Why you should pay premium for website design

There are so many options for getting a website started. You could take a DIY approach, and use a service like WordPress or Squarespace. You could also buy an HTML template and upload it to your own hosting. Or you could pay a developer to do these things for you. But why pay a premium when there are so many cheaper options?

Best Practices

The internet is a vast, rapidly changing place, and keeping up to date with what works best, which devices are supported and how users interact with websites can be a daunting task. It’s the agencies job to stay on top of this information and determine what will perform the best for your specific circumstances. They will also know how to make your website accessible for people with disabilities, or those who need extra help navigating web spaces.

An agency that offers ongoing support will also keep you up to date with the best security practices, something that is especially important if you’re running an online shop or collecting sensitive data.

(almost) Nothing to Learn

Nothing new comes without a learning curve, but a good agency will help you understand the pieces you need to know and hide the pieces you don’t. Take running an online shop for instance. At Brolga Digital, we’ll take you through adding products and making sure all the data (including prices!) is correct and matches your point of sale system. But we won’t wear you down with the minutia of how the systems are linked, or what the code looks like.

As a client, you should be confident that the system will work, and know how to use it. But you shouldn’t need to know how to set everything up or troubleshoot difficult errors. That knowledge is handled by the developers.

Eye (and customer) Catching Designs

An often overlooked aspect is the knowledge that designers carry. A good design, carefully crafted can convert visitors to customers. If your DIY design comes off as amateurish or cluttered, that transition will be much harder to facilitate. It’s far better (and cheaper in the long run) to get it right the first time.

It doesn’t matter if the developers have used a template or framework, as long as the finished product is a site that represents your brand in a user-friendly way. Brolga Digital’s websites also use accessibility features outlined by the A11y Project. We want everyone to be able to have a good experience with the products we build.

Support and Advice

You can identify a good agency by how much support they offer both during and after the building process. You should feel included and listened to throughout the entire process. And after the website is finished, there should be support for maintenance and future edits.

Value for Money

Many designers, developers and agencies use common DIY platforms but build their own themes or skins to customise the pages. Or use code and frameworks to build a site from scratch. No matter the option, hiring a professional is going to get you a better result than if you were to attempt it yourself.