Are you paying too much for the design and maintenance for your website costs in 2021?

Let’s break it down for you.

Web design costs in South Africa varies, starting from it being free or costing up to R35 000. Like with anything in life, you get what you pay for. Unless of course you know someone personally who has the time and skills to create the website you are looking for.

The key to a great website is to first access internally your web designer’s skill set. They need to be well experienced in graphic designs and most important they need to understand the required programming languages. These may include, php, c#, angular, javascript among other languages, to get the most value add for your business.

If you don’t have the skill set in your organisation, you may want to consider a service provider who specialises in web design. After all, first impressions are lasting and your website is pivotal to creating not only a great first impression, but a memorable one too.

Before you rush out for quotes, you need to first understand what you want otherwise the process of getting a quote will be a tedious one. Now often, clients know the importance of their websites but don’t have an idea of what exactly they want in terms of contents, menus, functionality, etc. An easy way to solve this problem is to go onto several other websites including those of your competitors. This will help to get perspective and give you an idea of what’s out there. Spend some time researching. Even if you partner up with the right service provider, you still need to know what you want, for them to make it a reality.

To help you get started, answer these questions to identify what you want.

1. What is the purpose of my website?
2. What functionality must my website have?
3. How many pages should my website have?

What should you consider – purpose of my website?

Some websites are designed to sell a specific product or to offer a service. Maybe you just need a website to keep clients updated by posting content. Whatever the reason, this same reason will dictate the purpose of your website.

If you know what you want, you will eliminate the unnecessary stuff you don’t need on your website. This will not only help keep costs down but will help ensure your website is focused and sleek looking. 

What should you consider – what functionality must my website have?

There are 2 types of web designs currently available. You can opt for a responsive web design or a static web design. But which one is the best?

Static website design – is what you would call a simple web design which does not change regardless of which device your customer is accessing your website from. It’s easy to design and helps keep costs down. However, it does prove to be cumbersome for customers using mobile devices. Essentially mobile users will have to zoom in and out to view the pages of your website and may not enjoy the full experience your website has to offer. It will also mean that your website will have limited functionality which may lead to customers not having a great first impression of your company. 

Responsive website design – stands out because it automatically resizes your website pages regardless of the device being used. Thus, giving visitors a pleasant experience, without the hassle of figuring how to navigate the site to enjoy the benefits of what is being showcased. The responsive action is fast and convenient and provides good value for money in the end.

Which web design is best suited for you will depend on the purpose of it? If your website is just for informational content and will not really evolve over time, then you can easily go for the static design option. However, bear in mind that mobile users (which is predominantly what is being used by most of us to do almost anything) may not stay on your website long enough to see what you have to offer.

On the other hand, responsive websites are built with various functionality and once established is easy to manage and maintain. It’s a better choice in our changing environment, offers great user experience and the benefits will eventually outweigh the costs.

As far as what pages to have, we recommend visiting a few websites and listing down exactly what functionalities you would like to see on your own website. Giving a list of sites you like and want your website to mirror, will just mean that the web designer will assume you want everything and will quote accordingly.

When listing your needs and wants, be sure to identify if your website would need any of these: –

• Service pages
• Product pages
• Online payments
• A Blog on your website
• Social media integration
• Search engine optimisation (SEO) services
• A Registration and login page
• Newsletters signup
• Online marketing services

What should you consider – how many pages should my website have?

If your service provider quotes based on the number of pages needed, this may not be accurate and this is the reason why questions 1 and 2 above needs to be considered first. To give you an idea, you most probably going to need pages such as a home, about us, contact us, privacy policy, terms and conditions of services, FAQs, blogs, etc. Each of these will be considered as 1 page so know what you need before you get costings for your web design.

Have a web design and programming budget.

If you know how much you willing to spend be upfront about this when designers, ask about it.

It’s not about getting the most out of you but rather trying to come up with a package that will best accommodate what you are looking for, within your budget, whilst still keeping you happy.

What to consider – additional items you may need.

There are some additional add-ons you will have to think about before you spend your entire budget on design. It will be of no use to construct a brilliant website but have no budget on marketing to attract traffic to your site.

These add-ons include:

Domains and hosting

Every website runs on a domain, and you will need one as well. You can register your domain with most domain registrars and buy when selecting the hosting plan for your website.

Online marketing

Your website just by being there will not create any traffic itself. For you to see any return on investment, you will need to embark on a marketing campaign to encourage traffic to your site.

This may take months, as you will be competing with already well-established competitor websites.

There are various options available, all of which has its own benefits but takes a long time to learn and understand. It would be best that you get SEO experts involved before embarking on any marketing campaign:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
• SMM (Social Media Marketing/Management)
• PPC Management (Pay Per Click Marketing/Management)

Website content

If you have skilled individuals in your business who can do your content write up, then this will not cut into your budget. However, if not, you going to have to factor this cost in for someone to write the content of all your pages needed for your website. 

If you going to include images and animations, these will also cost although there are some free images available on sites like pixabay or pexels. Alternatively, you will have to purchase these from sites like shutterstock.  Its best you do this right to avoid any unlawful use of someone else’s intellectual property.

Website maintenance

There won’t be much maintenance since your website will not be changing often. You can opt to maintain it yourself or make use of a service provider (preferably the same company that designed your website). You will find this cost very minimal and most convenient. 

Give us a call on 087 109 1000 or drop us an email at info@syfinity.com