Typical website prices in the UK vary a tremendous amount but what kind of company do you choose when looking find affordable web design locally or within the UK?

A company that gives you an on the spot quote for a designed website instantly isn’t doing their homework. Though this kind of fee is exactly what some people want they perhaps also do not understand entirely how a website really can work to increase business, profitability and to raise a business profile.

Per page flat rate prices advertised on their site or in advertising literature should be a slight warning sign if you are looking for a website that is more involved than perhaps a small ten page information site. This might appear value for money and might work for some but not all businesses understand in depth how a good website can really help their business expand. So website prices, without being obviously excessive, should reflect exactly how your finished site will work for you.

Finding affordable web design in the UK really depends on the type of value you are looking for. A fixed price custom made website which includes a specified number of pages which costs a few hundred pounds is fine – if that works for your business – but what about finding a custom web designer that can create a website that works for your business and brings in more profit? How about branding, marketing your website online and what about hosting a large site?

Value can only be measured on how much time and money you spend with your designer and how much they put into the site so that the outcome works for you. Maybe the whole aim of your website is to sell more of your products, to advertise your business and create a modern business identity, or even a straight forward way of bringing a long-standing company out of the nineties. Whichever your reason, affordable web design should reflect what you want the finished product to do and get you there.

An Example of Bad Research and Overspend
I cringe every time I think of this, an old employer in a multi-million pound company could never sell products on his website due to the industry and services they offered, would not generate profit simply using the website and only employing around ten people there was never exactly daily news or events to announce.

Spending circa £6,000 on two versions of a custom made website he did not shop around or gain advice and simply chose a UK company that was local to the office. He spent in the region of a week specifying what he wanted, writing text for a few pages of the new site and learning how to use the content management system they had built in and also paid the company to host it on their servers etc

The finished site looked okay though he was not happy to market the site, it does not generate extra customers or profit, fails to give visitors any exciting information and was simply an exercise to modernise an old site. Visiting this site as I write this, its last piece of news piece was something that was added almost two years ago – has it increased the companies online presence? The answer is a certain no!

Value for money in this case there definitely was not, the website prices might have been fine had the owner used the site as an expansion of the business or to generate more business (it was a site made for ecommerce and incorporated an admin area to make it easy to use and update quickly), what an oversight and obvious lack of communication between two parties, had this company shopped around and gained advice from even just one more company they may have realised how not to do it!

This example should help you to see that affordable web design is dependant on your final requirements and what you aim to do with a new custom made website. We know that you want to know the price of web design immediately and a good design company should keep no secrets about pricing however a site design should come with a tailored price and at the very least a good indication of website prices on fixed websites (specified amount of pages and extras).

Choosing a good supplier is never easy at the best of times, but choosing a web design company that employs a good web designer is even tougher. The fact of the matter is that your website is your company. To many people it is the only way that they will ever come face to face with your business – online; so you have to be happy that the face it shows to the public is the face that you want people to see.

Of course if you are in the process of redesigning your website, or launching a brand new one, you are well and truly in the hands of your chosen website design company and this makes it doubly important that you use a website designer from a busy web design company which should be seen as a good web designer that excels which doesn’t just meet your expectations, but that surpasses them.

I am sure that you will do your due diligence when it comes down to assessing your potential candidate companies but you cannot afford to get this one wrong. The whole balance of the success of your own business is dependent on getting your new website absolutely spot on. Finding a website designer that excels is not just desirable, it’s essential!

The actual proof of the pudding as they say is in the eating, problem being that you don’t want to end up with food poisoning! Of course, you can check out some of the other websites that your chosen web design company have designed, and yes you can arrange a meeting with the people you hope to work with to see if you’re compatible; in fact it’s essential that you do so but even if that all checks out, it still doesn’t mean to say that you’ve found a website designer that excels; you’ve merely got a good web designer who looks as if they excel, and sounds as if they do. This is your business future that we’re talking about so the final selection has to be 110% right.

The last opportunity that you have before you commit yourself and your web design company, is to talk to previous clients (see our testimonials page for more help). They will undoubtedly have a string of glowing testimonials on their own website, or will be happy to refer you to one of their satisfied clients.
Your last resort in the search for that elusive website designer that excels is to talk to some of their past clients that you alone can select at random which you may find on their website. If you don’t, ask for one. You can be totally honest as to the whys and wherefores of your questions and if a supposed good web designer won’t provide you with a list of names, there’s something wrong and you can simply short cut the final test; they are not that website designer that you need after all.

If you do get your list however, and it all checks out as you hope it will; together with all the other prerequisites that they will have fulfilled, it’s a pretty sure thing that you’ve found the company you were searching for and you’ve found your perfect choice – a good web designer that excels.