Web Development Company in New York
The Illusion of a Low-cost Website
You’ve decided to create a website for your business, book, or new enterprise. The only thing left is finding a low-cost designer to create one.
Simple. Wrong. Complicated, yes.
There are thousands of low-cost designers who promise bargain-counter prices. But nobody is giving anything away for nothing. If it sounds to be good to be true, it probably is.
What they’re not telling you is the different expenses you’ll have to pay. You’ll find out about them fast enough when you get your first invoice. Then a cold blast of reality wallops you where it hurts the most — your wallet.
The reality is there are many costs that have to be considered when building a website. It’s not just for creating the site, but for making it profitable. Many companies fail to explain this simple truth.
Why do they do that? It’s simple. Once you pay for the creation of your website, you’re locked in and have no choice but to pay for the extras if you want a working, functional website.
I’m going to give you the facts, the naked undisguised truth about expenses you must consider before you start your own online endeavor.
I’m not saying you can’t build a profitable online business. It’s absolutely possible if you hire a specialist who hides nothing, and breaks out all the costs so you know precisely what you are paying for.
Don’t assume that all web designers are going to spell everything out. You have to take a proactive approach and be prepared to ask questions. Ask the right questions and you’ll be amazed how it will affect your quote.
Here are important questions you need answered:
Who will build your website?
In realty you have three options here – build the website yourself, hire a template developer or hire a web designer.
If you are creating your own website, you will have problems. For starters, you don’t know how to write the content, it will not be search engine friendly (those self-build websites never are) and you will need to know html, short for Hypertext Markup Language.
A template developer is the best option for 99% of businesses. A skilled developer can tweak your chosen template to your satisfaction.
A web designer will cost a fortune. In return, you’ll have your own unique creation. But think about it – compared to the millions of templates – do you really think it is personal and unique?
What will it cost to write and edit website content?
Do you have all of the content to your website? The texts? Copyrighted pictures? If the answer is “No” you will have to hire someone to do it. If the answer is “Yes” you will need it to be SEO optimized. It will need to have keywords and search engine “friendly” documents. Usually these questions trigger “amnesia” to many web-developers and will be conveniently forgotten in the initial quote.
What is the cost of SEO and PPC campaigns?
You want your website to work for you, to be profitable. If you have a website that’s just languishing in cyberspace, it will never be profitable, nor will it draw any movement to your website. You can read more about SEO and PPC campaigns in upcoming posts.
In short, SEO, search engine optimization is responsible for your website “climbing” in search results. It means being active and using various tools both in your website and outside of it.
PPC campaigns are population or word triggered ads that are relatively cheap (Will appear in Google first-page results or in Facebook to specific people who you will choose.) SEO and PPC campaigns are the most successful tools for promoting a website.
What will management and maintenance cost?
What is the management system that you will work with? How can you maintain your website? These are important questions that you will need answered. If you cannot control any or small portions of your website – it languish and die. The best option if you hope to sustain and build your website is that you control everything (even if you don’t know how to now). The best platform these days is WordPress. Try to get a developer who has mastered it. Familiarity doesn’t cut it.
What will monitoring, analyzing and statistics cost?
You need your website to support one of the proven analytics/statistics programs. Basically that means that the developer will insert a code (the professional name is metatag) into the website that will correspond to the specific program. You will need someone to operate it. There is a big difference if you know what products people watch and not buy, and what products they don’t watch. This knowledge will help you promote your website and choose your destination audience and products.
What will hosting and domain ownership cost?
Simple but important! Make sure you know what hosting and domain names cost? For example, our company domain is (www.tandtwebservices.com). It should not be more than $15 (annually) for the domain . The most important element here – make sure you are the owner of your domain! Hosting and maintenance fee us another fee that you should ask about.
What will special designs costs?
If you want a logo or some specific element, it has to be designed by a graphic designer. It will never be a part of the website development cost.
I hope that this blog gives you a clear picture of the web development new York process. Ask the above questions. Be smart and don’t be fooled by low-cost developers. As someone once told me, “A secondhand car is a firsthand car with a payment plan.”