Think about how important your website is to your business

Buying a cheap cattle toaster and microwave for the kitchen wont significantly impact the business, regardless of how well the kitchen appliances work.

However, picking a cheap website can dramatically impact a business.

The point we are trying to make is that there are some things you can scrimp and save on, when it comes to running a business, but we would’nt recommend your company website being one of them.

When talking to business owners, sometimes 100% of their sales are generated through digital marketing.

When you think about social media, add Google Adwords, organic SEO, which means funnelling customers towards one thing: the company website.

So if a customer arrives and is not impressed by the design, say that they find it difficult to use, and you will losing that customer.

So, you need to have a well-designed website.

They don’t have to pay a small fortune, but they don’t go for the cheap end of the market, where things are built at a bargain basement prices.

You look at some of these websites, designed for £500 or less, but often so basic that they know more than a virtual business card!

So, what you need instead is a quality website.

Now, paying through the nose is no indication that you can get a quality website.

It’s important to understand what you’re paying for when it comes to website design.

Don’t be overwhelmed by complex marketing terms. Instead, ask for a clear breakdown of what you’ll get for your money. This will help you make an informed decision and avoid any unexpected costs.

Superfast website hosting

People don’t wait around a long time for anything these days, they don’t want to be waiting in long queues at supermarkets; otherwise, they might switch to a different supermarket that offers to open more checkouts. This is the same concept for your online business; if it’s too slow and it is not easy to use, you could lose customers, they get to go elsewhere, and they will go to the website the supersonic fast.

So, make sure what’s included in the quote, is for your business to have superfast website hosting.

Well-designed and simple to use

You need to have a company website that is very simple to use. This isn’t very easy to use, or it is just too busy in terms of being too cluttered. Often, you lose customers if there is too much information say on the homepage.

Choose the right content management system

We have met so many businesses that have been talked into content management systems, which are simply rubbish.

That is the CMS might not be widely used, and sometimes web designers might choose it because they are experts at designing websites using that CMS.

What this basically means is that if there could be many glitches or problems with the website later on down the road.

Now, if you picked a more common CMS that millions of businesses use, you might be able to fix some of the glitches yourself and keep on top of the website maintenance yourself as well.

We not trying to say here that there is a CMS that is 100% guaranteed not to go wrong, as every CMS can go wrong, the same way a car can go wrong at any time.

However we would recommend picking a CMS which is a bit more proven, such as a content management system used by millions of businesses like WordPress, rather than opting for a CMS that’s not proven, and only just launched, and could potentially be full of glitches..

Choose your domain name wisely.

One of the factors that can influence web design costs is the website’s domain name; you can register for one for as low as £10 a year sometimes.

However, another domain name might cost over 10k per year, so the domain name often differentiates how much the web design will cost.

Who’s going to be writing all of the text?

When considering getting an e-commerce website built, you may need over 10,000 words of text added to the website.

To do that, this will involve a lot of work, so you need to ascertain right at the start who will write all that text? will be the web designers or the business?

Therefore, don’t take for granted that the web design agency will add and write all of the text.

Also You most definitely don’t want duplicated text added to the website because this can massively damage the business’s organic SEO.

Ongoing maintenance

Just as a car needs ongoing maintenance, so that the engine cant run low on oil and potentially seize, so will your website need upkeep and some maintenance . For example, plugins will need updating, back-ups need to be made, and any coding glitches must be fixed; otherwise, you could be losing customers.

Therefore, do ascertain with your web designers how much they charge for ongoing monthly maintenance of your website, some charge a very modest fee that covers this service; however, some might have written in the fine print that they charge a very high monthly payment for maintenance of your website.