), and ongoing maintenance.
It’s essential to verify that the company can build an SEO-friendly website, as this enhances your search engine rankings and drives increased visitor traffic.
Now, SEO-friendly web design includes a lot of things.
For instance, the web design company can enhance your website’s SEO performance through various technical tweaks. They can optimize images on the site and ensure better web accessibility.
They can even throw in your desired target keyword within the web content – if they are working on the content side of things too. As long as they know what they are doing, they will surely use relevant keywords and suggest an SEO-friendly URL for each web page.
If the company can create websites in such a manner, they know what they are doing. Hence, you can rely on them to create a website that’s good to look at and has a decent web presence from the start. Their efforts can tell search engines that your website is properly designed and has relevant content for them to rank it higher.
Assess the Team’s Expertise
The expertise of the web designers working on your project is critical. Experienced web designers will always understand the necessity of user experience and hence, can create a good-looking custom website that meets your business goals.
Ensure they are proficient in creating search engine-friendly websites, as this will help your website rank higher on search engines. Note that a skilled web developer doesn’t need to know all the web programming languages. However, they should be well-versed in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript at least, as told by Coursera.Â
Consider Their Approach to User Experience
As you likely know, user experience (UX) is a crucial element in web design.
A skilled web designer will prioritize creating a website that offers an outstanding user experience, which includes easy navigation, quick loading times, and a responsive design that looks great on all devices. When evaluating potential web design companies, inquire about their UX design approach and how they ensure their websites deliver optimal performance.
A UX designer will charge you around $54 per hour, according to ZipRecruiter. Hence, make sure the company you’re choosing has a UX designer and that you don’t have to hire one separately.
Check for SEO-Friendly Website Capabilities
An SEO-friendly website is essential for attracting visitors and improving your search engine rankings. Make sure the web design company you select has a proven track record in creating SEO-friendly websites. This should include the use of proper meta tags, image optimization, and ensuring fast-loading web pages.
An SEO-friendly website will boost your business by attracting more visitors and enhancing your online visibility. SEO friendliness can be achieved on your small business website in many ways. Written content is the most important thing here, but the website’s design standards also matter.
However, keep in mind that keyword stuffing is a very bad approach to SEO friendliness. Search engines understand when you’re stuffing keywords into your web content, so avoid that. Instead, simply work with content that people search for and you’ll get organic traffic easily on your site.
What aspects of a website need to be checked for better search engine friendliness?
The title tags, meta tags, internal linking, keywords, alt text, duplicate content, and a lot of other things need to be checked for SEO-friendliness. A good web design solutions provider can help suggest more tips regarding this matter. They might even handle the initial stage of content development for the site.
Evaluate Their Pricing and Value
While affordability is important, it’s crucial to evaluate the value you’re getting for your money. Compare the pricing of different web design companies and consider what’s included in their packages. Ensure you’re getting a comprehensive service that includes web design, development, and maintenance.
Don’t be swayed by the cheapest option; instead, look for a website company that offers the best value for your investment.
How much does website maintenance cost?
You’ll be shocked to know that website maintenance costs can go all the way up to $60,000 per year. However, for small business sites, these costs shouldn’t go beyond a few thousand dollars at max.
The End Goal
A successful small business website strikes a perfect balance between aesthetics, functionality, and SEO.
Look for website design and development agencies or companies that prioritize user experience, offer comprehensive services, and provide ongoing support. With thoughtful selection, you can find an outstanding yet affordable web design company to establish a strong online presence for your small business.