No matter what the industry, having an online presence can be a make or break for generating more revenue. Your website is your online business card, your 24/7 salesperson, the vehicle to communicate your brand.
Having an effective website attracts new customers and compels the existing ones to buy more products.
To get the perfect website that shows professionalism, trustworthiness and drives purchases, sometimes it’s best to leave it to the pros.
Start with a website designer.
Why hire a designer for your website?
Today’s consumers are evaluating products and companies long before they decide to make a purchase. If your website doesn’t seem professional, they’ll move right along to the next vendor.
With your sales and credibility at stake, it makes sense to hire a professional for your small business website design. In addition to helping you figure out what you need to build your website, they can help you with:
- Custom Design: By hiring a professional web designer, you know that your site will be created to suit your business and your business only. The web designer will review your business and products and work with you on creating a goal for your site. “Build-your-own” sites limit the capabilities of the site and often times restrict graphics and text. A web designer will be able to give you a custom website design, without restrictions. If a fully custom built website is not in your budget, consider working with a web designer that uses a lightweight, SEO friendly theme like Astra.
- New Technologies: With all of the constant changes taking place on the internet, you need to be sure your site is being created with the latest technologies and trends. A web designer will have the tools and knowledge needed to set up your site for optimal success.
- Visual Properties: Visitors do not want to be barraged with loud colors or crowded text, nor do they want to have to search for the information they need. It’s a professional designer’s job to make sure that your color scheme, text, and navigation are inviting and user-friendly. A properly designed user experience and user interface is key.
- SEO Compliance: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a technique used to make your website earn great rankings from search engines. If the search engines can’t find you, your ideal audience won’t be able to either. Website designers use SEO when creating your site to help you make sure you are easily found.
- Regular Maintenance– Technology is continually changing and that means for websites to remain successful, they must remain up-to-date. Part of the job of a designer is to act as a webmaster, keeping your site on-trend, updated, and fresh.
How Do I Find a Website Designer?
The good thing is that right now, web design is a very saturated industry.
Before you begin shopping, set your budget. Once you have even a tentative budget, you’ll have a better idea what results to expect and where to start looking. In order to decide, review portfolios, read client testimonials, check out their pricing, see what additional services they offer, and request references. Make sure you shop around to compare what is available.
Web design professionals can be broken down into these areas:
The Freelancer
Usually the least expensive option, freelancers are usually more informal (can be good or bad, depending on what you are looking for). Although there are some exceptions, most freelancers are good communicators, accommodating, and adhere to typical turnaround times on design work.
The Design Agency
Made up of small-to-medium-sized design teams that work together on client projects, agencies will usually be more expensive than freelancers. You are paying for pooled expertise.
Agencies usually offer strong communication, quick turnaround, and can provide extreme customization.
Full-service Agency
A full-service digital marketing agency does it all. Along with web design, it also provides things like SEO, PPC advertising, and web development services. These agencies are made up of special teams that all work together to provide the full web package.
You can find them by using:
- Hiring sites. Freelance designers can be found on hiring sites. Websites like Upwork, Toptal, 99designs, and Dribbble.
- Search engines. Freelance designers and web design agencies can be found using search engines like Google.
- Review sites. Sites like Clutch can be used to find web design agencies, review pricing, see reviews and portfolios.
If website development isn’t part of the service provided by your designer, you may need to hire a developer as well (learn about the difference between web design and web development here).
The web developer handles all the ‘behind the scenes’ work to make sure that everything your designer has created has a place to reside and works like it should.
Web developers can be found the same way as designers using the tips above.
Whether you are looking for a very custom or complex site, or have zero time or technical confidence, the professional option may be your best choice.
What does a small business website cost?
According to websitebuilderexpert.com the industry-standard range for professional website building in 2022 is $5,000-$30,000.
That is a big range.
It varies depending on the type and amount of professional help you are looking for, as well as the complexity of your site. Typically, your average 10 page small business website with basic features and functionalities will typically run $5,000 – $10,000.
Klever Strategies is a full-service digital marketing agency and the perfect place to start your search. We are your one-stop website design and development service.
Book a FREE discovery call today.
