Average price for Web Design in South Africa (In May 2010)

A recent study from web-design.co.za has yielded some interesting results.  Below you will find the average cost of web design in South Africa.  The below article re-affirms our competitve pricing in the market place!

'Over the years, we've had some potential clients tell us we're expensive, and others ask if we inadvertently left off a zero on our quote because we're so cheap. Eventually, towards the end of 2009, our curiosity got the better of us and we decided to investigate.

We anonymously emailed 100 web design companies and asked for a web design quote. Of course, websites vary in scope and spec, so in order to get consistent quotes, we requested the website be a standard 5 pager with no animation or fancy programming.

INITIAL RESULT

Of the 58 web design companies that even bothered responding, the website prices ranged substantially.  Specifically, a standard 5 page website was quoted between R 600.00 and R 28 200.00.

At this point, our curiosity was piqued even more. We wanted to know why there was such a wide range of web design prices, so we decided to investigate further. We looked through the online portfolios of every web design company that had quoted us and what we found was consistent with our suspicions. The work standard of these web designers differed considerably.

So in order to compare apples with apples, we then split the quotes up into 3 categories, those with good quality work, those with average quality work and those with bad quality work.

Our finding were as follows..

GOOD WEB DESIGNERS

The 8 web designers that offered good quality websites, charged an average price of R 7 268.13 for a 5 page website. Generally we found these prices were justified. They offered good quality web design with clean coding that would likely do ok in the SERPS (search engine result pages). There was one company that charged excessively high, but another that charged exessively low, so it balanced out in the end.

OK WEB DESIGNERS

The 22 web designers that offered ok quality websites, charged an average price of R 5 260.11 for a 5 page website. They offered ok web design (nothing exciting) that might do ok in the SERPS. Apart from one web design company that had to have been smoking crack to demand such a high price, we found the rest were either justified or quoting a little too low.

BAD WEB DESIGNERS

The 28 web designers that offered poor quality websites, charged an average price of R 3 330.40 for a 5 page website. Barring the one or two web designers that were practically giving away websites, generally, we found the quality of work in the bad category so poor, that we think these web designers should find new careers - because any amount of money they charge a client will be too much for what they offer.

CONCLUSION

So for clients, the moral of the story...
Most of the time, you get what you pay for, a lot of the time you waste your money, and occasionally you find a diamond in the rough. It's important to be discerning, when you choose a web design company. Don't look at price alone, go through web design company's online portfolio / example work before making a decision.

Lastly, be wary of web design companies that will give you an excessively low price on web design in the event that you host with them. Often the hosting packages are so astronomical that in the long run, you have paid for the web design over and over again.'

Article by Roxane Lapa of .COZA Web Design
www.coza-web.co.za

 

The age old question - Why do you need a website?

Many businesses across the world are struggling, yes because of the economy but also because they don’t understand the importance of having a website to promote their business online. This post is about why a quality website is so important to a business and why your business needs to get one today.

Here are our top 5 reasons why your small business needs a website.

1. Reach More Potential Customers

Whether you are targeting locals or the whole world, having a website for your small business means you can reach more of your audience, much more easily and cheaply. The children of the 90′s are now in their 20′s and have disposable income. They grew up with the internet and it’s their primary tool to find information, products and compare almost everything – so if they are part of your target audience a website is a must.

2. It’s Always there

Your office / shop may have hours of 9 to 5, Monday to Friday but why should that mean you have to stop selling or stop telling people why to do business with you? Exactly, you shouldn’t have to stop – a website is your 24/7 salesman, that costs a small percentage of a real sales man.

3. Generate a Professional Image

A professionally designed business website is a sure way to instil confidence in new customers who may not be familiar with your business. Maybe they are comparing you with another business that doesn’t have a website, your website will help to give an impression that they are dealing with a company they can trust. A professional image will also generate a subconscious level of trust in your company.

4. No More Yellow Pages!

Remember in the 90′s we’d get a huge yellow book on our door step, it got thinner and thinner until today it’s … well tiny. The reason for this is the Yellow Pages, just like other telephone directories, are a thing of the past. If someone wants to find a “Piano Lessons in Cape Town” they search for it online, they usually don’t even consider looking at a paper directory.  Also due to the decline in size of the paper directory less and less are being delivered, so what was once in every household is no in relatively few.

5. Always up to date!

Most quality websites are designed using a Content Management System, basically an administration area so that you are in control of the website. If you need a change to some content or to add products or view orders placed on a website, you can without needing to ask your website designer! Day or Night you can always update, add or delete content – making your website Always Up to Date!
One example of a CMS is Word Press, it is the most widely used CMS in the world and is estimate to power over 30 million websites, including this website!

 

Web Fact - People judge your business by your website.

“75% of web users admit making judgments about the credibility of an organization based on the design of its web site” – BJ Fogg, Stanford Web Credibility Project

The Stanford University Web Credibility Project developed the 10 guidelines of web credibility based on three years of research that included over 4500 people. You should use these guidelines to improve the trustworthiness of your website. Read full article here.