We've all decided to take the cheaper option at one point or another.
In fact, some of our best WordPress webdesign clients are the ones that hired us for a redesign, after they tried those cheaper options and decided they do not work.
That is because we are more expensive, right?
Wrong.
Let me tell you why.
Same as with most things in life, you get what you pay for, that part of it is correct. But, most often than not, the upfront cost of a website is not the real, total cost. You know, like the landscaper that put a tree trough your living room and now does not answer the phone, like the car that costs you 'only $400 per month' and that ends out costing 1000s in interest charges.
If you want to create a WordPress website for your business, hiring the wrong company can cost you:
- money that you have to spend for a redesign
- time that you have to spend figuring out what went wrong so you don't do it again
- your customers' trust because of missed appointments, wrong information and a total disconnect between the information they require and what you provide
- your business, because you cannot keep the pace with your competitors
In the long run, our WordPress services are more affordable and sometimes even cheaper than those 'low cost' alternatives.
WordPress Web Design Services: Pre-requisites
The more complex your WordPress website is and the more plugins it has, the more resources it is going to require.
For some of the WordPress websites, shared hosting is not a good choice because the pages become slow loading, riddled with errors and security risks.
Besides cheap hosting, free themes and plugins are one of the main reasons why WordPress websites get hacked.
Using premium themes and plugins minimizes the risk of the website getting hacked and gives you access to the developer's help in case that something goes wrong.
For most WordPress business websites, it is rarely necessary to get custom development. You can get custom design and most features you will need without expensive coding work.
A professional website should fulfill the reason why it was created:
- create a bridge between business and consumer
- provide information with as little friction as possible
- provide visitors with the solutions that they are searching for
- generate qualified leads and sales
When you hire a WordPress specialist, you should ask for more than just a great looking website. The finished project should lay down the foundation for creating a strong online presence for your business.
Your WordPress developer might be one of the best in his field, but if the content on the website is poor quality and fails to attract and connect with prospective clients, the website is nothing else than an useless expense.
Some of the things we ask for when designing a website are easy to provide:
- a logo
- basic information about the business
- services and products you offer
- competitive advantages
Why WordPress?
There are a lot of reasons why WordPress has become the most popular CMS (Content Management System):
- it looks good
- it is reliable
- it is very flexible
- you can add a lot of low cost features without spending thousands for each feature
- it is cost effective
Can I design my own WordPress website?
Yes, you can.
However, just because you think you can cut down the big tree in your backyard does not mean that you should do it by yourself.
Sure, some people can even pull it off after putting A LOT of time into it.
But this is what we see in most cases:
- the website looks unprofessional and fails at accomplishing its most basic functions
- the website sits there for years without getting any visitors
- the WordPress website gets hacked because of poor hosting or abandoned plugins. The homepage now displays foreign text and ads for adult products.
Can you create a business website with WordPress?
The good
The answer is definitely yes.
It is one of the most cost effective ways to jumpstart your SMB's online presence.
A lot of the features that a business website needs have been standardized or can be added with the help of lost cost plugins:
- contact forms
- displaying social proof (reviews & testimonials)
- creating different pages for different services or products
- more advanced functions such as lead generation, call tracking and analytics
- thank you pages and review generation
Using WordPress for a business website is highly recommended.
The bad and the ugly
WordPress websites have to be maintained.
Well, most websites need to be maintained and updated from time to time. It is one thing to change your business hours on the website and another thing to add a delivery area with incremental delivery fees to a restaurant's website that only delivers between 2PM-10PM. Adding advanced features is exponentially easier and cheaper with WordPress website versus a static one.
WordPress websites can get bulky and slow loading.
There are best practices that, when followed correctly AND with the help of good Hosting can make your website very fast loading:
Some updates have the potential to break your website
Unlike physical tools, software rarely works out of the box. There seems to be an unending supply of issues, conflicts and settings that do not do what they are supposed to do.
We mitigate such issues by keeping fresh backups all the time (free with our WordPress hosting) and by using premium, quality plugins. So, in the case that something does go wrong, we can always put up a stable, functional backup until we work with the plugin developer to find out what went wrong.
How To Choose A WordPress Web Design Company
There are a a lot of options out there, from WordPress consultants to design agencies. Competition is a good thing in this field, as it leads to innovation.
However, most business owners and managers do not have the slightest idea about what makes a website a good one and what to ask for.
Start with the purpose of the website.
For a local business, this is what their website should do:
- provide information without making the visitor work too hard
- lay down the foundation for generating leads and sales later on
From a technical standpoint, a good WordPress website should be:
- fast loading
- using responsive web design that is tested on the most popular devices
- have well structured pages, menus, categories, etc
- using the proper markup, from metas to schema
- using conversion goals and tracking those goals
- engaging visitors by offering easy to consume content that matches what they are searching for
So, getting back to our original question - how to choose a WordPress design company.
A good, customer-centric agency should:
- Be able to strip away the technical details and explain in layman terms what they are doing and why.
- Offer good, fast support. It is easy for things to go wrong when working with a website and they will do so occasionally. It is very important that your WordPress website developer solves those issues as fast as possible.
What Should You Expect
How Long Until The New Website Is Up And Running?
It depends.
A 10-20 page website will take a lot less than a 100 page website. It also depends on how fast you provide the requested information and content such as pictures.
Assuming that everything is provided for, the 15-20 page website will usually take between 3-6 weeks to be ready.
WordPress Web Design Cost
It depends on quite a few factors:
- number of pages
- who is providing the content
- desired features
Taking the 10-20 page local business website as an example, the cost would be roughly $1500 and up.
We provide so much more than just a simple website:
- we approach web design from a marketing standpoint
- we list your business with the major search engines
- we create local citations
- we create Google My Business and Bing Places listings
- we cover ALL the SEO basics
- we deliver fast loading, good looking and highly functional websites
- we specialize in small business website design
How Will The New Website Perform For Me?
Just because you have a website up and running does not mean that your phone will ring 24 hours a day.
There is a lot of competition out there, businesses that are investing in advertising on a monthly basis. Depending on how competitive your industry is in your area, you might have to do the same.
That being said, we regularly see increased visitor numbers for our clients after we are done designing or redesigning their WordPress website. It usually takes just a a few new clients for your website to pay for itself.
Take a look at some other benefits of having a WordPress website for your business.
We highly recommend actively managing your WordPress website to prevent any issues and security risks.
Our WordPress website management service is packaged with the fast VPS hosting and backup service. We also include small changes to the website free of charge (e.g. changing a phone number, address, modifying a service, etc).
