How “cheap” websites affect your business

It’s no secret that having cheap websites affect your business. But how do you know if your website is too cheap? And more importantly, what can you do about it? In this blog post, we’ll explain the dangers of having a cheap website and how to make sure your business doesn’t suffer because of it.

Let’s be honest – there are tons of “free” or “inexpensive” options to quickly build yourself a website online… and with the state of the economy in this day and age, it is extremely tempting for new business owners or businesses trying to expand or branch out, to choose the seemingly quick and easy option. It saves time, money, and the hassle of dealing with another company in order to understand your vision. What harm can it do, a website is a website…right?

Unfortunately, you couldn’t be more wrong. If you try to cut costs when it comes to something as vital as your company website, you may severely damage your potential to attract customers online.

Firstly, we must ask the most important question – why is having a website for your business so important? It is 2022, most consumers are online and digitally thriving. Technology has made it easier to browse and shop online than to physically go to a store. Chances are, the majority of your target market will be online, looking for what you have to sell. Having an online presence, especially in the form of a website, allows you to not only market your business online but to create recognition, build trust and credibility for your brand, engage customers and offer support – ultimately boosting sales and revenue.

Now that we have established that a website is crucial, acting as a sales funnel for new leads and potential customers, let’s have a look at why a “cheap” website can harm your online success.

Several business owners go into the process of getting a new website with the following mentality:

• I’m starting fresh, I don’t need a big, fancy website
• I don’t have the budget for an expensive website, rather spend money elsewhere
• I have so many options online, I can do it myself
• I want something simple and straightforward
• I don’t have the time to explain to someone else what I want
• I think websites are a waste of time and money

The problem with the above-mentioned mentalities, is that you will most likely end up with a subpar, poorly built website that gives a bad first impression of your business or does not accurately depict your professionalism – which goes against the very point of having a website in the first place. Below, we look at a few important factors that “cheap” websites miss out on, that will directly impact your business negatively.

• Low SEO rankings

Most “cheaper” or inexpensive websites are not search engine optimized. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization “is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic (known as “natural” or “organic” results) rather than paid traffic.” Good optimization takes time, keyword and audience research, good quality content, website analytics and more – it takes several months to ensure that a website is well optimized. A non-optimized site will most likely not even be found within the first 80-100 search pages, making it extremely difficult to find your website online among thousand or even millions of similar resources.

• Slow and unresponsive website

Website speed might not be something you consider as important or even think about when building your website, however, it is something you notice almost instantly when browsing a website. It becomes quite frustrating waiting ages for a page to load or time out, leading to website visitors becoming impatient and giving up on your site – which results in losing a potential lead or customer. Additionally, Google will also give you a lower rank if your site is too slow.

• Poor design

The purpose of a well-designed website is to attract attention, make a good impression and lure customers in – ultimately nurturing leads and improved conversions. Secondly, it also helps users navigate your website, leading to a user-friendly experience. An important factor to remember is to take cross-browsing into consideration and to ensure that your design is optimized for every device – desktop or mobile. Unfortunately skimping on a website also means skimping on standards, design quality and user-friendliness. A poor layout or design might easily confuse or frustrate visitors, causing them to leave and move on to a competitor instead.