Do You Need A Great Website? Here Are Your Options

So, you’ve decided to build a website for your business?

That’s great news! Small businesses now have countless options to choose from to create an excellent website for their business.

There are thousands of web design agencies that specialize in developing websites for small businesses.

Alternatively, you can search online freelance marketplaces, such as Upwork and Freelancer, for web development professionals to create a website that suits your needs.

You can even use do-it-yourself (DIY) web builders (Wix, Wordpress, Squarespace) to build a modern website on your own.

And yet, according to Clutch’s Small Business Survey, 29% of small businesses still don’t have a website.

Considering that there are currently 28 million small businesses in the U.S. and 29% of them still don't have a website, it’s safe to say that all of these viable options still aren’t providing small businesses with affordable and fully functional websites that they need to survive online.

What else could be the reason why millions of small businesses aren’t getting websites? Is it because these businesses don’t want a website that’s going to increase their chances of attracting online customers?

Of course not!

The fundamental reason why many small businesses don’t have a website is because they often don’t know where to look for high-quality web design services.

Many website design agencies have a reputation for providing outstanding websites, but they’re often too expensive for small business owners.

How else do you explain the fact that low-revenue small businesses (those earning less than $1 million a year) are about 30% less likely to have a website than higher-revenue companies?

Freelancers sometimes provide a more affordable option, but would you really be comfortable working with a stranger that could take your money and run at any time?

DIY website builders often sound promising, but many small business owners don’t have the time to build and maintain their own websites.

After all, creating a website and keeping it updated requires a lot of work that busy individuals just don’t have time for.

With that said, you’re probably wondering what is the best method of obtaining a great website for your business? But, the answer is much simpler than what you’re probably thinking.

Let’s break down all of your options including web design agencies, freelancers, DIY website builders, and our own web design services to give you the most informed solution so you can create a valuable website that will properly help your business succeed online.
 

Price

As the age-old expression goes, “money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Realistically, small businesses have limited resources and often don’t have the wherewithal to spend thousands of dollars on a website.

Even if that’s not the case, there aren’t a lot of businesses bold enough to play field day with their budget by purchasing a pricey website.

Therefore, the price is usually the most important factor businesses rely on to determine if they’re going to move forward with a particular web design option.

Let’s analyze the financial risk of purchasing a website with all of your available options.

Web Design Agencies:

Web design agencies have historically monopolized the entire web development industry because they’re numerous and they devote all of their resources to one main specialty, and that’s creating websites.

For this reason, these agencies charge steep prices for their website packages. For just a basic website, you could pay more than $4,000.

However, if you have a more specific website design, or if you’re planning to start an e-commerce business, this price can increase to be more than $15,000.

Here are a few brief reasons why small businesses will likely never pay these amounts.

1. Small businesses don’t have the available capital to devote to expensive website projects.
2. They can simply build their own website or request assistance from a freelancer for just a fraction of those prices.
3. Many small businesses are smart enough to never spend thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars on a website - regardless of the quality.

Do you relate to any of the above statements? If so, let’s keep moving.

Freelancers:

As I’ve said before, freelancers often provide a more cost-effective solution for small businesses that want to avoid expensive agency website prices.

Freelance marketplaces like Upwork, Freelancer, Guru, and Fiverr house millions of professional developers who can build a website for as low as $300.

However, with freelancers, you never really know what you’re going to get. The freelance marketplaces mentioned above don’t require their members to take any special tests or obtain certifications to prove they’re who they say they are.

This means that any average Joe can sign up and apply for your web design project, even if they don’t know what a website is. Therefore, while hiring a freelancer is a cheap alternative, it’s also a risky investment.

DIY Website Builders:

DIY website builders seemingly offer small businesses the best of both worlds, right? For an affordable price, you can build your own website yourself without the hassle of finding a qualified professional.

By using Wix or Wordpress, you can develop a functional website without any basic coding knowledge for as low as $20 if you already have a domain.

Though, creating a great website is much more than throwing a few elements on a page, slapping your phone number and address on it, and letting it go.

DIY website builders are infamous for having generic website templates, and your website could produce a bad image if it looks like it came off a conveyor belt.

Before you use a website builder, take this important fact into consideration. According to Ironpaper, 48% of people cited a website’s design as the number one factor in deciding the credibility of a business.

That means if your website looks basic, you could lose out on potential customers.

Even if you could spend $20 to build a website with Wix or Wordpress, your website won’t even be worth that investment if the quality isn’t up to par.

Optuno:

Optuno easily provides small businesses with custom-built websites that are:

• Affordable: For as low as $99/month, you can receive a traditional website with premier hosting and ongoing maintenance, a 100% custom mobile-friendly design, a free domain name, and so much more. If you wish to sell your products and services online, you can purchase our $129/month Enterprise E-commerce package that offers cutting-edge email marketing capabilities, 60-minute ongoing maintenance time, and populated pages just for you. Need some clarity on what this means? This means that you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on a great website!
• Reliable: All of our websites are developed by our award-winning development team using our patented FICMS content management system. Unlike freelancers, Optuno has built a strong reputation for giving our clients high-quality websites. Think we’re making that up? Our testimonials will prove otherwise.
• Quality: We don’t use website templates for our customers. When you sign up for one of our packages, all you have to do is choose one of our themes and we’ll take care of the rest. This way, you can select your own professional design and leave the development to our team of professionals. Speaking of quality, that brings us to the next factor.
   

Quality

Do you think your customers won’t pay attention to the quality of your website? Well, you thought wrong. 94% of web users have stated that they didn’t trust a website because of its design.

Web users also prefer mobile-friendly websites, with 72% of consumers stating that they’re more likely to revisit a mobile-friendly website.

Therefore, if your website looks like it was created during the Clinton Administration and runs like a turtle at 8:00 a.m., it's safe to say that customers won’t bother to give your business the time of day.

Which of the following web design options offer websites with the best quality? Let’s find out below.

Web Design Agencies:

If you’re going to pay thousands of dollars for a website, the quality should always be something to marvel about. For the most part, web design agencies live up to their reputation of providing excellent websites.

The only question here is how much you’re willing to spend to receive a high-quality website.

Freelancers:

Freelance marketplaces love advertising their skilled communities, making small businesses believe that they’ll always receive quality products on their sites.

Is this even true?

At the very least, the answer varies.

Sure, there are thousands of talented freelancers that are available in these marketplaces.

However, there are also thousands of unqualified posers on these websites who claim to offer professional services and never deliver.

With that fact aside, consider this: most freelancers are unhappy with their income, according to a Payoneer survey.

As you can see for yourself, only 44.4% of freelance web designers (who fall into the design & multimedia category) are satisfied with their income.

What exactly does this mean in regards to quality?

Think of this like this: many freelancers often have to charge cheap prices to compete with other freelancers.

Since many freelancers aren't selling their services for its actual market value, the quality of their work suffers drastically.

Small businesses often migrate to freelance marketplaces to purchase an affordable and quality website, and ironically they’re rarely ever going to get one.

The average number of members in a particular freelance marketplace almost always exceeds the number of projects there are to go around.

Thus, freelancers bid their services at low prices to compete for these projects. Because of this, small businesses believe they’re getting a deal.

I mean, what can go wrong if dozens of freelancers are placing affordable bids on your website design project?

In reality, many things can go wrong.

Like I’ve said before, freelance marketplaces allow anyone to sign up. Most likely, you could wind up running into a fraudulent or unqualified professional who could potentially take your money and give you a subpar website.

As a matter of fact, they could take your money and give you nothing at all. For this reason, the risk of choosing a freelance marketplace far outweighs its quality potential.

Though, if you’re alright spending hundreds of dollars until you find a legitimate freelancer, the risk is well worth taking.

DIY Website Builders

DIY website builders are so attractive to small businesses. After all, there are approximately 1.23 million Wix websites across the web who proclaim the gospel of DIY websites.

Of course, for their price, DIY websites are a viable option. If you know what you’re doing, you can design a great website for your small business.

However, if you’re planning on building your own website any time soon, stop and look at these reasons on why you shouldn’t.

• Terrible SEO - One of the worst parts about using a DIY website builder is that the builder spits out a lot of code that isn’t structured properly. This code doesn’t contain the necessary elements to help your website rank better online. Showing up on the first page of Google search rankings is key to getting more online visitors and customers. Since website builders don’t allow your website to create properly structured data and clean HTML code, your website will rarely rank on Google and other search engines.
• Flash-Based - Another reason why website builders don’t provide high-quality websites is that they’re mostly flash-based. Google and other search engines can’t read flash, so they usually don’t know what DIY websites are about. Understand this: if search engines can’t comprehend your website, they won’t rank them, and your online customers will never know who you are.
• Not Mobile-Friendly - I know I just gave you a statistic of how important having a mobile-friendly website is, but let me give you two more. According to Statista, 52.4 percent of all global web traffic came from mobile devices. Also, 62% of businesses that designed a mobile-friendly website saw an increase in sales. It’s essential that your website is easily accessible on all devices from desktop computers to tablets. Unfortunately, DIY website builders rarely provide mobile-friendly websites.

Optuno:

Optuno is committed to providing affordable and high-quality websites for all small businesses. If you’re somehow skeptical that we can create a great website for your business for a price that fits your budget, let me show you an example.

Take for example Planet Fitness, a premier fitness center franchisor. Check out their website below.

Looks great, right?

If you’re running a gym in your local area and want a professional-looking website just like Planet Fitness, here’s what Optuno can provide you.

All you have to do is choose this theme, and our development team will design a custom website just for you.

Still not convinced?

Maybe this information will change your mind.

• All of our websites are mobile-friendly. This means that your customers can access your website on a desktop computer, smartphone, tablet, or any other mobile device.
• We take pride in providing custom-built websites for our customers. Using our own patented FICMS content management system, your website will be made to order with a unique design that’s unlike any other website. The CMS that powers the website will also allow for extremely easy editing of your website’s content. Just point, click and make your own updates without any prior website design knowledge required.
• When you sign up for one of our website packages, our development team will assist you in creating the website that you ask for according to every small detail. In 2017, we had a 99% satisfaction rating from thousands of small businesses all around the world. This means that we listen, and we are committed to giving you a high-quality website exactly the way you want it.
   

Convenience & Support

Ideally, it should be simple to either purchase or build your website.

Also, during and after the web development phase, you should receive excellent support to navigate you through the process.

Without any further ado, let’s grade each web design option on their performance in the convenience and support category.

High Quality Agency:

High-quality agencies are usually very professional, so they’ll always provide you with cutting-edge support during the web design phase.

If you have a question or concern, their project management team will be ready on hand to assist you, whatever the case may be.

However, once the initial build-out of your website is complete and the agency has been fully paid, it’s extremely unlikely that they will provide you with additional support, unless you’re willing to pay for their consultation which usually runs at about $75-150/hour.

This means that if your website needs any ongoing maintenance, such as content updates, you’re going to have to come out of pocket or try to make the updates on your own.

Furthermore, a web design agency will generally spend up to 14 weeks developing your website. This typically includes two weeks of planning, three weeks of design, three weeks of design revisions, three weeks of initial development, and three weeks of modifications.

This time period could be much longer if they decide until the end to start writing content, or if your website has more specific demands.

Now I know: these agencies do charge thousands of dollars and could certainly expedite this time to be more convenient, but you should never get your hopes up for this happening.

Once you pay your initial deposit, you might as well buckle up for the long ride your website is bound to take.

Freelancers:

As far as convenience goes, freelancers usually take the same amount of time as web design agencies when it comes to developing websites.

Though, this process could take longer due to the fact that many freelancers lack the same resources as these agencies.

Similar to web design agencies, ongoing support doesn’t come cheap. Once your website is complete, the freelancer will go their separate way onto other projects.

So, you could ultimately pay a large hourly rate for additional support and maintenance once your project is done.

DIY Website Builders:

It’s amazing what advertising will have you believe about DIY website builders. All you have to do is choose a template, fill in the design with your own custom content, and press publish and your website is ready to compete online, right?

If only that were true; anyone could call themselves a professional web developer.

As far as convenience is concerned, not many small business owners have the time to build their own website - and believe me, creating and maintaining a website is a lot of work.

In regards to support, website builders don’t provide much versatility. Let’s say that you run a debt relief company and you want to add a debt calculator to your website to help your visitors account for their liabilities.

Unless your web builder’s app marketplace supplies this feature, you’re going to have to think twice about making this addition. Remember, by using a DIY web builder, you are only in control of the design, not the code.

So, basically, you're only stuck with a very limited website template that has no potential to grow.

Optuno:

With Optuno, it's very simple to create a website for your small business. By signing up for one of our premium website packages and selecting your template, you can receive a world-class website in just a few weeks.

Here are a few reasons why Optuno reigns superior over the previous options in convenience and support.

• Optuno offers state-of-the-art turnaround times. A 1-page website can be completed in as little as 48-72 hours. An unlimited page website can take a few weeks with your first draft ready for viewing in as few as 7-10 business days, giving businesses the website they need in a reliable time. If you want to sell your products and services online, you're in luck. We develop custom e-commerce websites in 10-14 business days.
• At Optuno, we will never treat you as a burden. We provide unlimited revisions for the first 30 days to ensure that you receive the website you’re expecting. Do you need ongoing maintenance? No problem. Ongoing maintenance is included in all of our website packages, which means we will automatically update your site so you don't have to.
• We provide lightning fast support for our clients. We realize how important your business is to you, so we respond to all of your support inquiries within 24 hours.
   

What's Your Solution?

In case you didn't read or understand what was stated above, here is a brief breakdown of why most web design services are unrealistic.

• High-Quality Agencies are too expensive for small businesses.
• Freelancers are too risky. You never know what you're going to get.
• DIY Website Builders don't provide the quality websites they advertise, so your website could look like it was made in a factory.

At the end of the day, Optuno provides affordable, custom-built websites for all small businesses without the flaws that the other web design services have.

For this reason, the best decision you can make for your business is choosing Optuno as your web design service provider.

Optuno was created by two industry professionals who understood how difficult it was for small businesses to receive a fully functional website without having to pay exorbitant costs to attain one.

Therefore, if you're running a small business, you can rest easy knowing that Optuno was built just for you, and we will accommodate your business every step of the way.

If you have any questions about Optuno that weren’t answered in this article, just click here to view our FAQs.

For more information about how you can get started, review our website packages, select the one that's right for you, and let us get started with your website today!