Do you think having an expensive website is good for a business?

[Love2print 10]

I don't agree that the website design is the easy bit. You could get all the traffic in the world but if your website looks unproffesional, is littered with spelling mistakes and it is impossible for your users to find there way around there going to leave without buying from you or making contact. I think the key is to have a balance of both good design and seo. Both are pointless without the other.

 

I don't know if this would be of any use to you Shef_Fitness but angie58 site is based on Opencart which is a free shopping cart. But you wouldn't get the same support as with easysitecolutions, vistaprint or other DIY sites. But you could pay someone to do a basic install of the cart and one of the templates. You could then add your own content.

[Ron Burgundy 10]

Define expensive?

 

As long as the site generates more profit than it cost to set up, then the answer has to be yes?

 

So, if the website is transactional, then the answer is easy to quantify.

 

If it is a 'brochure' (which ours is), you'd need to measure how many customers contacted you through your website. For us, the answer is a definite yes.

 

Totally agree with bold type

[Chez2 10]

Define expensive?

 

As long as the site generates more profit than it cost to set up, then the answer has to be yes?

 

So, if the website is transactional, then the answer is easy to quantify.

 

If it is a 'brochure' (which ours is), you'd need to measure how many customers contacted you through your website. For us, the answer is a definite yes.

 

I think along these lines too. Our website is more of a brochure than to generate new leads. We designed it but do have input from the professional company that hosts it for us. We have just made a version of our website suitable for viewing on a mobile phone.

 

What price do you expect to pay for your website?

[snoopjiggy 10]

Our website is nowhere near how we want it. I have a quote from a company this week, but if it increases our sales and makes it easier for people to share the website and gets rid of the things that annoy me....... Then its worth it!

 

Website solution providers are great if it gets you what you need, but often they will not have the relevant SEO. Then again, a poor website design company could also create the same thing.

 

Our company is website based, so I know the V2 of our website has to be spot on........ Which im confident it will be..... It also wont be cheap.

[walkertelecoms 16]

I've made loads of websites for my business and dozens for friends, and just random folk over the years. It's really is easy, and speaking as an 'academic amoeba' if you can manage Sheffield Forum you could probably manage a website.

To setup an optimising company (I use Google) it's basically free, I pay per hit/search/click. At the Google website it's very easy to negotiate the search logic (you basically pick an area you want covered and how much you want to pay per day per click). Then you setup a few keywords so peoples Google searches direct to your site.

YEARS ago I even just used MS WORD for the basics, then moved onto MS Frontpage, now Dreamweaver.

 

I started basically with this: http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/template3.php

Which I made into this: http://www.walkertelecoms.com

 

So there, the secrets out hehe

Edited October 16, 2011 by walkertelecoms

[John 11]

I think your question should have been worded as: "Do you think having a website professionally built good for a business?"

 

But let go with... "Do you think having an expensive website is good for a business?"

 

Your so-called free DIY website is EXPENSIVE and on that basis it is not good for your business.

 

Why is it expensive?

 

Simply because it is losing potential paying customers due to the fact people can't find you as easily as they should and that it doesn't sell it to them as well as it should.

 

One of the biggest problems doing DIY website is that these people think they save money as it cost them £0.00 to make and because they cannot measure lost custom they are none the wiser that they are making a mistake using this approach.

 

As a result they think internet advertisement doesn't work and think their £0.00 experiment saved them a fortune while all along they their approach was wrong.

 

That said, there are some DIY out there that do well but these are in the very minority that do DIY and we are talking about those that have no prior experience in web design.

[angie58 10]

I disagree. I think as a diy'er if you are prepared to learn and want to learn about seo and traffic there is info out there to do marketing and learn about it.

 

Yes you can pay someone to build you a site, I had a quote for over £2000 to build a site then seo services were on to and extra £50 + per month and then other things on top of that.

 

I am really happy with the site I have created, it looks proffessional, it takes orders, allows people to paty a deposit. I can track visits through analytics and other software such as stat counter and is all seo enabled, so as I learn and google changes, the site can be changed and its all included.

 

I would be paying MUCH more to have what I have if I had paid for it to be created..........

[walkertelecoms 16]

I disagree. I think as a diy'er if you are prepared to learn and want to learn about seo and traffic there is info out there to do marketing and learn about it.

 

Yes you can pay someone to build you a site, I had a quote for over £2000 to build a site then seo services were on to and extra £50 + per month and then other things on top of that.

 

I am really happy with the site I have created, it looks proffessional, it takes orders, allows people to paty a deposit. I can track visits through analytics and other software such as stat counter and is all seo enabled, so as I learn and google changes, the site can be changed and its all included.

 

I would be paying MUCH more to have what I have if I had paid for it to be created..........

 

Very nice looking site and the point I was trying to make but perhaps failing. As long as your site is clearly set out and manageable then that's all you need, that youve created the site and administer it yourself just adds to the self achievement

[spikeachu 10]

I disagree. I think as a diy'er if you are prepared to learn and want to learn about seo and traffic there is info out there to do marketing and learn about it.

 

Yes you can pay someone to build you a site, I had a quote for over £2000 to build a site then seo services were on to and extra £50 + per month and then other things on top of that.

 

I am really happy with the site I have created, it looks proffessional, it takes orders, allows people to paty a deposit. I can track visits through analytics and other software such as stat counter and is all seo enabled, so as I learn and google changes, the site can be changed and its all included.

 

I would be paying MUCH more to have what I have if I had paid for it to be created..........

 

I suppose it's all in the eye of the beholder.

 

Personally, I see a site using the same platform as ours, which costs me nothing. I still get all the benefits you describe above as they are all free services or included in the OpenCart platform.

 

I'd actually be interested to find out what the design company is doing for their £7 p/month.

 

As for SEO included with OpenCart, this is a very limited module which makes the URLs more friendly to an end user, but this does little for your search position. A quick search on Google for 'Wedding Cakes Sheffield', which I would expect your site to rank highly for, doesn't find you in the first 5 pages. Outside the first 2 pages and you might as well not be listed at all.

 

Having a professional looking website that nobody can find is analogous to placing Harrods in the middle of the Sahara.

[Bunderson 10]

What do fellow small businesses think?

 

Is paying to have a professional money well spent in your opinion?

 

Did you have an expensive website and did it increase your business or not make much difference, What are your thoughts on this?

 

I don't think price has anything to do with it. You can download yourself a free template and edit it in notepad to display your own text and logo.

 

It's what the site does that counts. If it isn't properly worded or using the correct key words, then nobody will be able to find it on search engines. What you need to spend money on is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) so they your site appears as high up as possible when someone searches for your key words. Having a domain name with your key words in also helps a lot. So does getting other companies to link back to your site. Ask to trade links with local businesses.

[Shef_Fitness 10]

What are peoples opinions on Vistaprint?

 

HOw easy is it to use, and is it as easy to format the text, create tables like you would if you were using using Word?

 

I know there are different levels to purchase (more expensive) at vistaprint, and I am tempted to go for the most expensive option. I don't want to find out the software/formatting the text is as difficult to use as the package I use now.

 

What are peoples thoughts on Vistaprint? the main question being the ease of formatting the text

[R.B Flooring 10]

I have no idea if an expensive website will work better then a cheap one. Luckily for me a friend did me mine so it cost very little. I'm happy with it and the main thing is i've been quite busy for a good while. Not all of my work has come from the website but it's proven a very useful thing for me. I've just tried to make sure people can find the site easy like having it sign written on my van bigger than my phone number. I think a web address is easier to remember then a phone number.