Website design for small business: some misconceptions

A website is a window into your business. It needs to look good, otherwise people won't want to stay and find out more. A well-designed website can bring you a many-fold return on your investment. At the Website Design Studio we have extensive experience of designing affordable websites for small businesses and sole traders. This article focuses on some of the common issues new business owners have on website design.

Why should I pay a web design company to design
my small business website when my friend's teenage
son can do it for free?

Designing effective websites is a skill combining many talents - graphic design skills, copy writing skills, information presentation skills, technical skills and on-going support skills. It also requires knowledge of several different applications such as Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Fireworks etc. Before you take up anyone's offer to design your small business website for you, you need need to ask yourself if that person has these skills. If the answer is 'no' to any of the questions, you run the risk of compromising your businesses online presence - nobody will be impressed with a poorly designed and managed website. The bottom line is that choosing a non-professional web designer is a false economy that could affect your profits in the long run.

I can learn the necessary skills needed to design
my website

Web design is a skill that takes many years to learn. If you sell widgets, you time is better spent building up your widget business, not spending may hours trying to work out the mysteries of CSS or graphic optimisation.

I can use one of DIY website packages available

Our answer to this is similar to the question above. There are many DIY services available but they are only useful if you have the many hours it takes to set up one of these sites. Also, these type of sites usually have a formula, sometimes amateurish look. If you have the time and are are happy with this look - fine. If not, look for a professional web designer.

I want to be able to update my website myself

Fine, we can set that up for you. But again, you should ask yourself if it is cost effective. Even the simplest content management systems require a fair level of computer competence and updates can take many frustrating hours. Our advice would be to take out a maintenance contract which is far more cost effective. All you need to do is email your updates and will will implement them for you - simple, no fuss.

Our website design mission

We understand that many of our clients will have limited technical understanding of websites or even computing in general. We welcome your questions and will do our best to provide answers in simple, jargon free language.

Find out more about our website design service for small businesses

The Website Design Studio has extensive experience of designing websites for small businesses - click on The Website Design Home Page to visit our main home page. Choose Website design services to view the full range of web design services we offer. To view our website packages and prices, click on Website design costs. To see some of our clients' websites, click on Website Gallery or click on any of the sites you see on the pages in this site. Click Beginner's guide to websites to find this article again.

Please Contact The Website Design Studio if you have any queries or would like a quote. We look forward to hearing from you.

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