Best Affordable Small Business Website Design

Finding the Best Affordable Small Business Website Design

Small businesses have a number of unique needs when it comes to creating a website. Not only does the website need to represent the business brand, but it also needs to sell services or products to potential customers. This is especially true for businesses where services can be provided remotely or products can be shipped globally. The quality, efficiency and ease-of-use of your website design can significantly impact the level of those sales. The following are some tips to select the best web designer for your business, and how to determine what website options and tools you should be looking for.

Is A High-Priced, Professional Web Design Firm Necessary?

It isn't very difficult to find a website designer, since virtually every region of the country usually has hundreds of individual designers as well as web design companies. Almost every local newspaper features listings for individuals and businesses that offer website design to local businesses. However, it's hard for small business owners to know whether these local web designers will create a quality small business website, and whether their services are affordable.

An excellent resource to locate an independent web designer near you is the Web Designers Directory, which provides a searchable map of the United States where you can locate web designers in your area. The website also provides a great utility where you can receive free quotes. Other websites where you can post your website project for programmers to bid on include Scriptlance, Web Designers 123, and GetAFreelancer.

If you want to be certain that you are hiring the cream of the crop in web design, reviewing which top website designers are awarded prestigious web design awards will provide some insight.

• Zeppo Awards - Provides awards such as Peoples' Choice Award, Most Visited Site, and Most Unique Website.
• a2z Web Design Source presents "Budget Priced Web Designer Showcase," which lists quality website designers who offer lower prices than most other designers, but also maintain high quality.
• Designer Wiz has offered awards since 2001. You can search among silver, bronze, and merit winners.
• WebAward offers annual awards to recognize what they've judged as the "best web sites in 96 industries."
• Webby Awards] is a prestigious international award that honors "excellence in interactive design, creativity, usability and functionality on the Internet."
• W3 Awards are supported by the International Academy of Visual arts, and are touted as an award program that recognizes web design contributions of anyone, from large agencies to small independent firms.

What Website Features Should You Ask For?

Before you can choose a professional web designer to develop a high quality web page for your small business, it's important that you determine exactly what you want to do with your website first. Review the websites that your direct competitors use, and try to determine not only what services they offer through their website, but what services they lack. Anything that you can provide on your website that your competitors don't will drive more customers in your direction.

Be ready to provide the designer that you hire with the following information.

• Find 15 to 25 websites that are similar to how you would like your site to look.
• Primary features you want to offer to your customers, or don't want. Will you offer prices or will you accept online credit card processing?
• Do you want media content such as video or audio?
• Will you offer your customers a social network on your site, such as a forum?
• Will you want to offer customers 24 hour online support?
• Will you want an online catalog that's easy to update without knowledge of web coding?
• How many total pages do you want to have, and will you create your own content or hire someone to write it for you?
• What does your business do, and what is your industry all about?

Answering each of these questions on paper before you speak with the web designer you hire will make the process of explaining what you want much easier.

What Should You Expect to Pay?

A basic, well-designed website with a few pages, company information and contact information typically ranges from $200 to $350. A standard website that also includes ecommerce tools such as pages listing products and services, a shopping card with credit card processing, and a more customized design range from $400 up to $1000, depending on the number of pages and functionality. Very large websites with large catalogs, shopping tools, and forums can run up to several thousand. The key to knowing whether you are getting what you pay for is to closely examine whether the price increase is proportional with the website features you're receiving in return, as well as the quality of the pages.

Money Saving Tips

• Be prepared by reviewing sites that are similar to what you would like.
• Provide the designer with an explanation of your business and industry.
• Ask colleagues and your social network what designers they recommend.
• Make sure to ask your designer for credentials and references.
• Ask for the designer's rates up-front, before hiring.

By following these tips, you'll end up with a web site design that is exactly the way you pictured it, and at a price that will let you sleep at night.