Setting up a business can be daunting enough with all the decisions and expenses that are involved. Almost every start-up business and well established business now needs a website, as this is the first place potential customers will look when they are researching the services they require. If your website does not sell your business or services to the potential customer within the first 10 seconds you run the risk of loosing potential customer leads. In this article I will explain the differences between hiring a 'Cheap Web Design Company' and a 'Professional Web Design Company'.

Cheap Website Design or Professional Web Design

Just because the word 'Cheap' precedes 'Website Design', does not mean a web development company that offers 'cheap web design', will give you a substandard job. The question you need to ask yourself is can they deliver the project that I am looking for?

Before you decide on which type of company will develop your project, you need to spec out the requirements of your new website. The key factors you need to consider when creating the brief for your project are:

Design: Do the potential companies you are looking at offer the level of design you are looking for? It does not matter how much this costs, if they do not deliver the site you are looking for, you are already wasting your money. Take a look through their portfolio and ask them to give you examples of similar sites they have created for other companies. If they meet your requirements, then you can start asking about the price.

Communication: From your initial conversation with the potential company, whether it is by email, telephone or face to face meetings, make sure you feel you can get along with them. I come across many customers who's relationships with their previous web companies has become sour due to poor communication. When a relationship breaks down you are potentially wasting money, this is because once your web project has been started, moving it to another web design company will certainly incur extra costs.

Marketing: For me this is the most important part of running a web design company. When you are sourcing which company will develop your project, you must ask them about how they intend to help you market your site. As standard with any web project the company that is developing the site will give you plenty of FREE tips and advice on how to market your site, they should optimise it for the search engines and keywords that relate to your company. There is no point having an awarding winning design if the sites above you always take your traffic, if nobody finds your site you may as well not have one.

In Conclusion

There is no favored route as to how you should decide what type of company you choose to create your new website. You should create a short list of companies that say they can complete your project. Once you have created your shortlist, then start looking at what the companies are quoting you. If you decide to choose the cheapest quote, just be confident that they have a portfolio of previous work that shows they have the skills to complete your project.