I see a lot of offers for cheap web design services, like Get a website for $100! or Free websites, but how much free or cheap are such services?
A website is not just a web presence for your company or an online business card how many are thinking. A website is basically a powerful marketing tool with endless possibilities to get your business known, to sell your products and to share and communicate information with your potential customers.
A website should not be cheap, nor expensive, but efficient! It should be wrapped around your company needs, incorporate the brand strategy, create awareness around your customers, sell and help you to have more and more returning customers.
Even if we talk about e-commerce, presentational websites, portals, news, social or portfolio sites we talk about business! And business means continuous investment. Your website should not be just an acquisition but a strategic measure to expand your offline activity online or to create something meaningful for your business. If you plan to invest just $100 on your business than maybe you should not bother. You can buy a nice chair or a nice painting for your office instead 🙂
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t say that your website should be expensive! I say that you need to be seriously involved in a web project for your business in order to really succeed! The biggest companies are investing millions in their web services, thousands hours of design and development work and tens or even hundreds of people involved. Scale this down to your business level and have a thought on how much you can do for a good online investment.