How to buy a website - Webfactory

Choosing the right company to take forward your website can be a daunting task. There are so many different options and this can be very confusing especially if this is the first time you have ever had a website designed.

To help you through this minefield we have put together a short guide with some helpful tips.

Things you should expect:

• You should expect to pay a fee for building the site if it is a bespoke design
• You should expect to pay a fee for the hosting of your website
• Normally it will take around a month or two to get a website up and running when you take into account design reviews
• You should expect to provide some or all of the content for the site which may or may not include images

What size web design company should I go with?
You should think carefully about what sort of web design business you choose as this will determine the sort of website you end up with and the price you pay.
We like to equate buying a website with buying a car.

• Buying your website from a very small business or individual is like buying your car from the side of the road, you might get an amazing deal and save a fortune or you might end up with a total wreck which will be nothing but trouble. It might work for a few weeks, but when something goes wrong and you try to get hold of the guy who sold it to you, you can’t find him anywhere.

.Buying from a large business is like buying a Porsche, sure it’s going to be incredible and probably the best car you ever had however you’re paying an awful lot for their fancy office and the prestige of their name on your bonnet.

• Buying from a middle sized business, like WebFactore, is like buying a Volkswagen. It’s not going to be as cheap as the banger however you will always know that you have a proven reliable car and when something goes wrong you always give them a call and know they will be there to help you.

Buying Tips:

• Get a few quotes for your project
• Google the company you are thinking of going with e.g. ‘problems with…’
• View the company’s past work, is it up to scratch, try Googling the company name and look at the sites they didn’t show you in their portfolio
• Look for testimonials, what have past customers said about the company
• Don’t go for the cheapest quote, do you really want your website designed by a company whose unique selling point is the price, will they cut corners to cut costs?
• Check if they are based in the UK, some of the very cheap prices are cheap because the work is sent abroad, from experience we find that it’s always better to have someone in the UK who you can speak to on the phone and get the right end result.

Things to watch out for:

• Some companies claim to work in the UK but in fact only the sales team is UK based. Google the company to see what you can find out; ask for a clause that if they do send the work overseas you can get your money back.
• Hidden costs. When you have your website built there will always be the build cost and the hosting cost. If the company is not charging you for one of these, the cost of one is subsidising the other. Why is this important? If the company is not charging hosting and has a very low price then you need to think what kind of margins are they going to be making and how much time they can afford to spend on you.
• Very short turnaround times. If someone is promising to get your website up and running in a week, ask yourself how this is possible, either they aren’t going to spend much time on your site or they have no other work, why might this be?

Things to think about:

• How will you keep your website up-to-date? Will your designer be around in a year’s time?
• Your website is your store front on the web. Divide the cost of the site over how long you think it will stay current and compare the annual costs with other marketing channels such as Yell.com or Yellow Pages which can costs thousands every year for just a few lines.

We hope you have found this short guide helpful. If you would like some free advice please feel free to contact us on 0845 86 20 353 or email us.