In an increasingly competitive market, having a good website is crucial. Good web design delivers a great user experience, improves search engine rankings and is responsive across multiple devices. Discover the fundamentals of web design in this guide.
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The basic difference has something to do with the purpose of the design. A web designer focuses on the visual side of the website while the UX designer ensures there's great user experience with the website and its pages.
Domain name will depend on the type of domain name – some domain names are more expensive than others, but generally speaking you are looking anywhere between $45 - $140 per year.
There are some premium domains, which can cost thousands of dollars, but that is generally an exception.
2. Webhosting
There are great variations on hosting prices. Just with anything else, you get what you pay for. If you find a company who offers webhosting for less than $150 per year, chances are your website will be on a server with thousands of other websites and will most likely be slow to load. Also tech support is generally minimal or via email only.
If your website gets a lot of traffic and if you have many large files, then you may need to consider Virtual Private Server or a Dedicated Web Server and this can set you back between $100 - $2000 per month.
However, for the majority of small businesses, you can get decent shared hosting from $25 per month.
3. SSL Certificate
An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts information sent to the server using SSL technology. Encryption is the process of scrambling data into an undecipherable format that can only be returned to a readable format with the proper decryption key.
Whilst in previous years you only needed SSL certificate if you were accepting payments online, these days you need to have SSL Certificate for all websites, otherwise Google marks your website as Not Secure.
The cost of SSL Certificates varies between $50 - $300 per year
4. Website Design & Development
This is a bit more difficult to answer as much will depend on the size and functionality of a website. A 5-10 page informational website will generally cost between $1000 - $2500.
An ecommerce website (one that sells products) generally costs between $2,500 - $10,000, depending on how many products you have and the complexity of the set up.
As there is a lot of work involved in setting up a professional website, if you find someone who is charging less than $800, I would definitely check out their references and portfolio.
5. Memberships / Plugins
You may also need to pay for additional services, such as Landing Page Builder, Email Automation, Calendar Booking System etc. Although many companies offer free versions, these are generally very limited. So depending on the membership level and service provided – you can be paying between $10 - $300 per month.
So these are just some rough figures to give you an idea on how much getting a website created by a professional website designer will cost you.
Naturally once your website is built you will need to set a budget for promoting your website and that can run from several dollars per day to several thousand per month.
To make it easy for our clients to budget, we have put together packages, starting from $990.
Do you know a business that doesn’t have a website nowadays?
There may be a few exceptions for very small businesses like your local hairdresser or butcher, but almost every SME business has a website.
Businesses of all kinds need a website to survive in today’s competitive market.
But there’s a huge difference between good and bad websites (you know the ones... they look unprofessional, are hard to navigate and you give up 10 seconds in?)
Good web design is crucial.
What is web design?
Web design is the process of planning and designing web pages, user interfaces and content for the internet.
Web design has evolved a great deal over the years and has now become a holistic process that centralises functionality and user experience instead of focusing solely on how a website looks.
Why is web design important?
A website is often the first encounter a customer has with your business.
Users will gain a first impression of your brand based on how your site looks and how easy it is to navigate and find what they’re looking for.
Good website design facilitates a positive user experience. It can also have an impact onSEO and affect how high your website ranks on Google.
Investing your time, energy and resources in amping up your website design can boost your search rankings considerably, and in turn, increase traffic and sales.
What are the main types of web design?
There are various types of website design styles, but there are only really two you need to focus on in today’s mobile world:
Adaptivewebsites
Responsive websites
What is an adaptive website?
Adaptive website design uses two or more versions of a website that are tailored to suit different screen sizes, e.g. mobile and desktop.
An adaptive website detects the size of the device and other features and provides the relevant web layout based on preset characteristics.
What is a responsive website?
Responsive design is flexible and will render well on any device such as desktops, laptops, mobile phones and tablets.
Adaptive vs responsive web design: Which is best?
No matter the screen size or resolution, responsive web design will load beautifully on your device without broken links or missing content, allowing you to use it without error or glitch.
What makes a good vs bad website design?
In addition to all of the obvious visual elements like unmatching fonts, inappropriate font size, low-resolution photos and lack of visual consistency, what distinguishes good versus bad web design is user experience (UX).
A good website will carefully consider how each and every element is chosen for a web page will impact the user. How will it make them feel? How will it help them find what they’re looking for?
It’s important to consider things such as ease of use, efficiency, utility and what value your interface adds.
What web design mistakes should I avoid?
Many small business owners make their own websites to save money and to have control over the overall design.
However, web design is a professional skillset and many people don’t fully understand the concept of good web design.
Here are eight common mistakes small businesses make:
Too little or too much going on
Irrelevant, stock photos or low-quality images
Poor call to action (CTA)
Poor quality or use of content
Tiny text or huge text
Lack of visual coherence
A lack of contact information
Poor use of whitespace
What are the elements of web design?
Website design elements are broken down into two categories:
Visualelements
Functional element
It’s important to strike a balance between the two to maximise the overall performance of your site.
What are visual elements in website design?
Visual or aesthetic elements are what make your site look appealing to the naked eye. When used correctly, the look of the site will be coherent and on-brand.
Visual elements include:
Layout
Fonts
Colours
Written copy
Images and icons
Spacing
Videos
Shapes
Videos
What are the functional elements of website design?
Functional elements refer to how your website supports the user experience (UX) and ease of use.
Sure, you want your site to look good...
But if it’s hard to navigate, slow or easy to get lost, your efforts on the visual side will have gone to waste.
Designing a website can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some top tips:
Define the purpose of your site: What are you looking to achieve? What is our unique selling point? Create a strategy around this as there are certain website builders that are better for different businesses. E.g. Shopify for e-commerce sites.
See the latest web design trends:See what your competitors are doing and if your industry uses specific design elements. It will give you a better idea of what to stove for.
Have content ready to upload:Make sure to have content to upload when the site is up and running. Write an about us page, employee profiles, blogs, compelling product descriptions, etc.
Choose your platform:Carefully consider the features offered by different platforms and which platform will support your site the most.
What is the importance of SEO in web design?
Web design and SEO go together like birds of a feather. Why? Because they both centralise the user and focus on making their experience of your website seamless, valuable and user-friendly.
You can do the best job optimising your website for search engines with keyword research, on-page optimisation and technical SEO.
But if your website is complex and difficult to navigate around, your users will find it difficult to use and go to other sites instead.
This can create a negative impression of your website and brand, and as a result, it can have a negative impact on your search rankings.
How do I find web design ideas and inspiration?
There are several options if you need a bit of inspiration to get the creative juices flowing for your new website.
Check out your competitors’ websites
Head over to Pinterest for all types of inspiration from layouts to illustration
Template Monster is a great site to see how content can be laid out
siteInspire is a good place to get inspiration for various different website platforms
How do I get started with web design for my business?
There are generally two ways to get started with website design for your business:
Create your own website using a website builder - more suited to small businesses on a budget
Hire a web designer - for businesses with a bigger budget or those who have a more complex site of a vision they want to achieve
It can be a little overwhelming trying to choose a web design company when there are so many on the market. A good web design company will be able to advise you on the best options based on your needs. Some key things to consider when hiring include:
Portfolio:Review their portfolio to see their clients and projects they’ve worked on. Does the portfolio match the website design you’d like?
Testimonials:What have previous clients said about working with them?
Recommendations from friends, colleagues and peers:Word of mouth recommendations are often the best kind.
Enthusiasm:Hire web designers who are interested to understand your brand.
Creativity and flexibility:What is their working process like and how flexible can they be?
Outsourcing:Find out if they outsource any tasks or if they have in-house experts to oversee all elements of the project.
A transparent and structured process:How will they keep you updated about the project and inform you of problems and progress?
Reasonable price and packages:Get a few quotes to compare if their pricing is fair and standard across the board.
Ongoing support:Confirm whether they will do maintenance work on the website, or if you will need to do it yourself. Will they provide ongoing support if you experience any technical issues?
What is the difference between a web designer and an app designer?
The difference between a web and app designer is the product they work on. Web designers work on websites while app designers take on app projects. Both should be well-versed in designing for the best user experience. You can find web design companies that do both for your small business.
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