I’m going to lay it out straight for you guys. Wilson Media Consulting is not in the business of ripping off clients or making a million dollars. We charge a fair rate, and if we end up a little bit ahead by the end of a project, we’re thrilled. We’re more interested in helping you be successful than taking advantage of you.
I wish I could say the same for some other local North Idaho Web Designers. My goodness, I’ve been seeing some of the “affordable web designs” they’ve been publishing, and I feel bad for their clients.
Just because you can’t afford a $3,000-$5,000 website shouldn’t mean that you only deserve a plain looking website that looks like an old template from 10 years ago. You should still be able to have a website designed for you that looks expensive.
What Makes a Website Look Cheap?
I would LOVE to show you some local examples of websites that look cheap, but I don’t think that would be fair to the businesses or the designers. Here are a few things to avoid:
Just text on the home page (other than a “header” with an image)
A home page with just a paragraph or two of text is so boring! The content area of your home page will look pretty sad if there’s only a couple sentences with a sidebar containing a search box and your contact info. Where’s the call to action? Where’s something cool that makes your business look modern?
Even if a web designer is donating their website to a non-profit, there’s no excuse for delivering poor design value. You can’t donate a piece of crap and say it’s ok because it’s a donation. Even free or discounted websites deserve to look good.
Typo in the menu
The menu is something that’s on every page, and it needs to be simple, clear & professional. Having a typo on your menu is like spelling the name of your business wrong. It’s just bad. Very bad.
Text, text and more text
Humans are visual, so if you’re just giving your website visitors text to read, your website is going to look very cheap. And boring. And plain. And…well, sad.
[notification type=”error”]STOP THE PLAIN TEXT! Add some images and videos when possible. Even if a picture may not fit the information, consider blocking some important information off into a colored box to create some visual impact.[/notification]
What Make a Website Look Expensive?
We include all of the following features in ALL of our website packages. So even if you can’t afford the expensive websites other designers are trying to sell, you can still get a sweet looking website for your business. There’s a bunch more we offer and can include, but here’s a good sampling:
Rotating images on the home page
People are visual by nature and want to see something visually appealing and impressive when they come to the home page of your website. A rotating slideshow is a simple (aka cheap), quick and easy way to class up your affordable website.
Google Map on the “Contact Us” page
If your business has a physical location where your customers can go, you should have a Google Map on the “Contact Us” page. This is visual, easy to use, and makes your website look better than just listing the address. Also, it’s free and easy to add.
Appealing Layout of Images
Expensive websites will have nice visual images on almost every page, so it’s important to add images to your website. However, be sure you are doing some website basics with your images: resize them for the web, lay them out consistently, use white space purposefully, and basically – just make it look good!
[two]Blocks of Text
Help your website visitors get through your website and read the information they came for by blocking out important parts of content. You can highlight text in a variety of ways. A colorful content box should be easy to create in a modern website system (like WordPress).[/two] [two_last][notification type=”success”]COLORFUL BOX!
This is a great way to catch the attention of your website visitors and make your website look more expensive and modern than your competitors.[/notification][/two_last]
Does your website look expensive?
There’s a lot more that goes into making a website look good and function well. Take a look at your website and ask yourself if it looks expensive. Or if you’re doing your research and looking for a new web designer, consider the ratio of how good their websites look to how much they cost, and ask yourself if you’re getting a good value.