Designing a Website that Won’t Break the Bank

Designing or redesigning your companies website can be costly. Many organizations try to offset these costs by designing their own site using a website builder like WordPress or Wix. One of the biggest factors in the custom vs. template designed debate is cost.  

Template designed websites save you money upfront, but they are not scalable to growth, which means they’re more expensive long-term. But there are other actions you can take to lower the cost of custom design and save money both upfront and long-term. Most of our clients have a strict budget, so these are some tips to help clients stay within their budget while still getting the website they want.  

Find a Good Designer: 

Find an experienced designer that is able to provide all the services you need without outsourcing. And don’t be afraid to ask for references. It may seem like more experienced designers will drive the cost up, but that’s not necessarily true. Hiring someone with limited experience means you’re paying for them to learn on the job. But, hiring someone with experience means the project won’t take as long.   

Plus, a more experience designer and developer will be able to do everything in-house. A lot of design firms outsource certain aspects of the project, which costs more. At MIBS, Inc. we provide 100% in-house website design and development services.  

Request a Written Proposal: 

Your need to ask for a written proposal that contains detailed pricing information. This should include information about the cost of initial design, hosting, and additional services. The proposal also needs to include information about terms of payment. This will help protect you against firms that charge for additional services throughout the process making the final cost more than the original quote.  

Be Prepared: 

Knowing what you want ahead of time helps save time, money, and frustration. The cost of initial design is based on the amount of time and work web designer estimate putting into the project. If you know what you want and have the necessary materials ready to go before you start hiring you will get more accurate quotes, which will save you money. Here are some things to have prepared: 

  • List of Features: Have a list of your desired features ready so your web designer knows what to expect ahead of time.  
  • Examples: Provide your web designer with examples of sites you like. This will help them as they design your site.  
  • Photos: If you are redesigning an existing website, re-use photos or pull old photos out of your archives. If you do not have any high-quality for photos on-hand save money by using free stock photos.  
  • Content: You can save money by providing your own content. If like photos you can re-use and re-purpose content. This way you don’t have to spend as much money on generating brand new content for the website.  

Be Involved: 

Often times clients provide the designers with all the information about that they want. Then the client will step away from the project while the developer gets to work. But when the client sees the finished product, they want to make changes. And making changes at such a late stage can be costly. 

That is why it is important for clients to have a say in the project the whole way through. At MIBS, Inc. we provide our customers with a link to the site in development so they can provide feedback along the way. This allows us to make as many changes as we go without increasing costs at all.  

Keep Things Simple: 

This is especially key in terms of functionality and total number of webpages. The more tools, videos, and pages your website has, the more expensive it will be. By keeping things simple the development process will be quicker and less expensive. Ways to keep things simple include: 

  • Decide what one action you want your website’s visitors to take and focus the design around that.  
  • Limiting the total number of webpages by including only the most important information.  
  • Use Content Management System (CMS) with open source coding. This will allow your staff to make minor edits and updates to the website without the help of a developer.  

Are looking for a fast, affordable, and professional custom web design solution for your organization? Contact MIBS, Inc. today. Our experienced web designers will work with you to customize a functional and secure site to meet your needs.