The Real Difference Between “Expensive” and “Affordable” Website Design

Running a successful business requires a certain amount of thrift. You might reason that if you have a quality product, people will look past a cheap website—but that’s not the case. Customers look at your website as a representation of your business, like your storefront. If it’s not up to snuff, they’ll look elsewhere for what they need. You might think you can skate by with a website that’s “affordable,” but these sites are often more of a hindrance than a help to your business. Here’s the difference between well-made, higher priced websites and the so-called “affordable” option.

Bargain Web Developers Will Try to Stick You with Hidden Fees

By marketing themselves as “affordable,” what cut-rate web developers are really telling you is that they target desperate and easily duped clients. And that means these sites aren’t really in the business of saving you money after all. They’ll use that impressively low quote to get you in the door, then when you’re committed, start tacking on extra fees for things like graphics and emai l functionality. These firms will often charge steep prices for maintenance—and many will intentionally insert errors to keep you dependent on their support.

Cheap Websites Are Often Broken

When you pay for an advanced, upper-echelon web developer, you’re not just playing for flashy typography and graphic design. These developers understand how to build a solid, functional back-end to support the myriad things you and your users depend on your site for. While cheap websites often look okay and might even appear to be rich in features, clicking through them for a few minutes often leads you directly to 404 error pages and menus that go nowhere. It’s worth the extra money for a site that works.

Not All "Affordable" Developers Care About Security

One area that many cheap web developers cut corners in is security, which is one of the most important aspects of designing and building a site. Since erecting strong firewalls and systems to protect data is time-consuming, they’ll stick to things you’ll notice earlier, so that they can cash your check before realizing they’ve left your site vulnerable. Go with a developer who tells you in detail what security measures they’ll implement, and can document them for you so you know exactly how they’re working. And ask about their support services in cases where your security is threatened.

Finding Developers That Understand SEO

Ironically, by saving money buying a cheap website, you can cut yourself out of profits down the road. Cheap developers either don’t understand or don’t care about search engine optimization. That means they won’t be doing any kind of keyword research or optimizing your site to rank for the search queries you’d like to generate your traffic. Adding all of that stuff to an existing website is much more difficult than building it with SEO in mind from the very beginning.

Do your research before choosing a company to develop your website. You don’t need to blow your entire budget, but you also shouldn’t pick the cheapest option without any thought for the quality of your site.