Affordable website design
Updated: Jun 24, 2021
"Buy cheap, buy twice"
I'm sure you've heard or made that statement yourself at some point in your small business or freelance journey?
The premise is that if you pay next to nothing for something, you should not expect a quality service or product?
And for the large part, this is absolutely true.
For example, I have heard countless sad stories from newlywed couples who opted to use the cheapest photographer they could find to capture their special day. The results were, let's say, awful. These couples now have no quality images that they can show off with pride on their walls or share on social media. It's not like the couple can redo their wedding and invite all friends and family back for a take two.
So buying cheap can and does absolutely come with risk.
What you need to ask yourself as a business owner is whether you want to introduce unnecessary risk into your success?
I have had a few comments from people on social media about my website design and build prices being 'cheap and therefore cannot be any good'.
So I'd like to address this in this post.
I charge a very competitive £699 for an up to 6-page Wix or Squarespace website.
Some people think this is far too cheap as already mentioned, whilst others feel this is too expensive. So let me explain just how much value you get for your money.
Built for mobile-first
74% of users are more likely to return to mobile-friendly websites
Every website design I create is built for mobile-first. What does this mean? It simply means that I prioritise the look and feel, and most importantly the usability of your mobile website over the desktop version. Of course, I make your desktop version look as captivating.
Why do I build my websites with a mobile-first mindset?
Two reasons.
As of February 2021, 55.5% of all internet traffic is by mobile phone uses. This has increased from 6.09% in 2011! (source: Oberlo). So I'm sure you can tell from this trend that mobile internet traffic is only going to increase over the coming years.
And possibly, more importantly, is that Google now ranks your website based on the mobile version and NOT the desktop version. Therefore, you may have a really well-designed desktop version of your website, but if your mobile site isn't up to Googles standards, your website will not rank well for SEO.
Therefore, by ensuring your mobile site is as sleek and easy to use for your visitors is my main priority when building any website.
Built with your ideal client in mind
94% of first impressions relate to your site’s web design
A common mistake many small business owners make when they attempt to build a website themselves, is to create a site that THEY like.
Remember, like ALL your marketing efforts, you're speaking to your ideal client. You are addressing their pains.
This is especially true when it comes to designing your website.
When we work together on your website, I will of course use your brand/style guide to dictate the colours and fonts used throughout your site to ensure brand consistency across your online presence.
My second priority when designing a new website is usability. Usability is again a very important aspect of SEO (search engine optimisation) of your website and how well it will rank in search engine results.
So many clients want to put an excess of images, widgets etc on their pages which serve no real purpose to their visitor's journey and education.
For example, having your Instagram feed on your homepage may seem clever however it's unlikely that it is going to have any decision making effect on your visitors. In addition, having these sorts of plugins on your homepage especially introduces a couple of issues:
These widgets can often break or require setting up again each time Instagram makes changes to their platform. So there is a risk that people visiting your page can see 'broken elements' which immediately gives the impression that your website is out of date.
It adds additional page load time to your website. More on the importance of page load time below.
So when we work together, we create a website that your visitors will love, is easy to use, and provides them with the important buying decision information they need.
Need for speed
83% of people expect a website to load in 3 seconds or less
Of the around two million elements that make my SEO (slight exaggeration), page load time is right up there as one of the most important.
Your homepage/landing page especially needs to be as streamlined as possible so that it loads, or is interactive under the above stated 3 seconds.
Time to interactive is the term/measurement used to indicate how long it takes your website to become useable to a visitor. For example, the menu to be reactive. Initial images and text to have loaded and being able to scroll.
Now I'm sure you will agree, 3 seconds isn't a great deal of time.
When we work together to design and build your website, I take my many years of web development and SEO knowledge to ensure we create a site that loads as quickly as possible without sacrificing an attention-grabbing design.
Any images used on the website will be optimised to ensure their file size is as small as possible whilst maintaining clarity and sharpness.
Important SEO elements
SEO is absolutely forefront of every website I design and build. Because at the end of the day, if you have a website that isn't optimised for search engines then you are simply wasting your time, money and effort in having one. It's like having a Van Gough painting in your basement.
When I design and build your website with you, I ensure that each page has the necessary SEO elements in place as well as the overall site elements.
This includes having the correct headings on each page. Many small business owners and freelancers who build their own websites in an attempt to be cost-effective, and are not familiar with SEO make very basic and common errors, like having multiple H1 headings on their pages. This effectively confuses search engines and has a detrimental impact on your SEO efforts.
Training on the Wix or Squarespace editor
Once the website is built, signed-off and published I will then, via a 1:1 Zoom call provide training to you on the Wix or Squarespace editor interface so that should you desire, you can fully maintain your own website moving forward.
This means that you do not have to engage with a web designer each time you want to make text, image or basic layout changes, saving you a small fortune in the medium to long term!
After the training, you will feel confident to take ownership of your website and make changes to it as and when required.
Be aware, however, it is unwise to make regular major changes to your website pages as this could result in the search engines having out of date information about your website content. Therefore, where at all possible, keep your main page changes to a minimum and rather use a blog for example to put out regular new and relevant content that your ideal clients would find value in. Blogging by the way is one of the best ways in which to continue improving your websites search engine ranking and SEO!
Optional extra web design services
All the above is included in my £699 web design deal which I believe is absolutely great value for money and will ensure that your website has all the important elements to start ranking on search engines.
However, if you would like further assistance, the following extras are available for an additional fee
Copywriting
You may be a very good writer, you may even have worked in marketing and therefore understand the importance of including keywords and key phrases into your website text (copy). However, it is my experience that many people, which absolutely amazing at selling and marketing other peoples products and services, seem to hit a wall when it comes to writing about themselves and their own products and services.
Or, you may not feel comfortable writing in a marketing way and not understand the importance of having keywords and phrases in your content or indeed, not have the experience on how to do keyword and phrase research for your industry.
Our copywriting services take this uncertainty and burden off your hands to create copy (text) that will capture your visitor's attention, keep them on your site and most importantly, convert them to clients.
We will work with you to get an understanding of your business AND you via a 1:1 Zoom call during which specific questions will be asked which are designed to get the important information we will need to create captivating copy for your site.
Our copywriting service includes full keyword and phrase research which we then ensure are incorporated into your copy to further enhance your websites SEO.
Advanced SEO setup
Our advanced SEO services include assisting you further with your SEO efforts and ensuring you get off to the best possible start with your websites online presence.
This includes setting up and connecting your website to Google Analytics, Google Search Console, registering your website on Google My Business and training on how best to set up and use this great free feature from Google.
In addition, you will be provided with an SEO guide with full instructions on how you can continue to get exposure and awareness of your website online and increase its search engine optimisation rankings.
See my website design packages
For details on the costs and what is included with each package, please see my Website design services page here.
Got questions?
Use the contact form below to get in touch and I will get back to you as soon as I can to have a chat about how I can assist your business in getting found online.
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