There are always new ways of marketing and obtaining customers. One of them, for a website design company, is purely focussing on website cost.
The latest is employees of a big company posting on their personal Facebook accounts. Offering free websites – only pay for domain and hosting. This is a fantastic marketing ploy of hooking small businesses whose main concern? Website cost.
As a local company who designs, registers and produces websites I wanted to know more. I wanted to know how a company can produce so many ‘free’ websites?! I sent a message for more information.
We recently had a new client come to us for a website quote who had taken this company up on their offer so we knew a bit about the background of what happens, what works and what doesn’t work.
The answer?
Yes, they will create you a simple 4 page website for free, you only pay £150 (approx. at time of writing) for the domain and hosting. If you would like a presence on the internet and somewhere you can send your customers for information. Then yes, this is an absolute bargain and I would recommend signing up – hey, I’d recommend them myself as we are all about the best value for small businesses.
The problem comes where you would like to add more pages. You cannot amend the website yourself, although ‘all’ amendments are free. To add a shop is double what we would charge plus then ongoing annual costs.
The client who is moving to us had an issue with obtaining help. Adding SEO to the website (Search Engine Optimisation); an additional cost plus any advice on what to do next; also an additional cost.
The company sent me examples of the websites already built and it is the same template with different branding. This is fine, however you only need a local company in the same industry sign up too and you have very similar websites.
Our process.
Our website charges now started from £750 for a basic site. A huge increase from free of charge. The important information is what this includes. Basic SEO, security updates and backups plus, the most important thing, it is yours. You want to amend, we will train you, the domain is yours and, your website is yours. Find out more about what we do here.
How much does a website cost? It all depends on what you need, what your future plans are and how much you need it to be yours.