The Truth about Cheap Websites

Unfortunately for website purchasing consumer, anyone who learns a few design programs can make a basic website and can call themselves a web designer. These people typically charge less than what is customary or reasonable, because they need the experience, want to build a portfolio while getting paid, and typically don't know how much work and what type of work goes into building a website properly. Some people operate this way for years, and never really get it.

To the untrained eye, a cheap website can look "good enough." But is it really? Is a fine wine the same as a bottle of Ripple? Is a great photo no better than a snapshot? If you didn't know any better, you could think it is. But to those who know better a bad website, or a webiste that will not get results, can be spotted quite easily. It's not difficult to find someone to do cheap websites in West Palm Beach. But is it really worth it?

Let's examine how a website should look: When you land on a website, would you do business with a company if the website looked like it was thrown together at little expense with minimal effort, or by an inexperienced or bad designer? There are a few people out there that don't think about that, but I think most people do; at least subliminally. Many people will leave an ugly or shoddy website right away and find someone else to do business with. It just takes one click to leave. On the other hand, a beautiful world-class looking website will invite people to stay and find out more. Expert designers charge more for their services because they deserve more. That's just the way it is.

Website Text: If it's riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, what does that say about the business it represents? It tells me to look elsewhere. It says the business is owned by people who really don't care or don't know better. If their website is not right, how do they conduct business?

The SEO: There are things that go into a website that if left out will cost the business owner money and customers. These are things that a novice, or discount freelance web designer won't include, because they take knowledge and time to implement, and most website buyers that shop price only probably won't even know they're missing. But the search engines will notice; and the site will be penalized with poor or non-existent listings. These things include:

• Having the right text in the right order on the right pages
• Content written in the right balance of keywords to overall text
• Pages named correctly with keywords used wisely in the page title
• Proper Meta text in the background of each page (in the code)
• Proper Meta descriptions in the background of each page (in the code)
• Relevant Alt tags on pictures (proper naming of images on the site in the code)
• The speed that the page loads (related to the proper design code and image use)
• The speed that the page loads (related to the speed of the server)
• Server reliability (spiders can't crawl a site that is down)
• Search engine friendly URLs (addresses in the address bar that search engines can understand)
• Having a sitemap
• Incoming links

There are dozens of thing that the search engines want to see that should be built into a basic site if that site is to compete on today's Internet. When these things are not done correctly, not only does your website suffer in search engine placement, but your online advertising campaign will cost more, as Google penalizes sites that it feels are not relevant and up to standards. Anyone who has used Google pay per click has seen their keywords disallowed and the bid price raised if their site was not optimized correctly. This could cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per year. Most freelance web designers in West Palm Beach will leave these important thing out.

Working with an established company: Have you ever thought of what would happen if you had a website that became well known and was bringing you sales and new customers, and one day your developer and or host disappeared or you couldn't find them? What would happen if you needed changes or support, and you couldn't locate the person responsible for your site? These things happen. There is value in working with an established company and people who you trust will be around and will do the right thing for you.

And then there are things like:

• Security updates
• Site backups
• Cross browser compatibility
• Having someone capable and available to fix something if it's broken

All these things take time and therefore cost money. If you're not paying for them you're probably not getting them. And if you're not getting them, when something goes wrong, you may wish that you had chosen a more reputable web design company. A company that perhaps charged a little more than a bargain basement price, but gave you value instead of a price that was too good to be true.

One extra bit of advice: Just because someone charges a lot doesn't mean that they make quality websites and have great service. Know who you're doing business with before parting with your hard earned dollars. Interview them, look at their work, and check references. A website is a big investment in your future, and you want to be sure you get what you're paying for.