Online Site Builders
If you are exploring a cheap way to get your website online fast, site builders can be a good
option but they are not without their flaws and in the long run actually cost more than using a web designer Can
Looks for free or cheap, but their pricing levels are strategically ready to attract you to upgrade.
They know that you will upgrade because “who wants someone else’s logo on their site?”
But then the bandwidth limit in the next level will force you to upgrade again because your site keeps going offline before you know it, started in € 5 a month, now it’s 250 € a year now. And if you want you yourdomain.com who will also spend you on a huge markup!
Sites built with online builders tend to have difficulty ranking in search
engines since you are limited to editing only the site text. You can’t really modify or change
the source code, and you can’t change the site structure.
If you are wanting to put a basic site online and aren’t expecting a lot of traffic
and aren’t worried about your position in search engines, this may be the perfect option for you!
Web Design Agencies
Web design agencies are a great choice for those with a large budget. There may be numerous people working on your project at any one time and each will have experience in their particular field.
One person might work on the front-end, while another works on the back-end. Then there may be someone else working on graphics and another working on SEO.
Though your project is almost guaranteed to be everything you imagined and more, it also
means there will be 4 people requiring payment at the end of the day.
And then the agency want to make profit too, so there will be a mark up.
You should do some research on the different agencies available as some are not
real “web design agencies”. They are nothing more than glorified data entry specialists,
who would take €1000+ of a client, buy a cheap WordPress theme, fill it with text and sell it as their own work!
Freelance Web Designer
Choosing a freelance web designer may often be the best choice for many small-medium sized business/websites since they can often be very flexible with their prices. Freelancers will often only take on as many projects as their time will allow, so they can dedicate their time and attention to each project.
Sometimes a web designer may only be able to provide just that, web design. But some can and do have knowledge of search engines and may also be able to help with your SEO efforts.
You may wish to check out the web designers portfolio and do some research yourself to see just how capable the individual is at achieving the results you are looking for.
Researching Web Designers
You could be a little bit cheeky and shoot a quick message to a client from a designers portfolio and find out from the horses mouth how the promised results actually turned out in reality.
Were they promised position 1 on google but found themselves on page 10?
Were they promised a mobile friendly website that actually breaks on mobile?
What ever method you decide to use, don’t ever be afraid to ask too many questions,
and don’t just jump at what seems like the cheapest option. You may end up having to pay someone else to fix another’s mistakes!
