Most business owners know the importance of having a website, as customers often use websites to find out more about a small business or even to place an order. Using relevant search terms, customers can find the website. Without a website, many small businesses might not be found. Before starting the process of building a website, there are some things that small business owners should know. In this article, we cover everything you should know before building your small business website.
Cost Shouldn’t Be the Only Consideration
When starting a business of any kind, trying to find ways to reduce costs is important. However, you don’t want to make a decision about your company’s website based solely on costs. Your website is a reflection of your business. Going with the lowest priced option is not always the image that you want to put out there.
Some very low cost websites are simply duplicates of each other and many inexpensive website designers rely on templates instead of building a custom website that is designed to meet your needs. If competitors or other companies have extremely similar websites, it can be difficult for your site to stand out with potential customers. In some cases, you get what you pay for and paying too little for a new website can leave you with a less than desirable result.
Likewise, just because one of the quotes that you received is the highest does not make it the best quality or the most innovative. Website development companies all charge different amounts for creating a small business website. It is better to compare what you’re getting for the difference in price and finding the right fit. You want to work with a reputable company that will meet deadlines and stays within your budget.
DIY Website Solutions
There are a number of DIY website solutions available on the market, such as website builders or pre-loaded Wordpress websites where you simply choose a template. Many websites created using a website builder have little or no functionality, because the software that created it did not put in the time to make it work effectively. This can make the website more frustrating to use and can also mean that search engines have a harder time indexing the site due to poor coding.
Websites Require Ongoing Maintenance
To function at its best, a website will require ongoing maintenance from a developer or programmer. Maintenance does not only mean fixing bugs and updating the information on the website but also it means changing the website design, adding new features, changing the website content, adding videos and audio files to the site and a lot of other activities. All these tasks can be handled only by a website development company and only a professional website developer can do this work well and efficiently.
If a website is left unattended then they may affect the performance of the website and may create problems for the customers as well. These problems will increase the downtime of the website and the customers may lose their interest in visiting the website.
Security Concerns
All websites face security concerns, from data breaches to hacking. Over time, the programming used to develop your site will weaken and become out of date. This presents additional security concerns. Outsourcing your website security concerns to a professional website development company is a sound strategy. That company will be able to look at your website and assess all of the threats to it and then develop a strategy to protect your website accordingly. They will help you understand what threats are out there, and they can also help you develop effective strategies for dealing with those threats.
Long-Term vs. Short-Term Costs
Creating a website is just the first step in having a small business website. There are ongoing hosting costs and maintenance fees, too. When you use an online website builder, it might be fairly inexpensive upfront to create your website. However, each month, you will pay more in ongoing costs to host and maintain your website. If you opt for a custom website, your company ends up owning the original website. You can find hosting for a very small amount of money each month, often much less than the monthly fees charged by an online website creator. So while you can expect to pay more upfront for a custom size created by a website development company, its ongoing expenses should be less.
In general, it is important to find a website development partner that will help you create a custom website and maintain it. KitelyTech develops websites, mobile applications, and software solutions for clients of all sizes. Call our website development team at (800) 274 2908 for a quote.
