Nadja Eberhardt is a London based graphic and web designer
Business Start-up: Is it worth investing in a website designer when there are so many free or cheap templates available?
Posted on | December 23, 2009 | No Comments
It’s incredible how many cheap online website templates you can find – often aimed at start-up companies to help keep down cost. So is it worth paying a little extra for a professional designer?
Understandably a new business or start-up company has to stick to a tight budget, so it seems to make sense to go for the more affordable option. Yet there are some long-term considerations when deciding what to do about your website, and they could have an impact on your business in the short and long term.
Your website is your shopwindow
In the good old days you would have likely had to hire some kind of premises for your business, or at least an office space for people to come and visit you. You would have paid rent, bought presentable furniture, pictures for the wall, hired cleaning staff etc. Luckily the internet means that many people don’t have as many upfront and ongoing costs. You can be working from your office, your bedroom, the library, the train or the plane – noone can see!
But in the digital age, it often all comes down to your website. Your website is like your shop window! It’s the first thing (and often the only thing) that people see of your business. What kind of impression are you making? If you are trying to convince your clients that you have an edge over your competition, and that you product or service is of high and reliable quality, does this seem believable if you haven’t bothered investing time and effort in making a good first impression?
Invest now or later?
You might be thinking that when business really takes off you’ll consider spending more money on a website. But there are some other issues to consider:
Firstly, will your business take off if you don’t make an effort to stand out from your competition? Lets face it, especially in London there are few businesses that aren’t constantly facing stiff competition. And especially if you are start-up, you will have to somehow make your mark – customers aren’t going to come to you if you don’t push every marketing strategy: branding through professional graphic design, PR and of course an impressive storefront: your website.
And especially if your competition hasn’t bothered investing in an impressive website, it’s your chance to stand out as a new business!
Secondly, one of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy is SEO, or search engine optimisation. So much business is won via the internet, but your competition is likely to be more easily found on search engines such as google. That’s because websites need to be designed and optimised for search engines, so when someone types in “london based plumber” or “kitchen designer london” in google or yahoo, your business actually comes up on the first page. This is vital because reasearch has shown over and over again that few people ever click past page one of any search engine.
To get to the top of google for your chosen keywords (the words that people are likely to put into the search box when looking for your type of businesses) isn’t something that happens overnight, but something that needs to be incorporated into every aspect of your website: design, structure and content. Using a cheap website template means that you will lose the chance to improve your sites performance in the long run – losing you a potentially large amount of internet generated business.
Talk to a professional London based web designer. Discuss your business, your budget and what you are hoping to achieve. If the budget is tight, then a few initial pages may be all that is required – expanding the site as your business grows. Even if you don’t go for a full blown SEO campaign straight away, as a website designer I can still incorporate many of the most important features of SEO into your website and advise you on how to increase traffic to your site. It’s more affordable than you think, and it’ll be worth it in the long run!
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