A complete web design for 750 dollars!

Can this work?

Well, that depends entirely on what kind of website you’d like. If it can be ANY website and it doesn’t have to serve a specific purpose, then yes, certainly. But does that apply to YOUR website?

Is this your hobby or do you take your business seriously?

Clients who contact me for web design or web development almost always come with a specific issue. They want to present themselves professionally online or they want to offer their products or services on their website. They want to attract new customers – or retain their existing customers by conveying professionalism and trustworthiness. The website they need, therefore, has a clear purpose. And to fulfill this purpose, it must be well-thought-out from the very beginning – and clearly aligned with it. It sounds a bit pretentious, but read on:

Your business – amidst all the others.

Well, let’s say you sell glasses and want to market them online through your website. For this purpose, imagine the internet as a virtual shopping street. When potential customers are looking for new glasses they type “buy glasses in Berlin” into their browser’s search bar and are presented with a whole street full of (virtual) opticians, one right next to the other. Each of whom they can visit and compare.

Studies show that customers decide for or against a website or online shop within seconds. If a customer doesn’t like yours, they’ll be on to the next one in a flash and you’ll be forgotten. The chance of them returning is rather slim.

So, the question is: What makes a good website? What makes a customer stay on YOUR website and not move on to the next one?

Why a website needs to be GOOD.

Now, here we have to consider three crucial elements: web design, web development (the programming of your website), and website content.

If the programming or the content aren’t good enough, your website won’t achieve a good ranking in search engines. Or in more physical terms: Your optician’s shop might not even be on the main shopping street but three blocks away. This COULD work if your potential customer has the time and inclination to “go” that far but… most of the time they don’t.

If your website’s web design doesn’t appeal to customers or if they don’t feel engaged by what you’re telling them, then it’s pointless for your website to rank first on Google. It might be — literally — the first place in town, but it will be incredibly boring, unfitting, or both.

How does a website become good?

Web design, website programming and website content must go hand in hand. They must fit each other perfectly – and, most importantly, they must fit your business. Your website, as your digital presence on the web, must clearly show what makes you different from your competitors, what makes your offerings special, and why customers should choose you.

Market insight is crucial.

To know your market, to know what works and what doesn’t, requires research. You need to analyze what your core values ​​are, what truly sets your offerings apart, who your audience is and what they desire. And then you have to find out how to address that audience. To do this, you must compare your offerings with those of your competitors. What do YOU ​​do differently? What do you do BETTER? This needs to be clear on your website.

Web design is (also) crucial.

Based on your market analysis, a web design must now be created that is perfectly tailored to you. It must represent YOU, your values, your competitive advantages, and of course, your products and services. This also requires time — and costs money. Although, strictly speaking, it doesn’t cost you anything at all, because if your website is good it will generate much more income than what you have invested.

The design developed in this way must then be programmed. Efficient code and fast loading times are crucial. You can, of course, use a website builder, but studies have shown that if customers have to wait too long for your website to load, they are more likely to leave. And that’s precisely what you (probably) don’t want.

OK, OK, content is crucial, too.

As you can see, one doesn’t work without the other. Skimping on one of the three most important elements of your new website makes no sense if the other two are to be successful.

Good content is crucial for both your search engine ranking and your customer engagement. To create good content, you first need to analyze what your competitors are successful with. Because that’s exactly what you want, too. Of course, you don’t want to (and shouldn’t!) use the same content. That would be relatively easy. Instead, based on the content analysis, individual, tailored content is created for you. And that, as you might guess, takes time. Even with ChatGPT.

Let’s get down to brass tacks: A look at the numbers!

Let’s assume you’re seriously planning a budget of 750 dollars for your new website. An experienced web designer’s hourly rate is typically between 80 and 160 USD. For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume that your designer of choice works with an hourly rate of 100 dollars. With a budget of 750 USD, they would therefore have just 7.5 hours for …

• … an initial consultation in which the designer learns what you actually want and what your objectives are,
• … a competitive analysis in which he or she examines your competitors and identifies what makes you so special that customers will want to choose you,
• … a custom web design with multiple drafts, tailored specifically to your objectives and target audience, that will delight your customers and prevent them from immediately closing your website,
• … custom web programming that ensures your website actually appears on the virtual shopping street – and loads quickly enough to prevent frustration for your visitors,
• … the creation of SEO-compliant text content that secures you a good ranking in search engines and simultaneously convinces your customers to buy from you instead of anywhere else,
• … image research and editing for your website,
• … creating icons or illustrations that make your offer easier to understand and attract customers,
• … testing of your website’s functionality and transferring it to your server so you can go live.

Now, you’ve surely written a concept before. Or a business plan. Or created a presentation. Do you remember how much time it took? Hours, right? Now, how many of these steps mentioned above do you think even an experienced web designer can complete in 7.5 hours?

Exactly. Not many. If they really only have 7.5 hours at their disposal, they’ll have to skip several of these steps – which means your website won’t be a good website. And if it’s not a good website, you might as well not bother at all. Because if you invest 750 dollars in a website that doesn’t work, you’ve essentially wasted 750 dollars.

Conclusion

Let’s summarize. Sure, for 750 dollars you can get a complete web design and a finished website. But it will be just any website. It will probably not be a good one. And it will certainly not be tailored to you or your target audience. With it you risk to only reach a fraction (if any) of the customers you could win if your website were actually good. If you’re serious about your business, there’s no way around it: you’ll eventually have to invest in a “proper” website. As the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” Sure, a good website will cost you significantly more than 750 dollars upfront. However, it will also help you generate revenue – revenue which you wouldn’t have without it. And thus, in the end, your brand new website won’t cost you anything.

Are you curious how much YOUR website would cost?

Get a free, no-obligation consultation. Afterwards, I’ll gladly prepare a quote for you that will surely fit your budget.

Let’s talk!