Diesel

There's definite skill and value in being able to design and build a website for a client that is a good experience, professional, has good SEO and turns browsing punters into clients. However whatever we all do, we all need to be similarly effective in our chosen fields/careers too. No big shakes or 'black magic' there then...

So I need advice in my company's proposed website upgrade as the quotes I'm getting seem more related to buying yachts for the designers than actioning a bit of graphics and text work. I just dont buy the hype and BS surrounding all this.

Currently we have a No1 Google ranking for several keywords/phrases (what a doddle that was...) and a site that effectively does the basics in explaining who we are and showcasing our work and testimonials. It has full CMS and cost me £95 inc hosting (plus my time of course in customising it). Why the heck should I shell out £4k for something that does the same but a bit better (no Flash or streaming included either)? I just dont get it (esp for what is mostly still a referred/word of mouth business).

I'm willing to sink a grand for a better/more professional/more strategic site and hopefully increasing conversion/return but...

Part of the quote was £2k for CMS. How can this be justified as its just text upload...?

Just curious as I do need to move the game on but will not have the wool drawn! Fire away!

D

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

PM me with a very brief outline of where your site is now and where you want it to be and I will let you know roughly what I would charge you to upgrade.

Spoon

British website designers really do think it is a special art and quote pathetic prices. I found a guy in Canada who has a great reputation and charges me in US dollars which suits my set-up via PayPal. He is also available on Skype and MSN to discuss any necessary big design changes.

For the money you mention he could have rebuilt your home too.

If that suits you I can vouch for his work and will happily put your requirements to him before you commit to anything. He can host and manage the site if necessary too, though I only need the arty farty stuff doing, the rest I do myself, including additions and SEO.

Diesel

Thanks guys - glad to see it isnt me just being plain tight! D

dazdavies

iTrader: (22)

I'm a web designer and it beggars belief what some of the companies local to me charge.

As a rough guide I charge between 500 and 1000 for a site. That site will have upto a dozen of pages, plenty of graphics and some nice flash animation this will also include a years hosting. I've seen companies charge 3 times this for sites that don't look anywhere near as good.

E commerce or transactional websites tend to be more expensive as there is a fair bit of work to them but again as a rough guide I charge betwen £1000 - £2000 for a simple ecommerce website that has secure payments via paypal.
This will have a products database with upto 500 products that you can upload and ammend as many times as you wish. Again plenty of nice graphics flash animation / navigation etc.

I think if you're being charged any more than that then look elsewhere for quotes. It's not the niche skill it once was and it's not that difficult.

richs2891

NO there does seem to be a lot of rip off agents out there on web site design.
I'm curious as to how got No1 ranking with google, care to share that ? Can pm if like

Thanks

Richard

Spoon

Certainly not. Prices quoted here in the UK are an absolute joke. Being tight has nothing to do with it. Not being a fool has a lot to do with it.

On the other end of the scale the Indian website designers will usually do the lot for a picture of the wife.

Spoon

That isn't difficult. I did that myself with no experience after carefully studying the competition. I now hold number 1 in Google for 20 or more key phrases and have done for years.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

I don't really think website deisgn is that different to anything else.

You can get a very good site for very little money.

However, to get a top notch transactional dynamic site that does every single thing you want and looks exactly as you want it will cost you.

Diesel

Rich - its not difficult (unless you have thousands of competitors).

>Short vers:< Its just about learning what is needed to please the Google 'spiders' - plenty of info on the web here. Research the keywords (words potential customers might use to find you) and make clever integrated use of those on your site. There are also places that you can 'hide' them on your website. Links from other sites and content that changes regularly helps too. Rocket science it aint, but, just like before you changed your first head gasket/tap washer, you will never know how to unless you try!

If time is short employ someone to get it right(ish) first time; if not have a go!

D

Diesel

Custom, bespoke, individually programmed is different game. However my requirement is pretty straightforward! Tweaked off the shelf will be fine!

None of my quotes include strategic copy even!!!

D

Spoon

Even with a lot of competitors it isn't difficult if you do it right. Someone has to be top, albeit not number 1 all the time for every keyword/phrase but always top 3-5. Page Source is your king for checking competition.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Well in that case I reckon you are right in reckoning at no more than a grand tops. 4 grand sounds excessive and then some.

Spoon

Then I'd say possibly $500 from my guy.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Well if you are saying he can provide a multi page CMS driven website including custom graphics for that money then the very best of luck to him.

I couldn't do it for that money.

Spoon

It was purely a guess on the amount of work I've seen of his and what he charges for certain sites. Surely a reason why he is in demand. He and others Worldwide I know that design websites can't understand themselves why the British charge so much as if it is a secret art.

What is exactly involved isn't my forté but knowing what to pay for something is.

PaulC72

Diesel yhpm.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

As I said fair play to him if he can do it for that money and no wonder he is in demand. It takes me 2 days minimum to design, code, write and publish a site and that does not include any meetings over the design work. I could not do that for £350 ($500).

Diesel

Agree. Wouldnt expect that for £500 even from a proper business.

D

Spoon

Not from the UK, no. Shop online like you would for anything else.

StickyMicky

i got myself a copy of dream weaver 4, downloaded a load of freebie websites and then took them apart to see how they work, cut/pasted/generally hacked them about all over the shop.

I knocked up a few pisstake websites in my spare time including S-W-T around 10 years back (snakes-with-**** )
Downloaded a few flash tools to make banners and the like to have a play, generally i self taught myself, it was not so hard, but like most things i do, i am not a pro web designer by a very long shot, but i prefer to get stuck in.

Anyway i knocked up a quick website for my business, we dont really gain sales from it as most of our custom is from people with in a 5 mile radius, and they have to visit the actual site anyway to have the work done, its purely a quick means to get the office phone number into the odd customers hands.

Had some lunatics wanting to charge me quite a bit to "improve it" but its just not really worth it for what we do anyway (although i need to update the customer gallery by about 2 years lol)

Had a LOT of people ringing me up telling me they can make me number one in the google rankings, but i did that all myself anyway when i set the wesbite up, searching for our area + valeting puts us at the top anyway.

Had one chap on the phone telling me he can make me number one in google so i said this
"mate do a google search right now for x+y"
"ok, done"
"what do you see at the top??"
"ok seeya"

PaulC72

LOL.

It's the best way to learn too, I like playing around like that too, I'm not very good but I enjoy it just starting to get to grips with Divs and CSS now.

Diesel

Yeah, I've done OK too for a first timer. However I see worse companies with better sites and so its time for the next stage - purely for appearances.

D

StickyMicky

I think it depends on what the site is used for, mine is not really needed at all, and the vast majority of the other franchise owners don't even seam to have one, so its pointless me getting to hung up on it.

The web package i use for hosting has quite a few decent addons built into the control panel and i have experimented with some made up fake commerce/blog type sites, it really seamed quite easy at the time to tweak things, if i wanted to setup a quick online webstore i think i could rattle one off in a day without to much trouble just by playing about.

I did actually plan to tidy mine up a bit and tweak it (especially the gallery) about 12 months ago, i started it and never bothered to finish off the new graphics, maybe this year

The problem i always have with stuff like this, is i throw myself in at the deep end, learn new stuff, and in 6 months time i have totally forgotten how to do it

Had a mate call in recently and ask me to have a look at his Apexi PFC map, i booted up the software and just sat in front of the screen looking at all the japanese jibberish and thinking WTF i assume it will be the same next time i load up dreamweaver

Dream Weaver

I've always kept my prices relatively low, although it obviously depends on what is needed for the site.

If you just want a basic CMS site for editing news items, or products etc then it shouldn't be too expensive.

PM me if you want a price for the work with some good SN discount.

mamoon2

My site was £4k, but is a full e-commerce site so i didn't be-grudge paying it. Some of the quotes were £10k

But check this out for cheeky...... I got an email the other day from the guys that built the site telling me my hosting was due and it was £500

£500 for hosting! Cheeky barstewards must be short of cash and trying it on. Good job I had already moved the site and my hosting + ssl cert was £150 for the year

You've really gotta watch out for these lot as some of them are plain scandalous.

The biggest con though is the money they charge for SEO, when it can be done in house for nowt with a bit of research.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

I dabbled years ago before the days of CSS.
Tried to get to grips with it but gave up cause I couldn't spend the time and ended up using the Mr Site package and it does what I need for £25 a year