Business websites - What price is the right price?
Business websites - What price is the right price
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What is the Right Price?
If your seeking a good website for your business how do you know what price is too large or too small? Unless you've grown up in a cocoon, you'll have no doubt experienced at least some of life's knocks and learned not to base the value of a product simply on its price. Everyone likes a bargain, but not at the expense of quality and by that same token, why would you accept that you'll get quality, merely because you've shelled out an outrageous amount of money for your purchase?
Why Do You Need a Website?
Are you seeking your first website, or are you replacing an old one? If you're seeking to replace an existing website, then I'm guessing that your reason for replacing it is because you've grown to realise that your existing website was not a good purchase after all or its not now able to fulfil its original purpose, maybe it's outdated or too costly to manage? If you didn't previously have a website running alongside your business you'll have recognised that it's essential in today's market.
What Do You Require From a Website?
Before looking at website prices, you should first try to ascertain what you andyour customers need from it. What features would bring both you and your customers the greatest benefits?
Regardless of type, and whether they know it or not, most businesses use very similar websites. The difference can often only be found in the general layout and bespoke design.
A good web development company should be able to create a website suited to fit your business and its functions from the information gathered in your description, so it would be helpful if you could assemble the information you think will be needed.:
How would your business best be described?
What is its purpose and functions?
In addition to the obvious pages, e.g. Home, About Us, Contact and Services, what other pages do you think your website will need to begin with?
Would you like your customers to post comments on your website relating to your products or service?
Feedback
Feedback, good or bad, is priceless, it informs you where you might be getting it right (or wrong) An analysis of that information will show you precisely where to focus your efforts and to what degree, it increases positive customer experience and maximises your business potential. Adding a News page or Blog to your website would be another positive move.
Website News Page or Blog
Consider communicating news and offers etc. to your customers, or write a blog. Either of these will Keeping your customers informed about your business, your proposed plans or developments. Information regarding, product changes, price reductions and promotion can also be communicated through a blog or news page. This can only improve your customers experience with your business, not to mention helping to create a recognition of your brand.
Purchasing From Your Website
If your customers are purchasing directly through your website or you would like them to, you might require a fully functional e-commerce website, or will you only need a checkout? A n e-commerce website is an entire website in itself, whereas a checkout facility can be, in a lot of cases, provided by by your chosen merchant provider maybe Google for instance or PayPal, you could add a checkout interface through which your customers will be transferred to a secure checkout portal to make their payments, whereas a fully functional e-commerce website is a purpose built website involving masses of technical and mathematical calculations;
The website has to display images and mountains of information related to each product
It has to have the ability to compute which products are available from stock and which are not.
It has to calculate the cost depending on size, type and/or numbers ordered.
Shipping has to be added and innumerable other actions processed. (The best of these features can be turned on and off as required)
Content Management System
Even though a Content Management System, or CMS, is one of the most valuable functions of a modern day website, it still hasn't gained a prominent enough position on the wanted list of website shoppers. When you consider how much time and money can be saved by having this system on your website it is quite surprising that it hasn't yet become common knowledge. A CMS is something you should enquire about in depth before purchasing your website. Some web development companies might impose a high levy for the inclusion of a CMS . You need to know how comprehensive it will be. It should permit you to edit your site content without the need to ask permission or intervention of the web master? That could be a very costly exercise too. A good CMS will also give you control to add or remove your website pages, and alter Meta Tags, at your leisure.
The Design of Your Website
Decide what functions your website will require to handle your business efficiently and how it can best showcase your business.
Have you seen any websites on the internet which might indicate the general appearance or style you'd like?
How important is your present brand?
Do you think it should remain as it is or could it be improved?
Would anything major be effected if you decided to alter it?
Consider your business carefully, your website should reflect the best light onto it. After everything thing has been carefully considered you should be ready to approach web development companies with your ideas, but be prepared for possible surprises, you might learn a lot of things you hadn't even thought about, some pleasant and others maybe not so? Remember though, when you finally agree to go ahead - Design time is expensive, but its only half as expensive as Re-Design time.
Web Development
Web Design has now become the accepted expression for anything connected with website development, but it actually involves the combination of two distinct and equally important skills. A web designer is the person you would most likely have first contact with, he/she will discuss the look of your website, this person will understand very well how each of your web pages will function and will offer advice and suggestions at this point. He/she will manage and shape your requirements before approaching you with a draft design. Once the design has been approved, the visual drafts are given to the web developer who will begin by piecing together the graphic and building the scripts which format the pages. He/she will then start adding each of the functions, the features and all the required programming necessary to complete the operation.
To Summarise
Once you've considered the previous points you can approach the question of price.
Define your exact type of business and its exact function?
How tailored must your website be to suit your business niche?
Why do you need a new website?
How will you and your customers benefit best from the right website?
Will you accept payments through your website?
What type of functions does your website require to fit your business?
Will it have a suitable CMS to enable you to do what is needed and when?
Have you noted any websites to show as examples of what you like?
Have you spoken to several web developers?
Do you think any of the quotes you received were the right price?
The Right People and the Right Price
A professional web development company should be very happy to answer all of your questions, They should be willing to offer you advice regarding the website features you've suggested, which of these you should include in your design and those which should be avoided. If, after speaking to the web development people, you are fully satisfied that you have done all you can to ensure that you're finally dealing with the right people, with the right skills and the right price, you can't do more than that. Trust your judgement and go for it, they'll no doubt, have the right experience too.
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