What is a Good Website Worth?
The correlation in a client’s mind between the cost paid and the value received is particularly strained when it comes to web design. Sometimes I’ve felt like a used car salesman talking to the lonely widow trying to trade in her dusty old Hillman Hunter for a new sportscar. Am I shitting them? Am I trying to make them watch my left hand while the right hand lifts their superannuation? No. Simply, as a basic rule you get what you pay for in web design.
Eric Karjaluoto’s essay Sweatpants forever discusses exactly that scenario – big legal firm wants to show they are outside the box but at a pinch they go back to the original designers for another (third of the price) imminent failure.
A lot of companies do just this. They take care of all kinds of things only to get sloppy with their messaging and presentation, thinking that their website or brand can be built by an 18 year old in Romania. Sure, the price may seem attractive, but the true cost is debilitating! If you want to differentiate your company, get ready to invest. It will cost you both in terms of a commitment to your organization and from a monetary standpoint. Then of course, you don’t want to wear those sweatpants forever, do you?Eric Karjaluoto
First and foremost look at your website as a business investment. What are your business goals and objectives? What is your marketing message – your authentic story that compels people to go hear it? What is the site for and what do you consider success or failure? How exactly will that success be measured? In short, you need a plan to achieve the successful website goal just like other business goals. If you pay some kid to punch up a few cheap pages you’re just pissing money into the wind and whinging about the spray. Do this right, invest from your marketing budget, don’t be a cheapskate – and trust a few professionals.
One of the problems is the myth of the industry that anyone can make a website. And as an industry we’ve made instant Content Management Systems and blogging platforms that allow the ordinary folk to put up a website in an hour or three. Even a half decent one. Now listen to this next line – businesses need to understand that with billions of websites out there it is pointless just putting up six pages of second rate rubbish. Every word on the page, every image, everything between the lines needs to be justified against that marketing message and the goals you’ve defined.
If you’re a business with a website I’d like to ask you a question. How much money did your website make you this year? How did you measure it? And, how much do you forecast it will make in the next year?
If you aren’t able to answer those questions then you probably don’t have a business website. I’d guess if you have a website you skimped. I’d guess if you hired a high school kid you didn’t make a cent from it.
Now let’s flip that on its head… what if someone told you that although there was risk you could substantially improve your bottom line if you invested in your online marketing strategy to specifically target certain people who have money and are interested in your product? You’d be an idiot not to invest, right? Right.
The worth of websites generally correlates, but not guaranteed to correlate, to the money and experience invested in achieving those business goals. In short, if you invest in research and development then you will possibly make money. If you fail to invest then you will nearly NEVER make money. And if your competitors do it right and you do it wrong then you’ve just got one hell of a lot of piss spray over the whole front of your business – you’ve lost the ballgame.
Let’s stop thinking this is an industry primarily about pretty pictures, or price, or content management. Business websites are about return on investment / wealth generation / specific strategies to achieve specific goals against measurable objectives.
It’s like doing business from a lemonade stand versus trading from a boutique salon.
