Low Cost Provider? Think Again!

\We received a call the other day from a business that was looking to have a new website made. Within a few seconds of answering the call, we found ourselves in a familiar script:
Caller: How much does a website cost?
Us: It depends. Like a new car, some models and features can impact your costs.
Caller: Well, we got a quote from someone that was $500 for a five-page website. He’s a college student who is learning web design.
Us: OK.  I see. Well, we are a professional web design team, and we couldn’t come anywhere close to what the student quoted you.
Caller: Ok. Thanks for your time. Bye.
We hope it works out well for the caller. Maybe the student he found was particularly adept, focused, and knowledgeable about web design. Maybe he’ll make a great website for the business. Our experience tells us, however, that seldom do the buyer’s expectations and needs meet the novice designer’s end product.
Here are a few critical problems with novice designers:

  1. The project is on-the-job training. We often find low-price quotes are used for a novice designers to get some money for a project they are woefully unqualified to complete at the onset. They don’t ask for a lot of money because they don’t have many skills. They hope to learn as they go along and figure things out. Seldom is the final product (if it even gets to this stage) something that is useful. Timelines are rarely adhered to.
  2. They have no search engine optimization focus. There are many decisions a web design team makes that impact the ability of a website to be found online. There are several things an experienced team will do to help the buyer produce good, web-ready content. Without understanding these issues, the website will unlikely do well on the search engines. It’s like building a nice restaurant without any roads leading to it.
  3. No design sense with great programming or no programming sense with excellent design. Websites have a visual aspect that is supported by underlying website programming. Most people who work with websites have a definite skillset often in the “designer” or the “programmer” sphere. Seldom does one person have solid skills in both areas. This is why you almost always will do better with a team working on your site instead of one individual.
Project Planning Dynamics
Projects are never simple.

There are times when the low-cost provider can produce something well beyond the value of what is paid. Most of the time, however, you do get what you pay for.
If you’re looking for a professional web design experience and project in Hawaii, call us at 808-329-6077.