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How Much Does Website Design in Northern Ireland Cost?
Website design encompasses many parts of your website you may not even think of. These factors include:
· Content marketing
· Functionality
· Marketing integrations
· Mobile web design
· Search engine optimisation
· Security
· User interface
Investing in the services of a web design agency allows you to have a website design which works for your business.
Why Should You Invest in Website Design?
Website design is not only good for making your website look good but instead works for you as a key part of your digital marketing strategy. Good web design has many benefits including:
1. Creating A Good Experience For Users
A well designed website is an investment for your business and the best way to recoup that investment is to ensure your users have a good experience. A good customer experience starts with a good first impression on the home page which prevents gaining a high bounce rate. Bounce rate refers to how many people leave you website having only seen the first page. By including interesting links and products on your home page you can improve this bounce rate and improve conversions.
If your website is well designed visitors to your website should be able to find information on products, services, and about your company with ease. Well sign-posted tabs, interesting imagery, and well written content will appeal to visitors on your site and encourage them to look further into your business. Consumers that are able to make purchases easily are more likely to buy things on your website, this is where your investment rewards your business.
2. Giving Your Customers Important Information About Products And Services
Web page content and blog content are both great ways to give more information to your customers about your products or even your industry as a whole, answering questions they want answers to.
Blogs give new information to potential customers and highlight the need for your product or service, and the benefits of buying it. If you write a blog about digital marketing for example, you can easily link to your digital marketing classes or services. These in-context links help your customers navigate your site and tell them more about your business.
3. Improving Your SEO
A well designed website is an investment for your business and to fully gain from that investment it is important to generate traffic to your website. The best way to generate traffic is to ensure you are using Search Engine Optimisation techniques throughout. Good website design doesn’t only look good but works to optimise your websites’ potential, this can be done through several methods including:
- Using keywords that are commonly searched for throughout your site to improve your ranking on the SERP.
- Writing blogs which use long-tail keywords to generate high quality leads.
- Added pages makes a website in-depth appealing to search engine algorithms to improve your chances of ranking highly.
4. Providing A Platform For Ecommerce
Ecommerce is a term for buying and selling goods and services online and is an incredibly important tool in digital marketing today. Almost everyone has bought something online as a convenient option for shopping. When creating an ecommerce store on your website the design plays an important role in the success of the business. Important things to think about when using your website as an ecommerce platform include:
- Security, ensuring customers can trust your site with their sensitive information is essential in having them make a purchase. An ecommerce site also must be PCI compliant under UK law.
- Brand recognition, your aesthetic design choices should be recognizable across your digital marketing to help build a relationship with consumers.
- Modern and sleek design, if your site looks professional and your products look of high quality it shows customers their value and encourages sales.
Trust is the most important thing in the design of an ecommerce site and websites which are not trusted will be unlikely to make sales. Investing in your ecommerce site’s design can have a massive return if it builds your brand recognition and trust with your customers.
5. Allowing Compatibility Across Platforms
Mobile compatibility is essential in modern website design and ensuring your website runs smoothly and quickly on any platform can make the difference in whether people continue to use it. Having a slow moving homepage or one which does not load on mobile devices can cause you to have an increased bounce rate, losing you valuable leads.
How Much Does Web Design in Northern Ireland Cost?
Website design encompasses many aspects which add costs to the process and that can make hiring a professional agency expensive. Some of the aspects of a website that add costs include:
Assets
Assets for your website are the images, videos, and graphics which are included in the design. High quality videos and imagery go a long way to pulling in visitors to your website. In the case of ecommerce sites, imagery of your products is essential for your website design. If you are setting up an ecommerce site for an existing product range you may have assets already created and therefore save money. Images in the appropriate size and quality are essential to give your website a professional look. A website with pixelated imagery or low quality graphics may put off potential customers to your site and increase your bounce rate.
Written Content
If you are a strong writer you may want to write your website content yourself however the writing on your website is a key SEO tool. This means you may want expert help to write your content to ensure it is keyword rich to help you rank highly in the SERP. Written content goes in all your pages and can also be used to create a blog
.
Blogs are a great SEO tool which helps improve rankings on keywords and long-tail keywords which produce strong leads. Long-tail keywords are phrases of around three to four words which appeal to consumers who are ready to make a purchase. Keywords that end in ‘near me’ for example.
Content writers employed by web design agencies are trained in techniques to help your content rank for the keywords you want. By ranking highly for keywords your website is more likely to be recommended by search engines to consumers.
Plug-Ins
Plug-ins are a software that can be added to your website without altering its original framework. Plug-ins can be used in a wide variety of ways such as adding a specific theme to your website. Plug-ins can also help your website host YouTube or Vimeo assets creating a more interesting look to your homepage.
Security
Having a secure website is an important feature as problems such as viruses may slow down or break your website. Security features are very important to websites designed for ecommerce. When selling online you must build trust with consumers in order for them to be comfortable sharing their sensitive information. There are also legal reasons why an ecommerce site must have high security as it must be PCI Compliant.
Short for Payment Card Industry Compliance, PCI Compliance is a legal requirement for businesses in the UK. There are several requirements that businesses must meet to be PCI Compliant such as encryption of cardholder data and maintaining firewalls and antivirus software.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and it affects every aspect of your website’s design. The idea is to make your website look as good as possible to search engines to ensure you rank highly on the SERP for keywords relating to your business. SEO is essential to digital marketing and ecommerce and is a worthy investment for your business’s future.
When you hire a web design agency part of the cost of the team of experts in SEO they employ. They have knowledge about the latest SEO techniques and keyword research to ensure your website ranks and brings in increased visitor numbers.
Size
It may seem obvious but the size of the website you want to design will have a large impact on costs. Websites should have a few key pages such as homepage, about us, contact, and information pages on services or products. If you want to have an extensive catalogue of products or services on your website it will increase the size of your website and this will increase costs. You may opt to design your website then add pages over time as a more cost effective plan.
Speed
Loading speeds are an important part of a website as it contributes to the overall user experience. A website which loads slowly may be a deterrent for users visiting your site and continuing to explore as it becomes frustrating. Having visitors come to your website and leave after only viewing one page increases your website’s bounce rate. This is a negative for your SEO and makes it less likely your website will be suggested to other consumers.
The hosting of your website is not included in the design process but it is an additional cost to consider. Some website agencies offer website hosting as well as website design and it may be cheaper to consider a package including both. The costs of your website design may also be affected by the size of the web design agency you choose to work with.
Small vs. Big Web Design Agency Costs
Another factor in how much web design in Northern Ireland costs is the size of the web design agency you work with on the project. The size of their staff, the services they provide, and the reputation they have in the industry all contribute to a difference in price. A smaller web design agency is usually cheaper but there are pros and cons to either option you should consider.
A smaller web design agency may offer more personalised service and advice as there are less people working on the project overall and their focus is more on you. This also prevents crossed wires which may occur when information is passed around a larger agency.
Larger agencies may offer greater experience as they have grown in the industry and have likely been in the industry much longer. This experience and skillset is invaluable to you if you need advice and expert opinions. However, smaller agencies often fall into a specialist niche which may be helpful if you are catering to a niche industry. This niche has helps and hindrances as you don’t want the work done on your website to be too similar to that of competitors.
Large agencies also offer stability as they are less at risk in times of crisis such as pandemic or economic crash. However, both small and large organisations can and do survive these circumstances but with a smaller team, small agencies do have less people to cover work if someone is ill or leaves the agency. This means greater stability is given by large agencies.
It is best to choose an agency whose work best fits what you need from your web design and whose costs fit your budget. The size of the agency is just one part of their overall package and it is important to consider a lot of different factors when finding the right web design agency for you.
How much does web design in Northern Ireland cost?
Web design in Northern Ireland costs different for each website varying from hundreds to thousands. When choosing a web design agency you should ensure you have researched your options and got quotes from agencies that can fulfil your needs. Budget is an important thing to consider when investing in your web design. It is also important to pose a budget to potential web design agencies when asking about their services to best know what they can do for you.
A Bit About ProfileTree
We are an award-winning content marketing agency based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We help our clients generate leads and sales through structured digital strategy, sleek web design and engaging digital content. We can help create a plan for your businesses future which enables you to reach new audiences and increase engagement with your brand and content. We have years of experience in the industry and a dedicated content team ready to produce high ranking digital content for your business. Our team work with you to create blog, website, video, and social media content which is true to your business and helps you grow in your industry.