How Much Should a Web Site Design Cost?

A web site is after the same thing - to connect web browsers (in this case, potential customers or constituents) to your organization. You probably have other goals as well: to define your brand, to make technical information available, and to even to create a community.

Are these goals really so simple? Sprezzaturra, an old Italian term, loosely translated means 'the art that conceals art'. That's certainly the web design philosophy at Google - a company with a simple interface for an enormously complex machine.

So before you ask for a 'simple' web site - consider what you really want. Do you need your web site to grow in the future? Do you want to be able to edit pages yourself? Will the site need frequent updates? Is the site a vehicle for finding new customers?

You will save money and stress in the future, if you consider these questions *now*.

Brochures are Made of Paper

Most small business owners and non-profit operators are proud of their business and rightly so. Creating an organization is an enormous personal and financial investment that requires real passion to accomplish. If you're a small business owner, you want your web site to reflect the ideal view of your company and your services.

• You will want to describe your services.

• You need to define your brand and identity [our guide to marketing theory]

• You're hoping to find new customers online [our guide to online marketing]

In the old days, all of this could be done with a flashy brochure or commercial. Today, most customers ignore most print media and TiVo skips the ads. Marketing online requires a different approach - and a different understanding - of how to accomplish your goals [see links above for further tips].

Web Designers are the Worst...

Most of our new clients come to us after a prior terrible experience with web design. More often than not, it was a situation where the designer vanished and/or was unreliable.

Web design is a technical field and too often we see companies at all levels of our industry preying on the technical ignorance of their customers for spurious charges and pseudo-services.

Without a technical background in programming and design, most businesses don't have the tools to evaluate what their web designer proposes. They often feel obligated to use their existing design firm instead of dealing with the hassle of finding a new one.

But you don't need to evaluate a proposal technically to make a good decision.

Return on Investment

If you've built a business or organization yourself, you've probably already transitioned from making numerous (stressful) short-term choices to advanced planning and long-term solutions. Doing so, in fact, might be the most critical part of making a new small business stable.

When evaluating a web design firm (or proposal) it can be helpful to think of it in the same way. Value is of critical import. If you want to build a business for the long-term you'll need a reliabledesign partner that can help you through the process by creating cost-effective solutions that can be scaled up for the long-term.

If you're a new small business, having a reliable partner in design can be even more critical as you may not have access to stand-alone marketing firms and business consultants. A good designer will fill all these roles - drawing from their experience and suggesting options both free and commercial.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

What is the best way to determine overall web design value?

Our answer: By (1) considering the immediate value of the site to your customers, (2) mapping out the potential of the site for finding new customers, (3) determining any additional business solutions or help that the site will provide,*and* (4) the value of your long-term relationship and prospects with the design firm.

Here are some key questions to ask a web design firm when requesting a site proposal:

Can I use the Site Platform and/or edit the site myself? Do I want to?

Will the Site Platform allow us to scale up, adding new menus and features?

What is the design firm's average response time to a question?

• What type of support is included?
• What are my potential ongoing costs? How much would an hour of site 'maintenance' be?
• Can the design firm help me grow my organization into the future?
• What will the web designer(s) expect from me, as a client?
• Is anything proprietary? Will I be 'locked in' to using a certain software or firm?
• What does the web design firm's existing or previous customers think about them?

All of these questions will help you to distinguish a reliable, beneficial web design team from an exploitive one. Plus, you won't need to have any technical knowledge to evaluate the answers.

Just listen. If the firm is forthcoming, polite and clear in explaining what they do, then that's a good team to work with. If a web design firm is vague, flashy, or confusing - be careful.