Everyday as a business owner you might be getting promotional mails, sms and advertisements regarding low cost affordable web design packages, which gives you full web design services at a fraction of cost what a web design companies might be charging. It looks very lucrative in terms of cost. But the question arises how come the cost is so low and how it will benefit your business. Few questions which is really important to ask before jumping on any conclusion? What do you want from your website and online presence? This is the first question which needs to be answered. Lot of individuals and business are clueless and their answers are vague. Most common answers we get are: Because every company has a website so we also need a website. I will tell my customers to visit my website. Prospective customer will reach my website and my business will grow. Second question which arises why web design packages? Most common answers we get are: It is low in cost and very economical. Designs are good. Turnaround time is very less. What are the most common factor which business owners and individuals dont consider or clueless about. Does it help you in brand building and gives a unique brand identity? Todays era id of branding, be it offline marketing or online marketing, what helps you is your unique brand identity. Does the designs are made keeping in mind about your business, your usp and branding guidelines. How much time a web design package is giving time on understanding your business model, your brand identity and does a website made by them is unique in design and branding or not. 99% chances are negative as almost every web design company who offers web design packages are clueless about these terms as they are bunch of designers not web consultants. Most of the time you need to choose a pre made template which will be customized according to your preferences but rarely will they create unique layouts according to branding guidelines of your company which differentiate it from others. Creating such layout will take not less that 3 to 4 days and these web design package company cannot bear such timeline but they work on wafer thin margins. Do you know the difference between website optimization for search engines and Search engine submission? We hear a lot about submitting your website in 1000 or 2000 search engines and web directories. The question arises does submitting your website will help your business in thousand of search engines. After spending in internet industry for 10 years still I have not able to know more than 10 prominent search engines which might help your business. You can say in a way I had wasted my 10 years of experience that still I know only few search engines and they know thousand of search engines. Please ask them the name of 100 search engines and which really being visited by visitors or you can check yourself. Now another factor which is the most important criteria which helps you. Does your website has been optimized for business keywords related your business and has the company did any research for key words with tools like wordtracker before deciding on keywords which will help your business in attracting visitors to your website. If your website has been optimized with wrong keyword then be sure no business through your website. Most of the web design package company will not do such efforts. They will just tell that we will be submitting you website to thousand of search engines and no mention about website optimization for search engines. If any company does follow the above rules and even they submit your website in google and yahoo. They are far better than companies who are submitting your website in thousand of search engines without properly analyzing the keywords and optimizing your website. Do you have clues who are visiting your website? Most of the time the answer will be no. in few cases you might be getting AWSTAT OR Webalizer some other tool to monitor your traffic. Have you ever heard about GOOGLE ANALYTICS? It is a free tool and greatest to my knowledge, which helps you in understanding how well your website is doing in terms of acquiring new business. It also shows you the mirror about what you have got from your website. If any web design packages offers you this free tool then it is a very good bet. What a Web Design Company offers in their web design packages? Generally a web design package by any company will consist of domain name, web hosting and website design with few options like fewer updates in a year. Here the deciding factor remains no. of web pages. How affordable or low cost web design packages are? The costing of web design packages are on monthly or yearly basis. But there is a catch lies. Do you incurring the same cost after a year then it is really costly for you. Actually you should pay only for domain and hosting for next year which cost should be minimal. Now the final question? Are you the website owner in real sense? You might be wondering what nonsense question I am putting. But this is realty. Do you have the control panel of domain? Does your email id is reflecting in whois as domain owner. If it is not the case I am afraid you are not the real owner of website. So please check this point before jumping on any low cost web design package. If you have domain control panel, if you have power to change the name server, then only you are the real owner of website. Please also dont confuse yourself with hosting control panel as hosting and domain control panel will be different in most cases. It is always advisable to buy domain name yourself and take other services from Web Design Package Company. Also insist on website backup or copy need to be mailed to you. Generally what happens that these companies dont give you the ownership of website and domain. After launching such website you might do a lot of printing where you put your website address and email ids. Suppose after a year you loose the name on which you have buildup your whole online presence. Your print materials are waste. You need to take a new domain and website design happens again. But you are going to make the effort again. Which companies should you chose for web design package services. In general, you should choose a local company near to you. If any overseas company give you more benefits, ownership of website and source files. You can opt for those companies also. But does a cross check for those companies before giving any assignment. Here are few companies which you can check if you are interested for web design packages: http://www.networksolutions.com/custom-website-packages/index.jsp http://www.sitewizard.co.uk/website_design_pricing.htm http://www.cranberry.co.in http://www.netstarter.com.au/Content_Common/pg-web-design-compare-websites.seo You can find many other web design packages on web. My suggestion will always for great research before opting for any web design packages and the company who will understand your need better. Look at long term solution not for short term.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author:
Web Consultant based in India with interest in web marketing, web solutions and online media planning.