Web Design Q&A

As Tabitha has discussed, there are many pros and cons to hiring a website designer and going down the DIY route. Website builders like Wix, Shopify and WordPress are cheap - with monthly subscriptions typically starting from as little as $10 per month. Mind you, that fee doesn’t include the SSL certificate, website hosting, domain name and custom theme options. All in all, the DIY option is going to cost between $300 and $500. 

The biggest downside of DIY website builder options is that you are limited as to what you can do, and unless you have an eye for design and time to build the site, it may not align with the vision you had for your website.

If you need a custom-built website that is highly functional and user-friendly, hiring a professional website designer is probably the best option. Website design costs boil down to two factors: the size and complexity of the project. However, on average small businesses can expect to pay from $3,000 + for a custom-built website.

Would love to hear your thoughts @Meng Lin 

Hi Heidi,

If you're selling online then you will probably have an automated email that goes out to your customer on purchase. You can customise the message to send them a direct link to your Google Review page or back to Facebook page, or in other words, make it really easy for them to give a review in the first place.     

The second part of having them automatically displayed on your website is (as the other contributors have mentioned), going to come down to a 3rd party tool or plugin. I'm using Repuso, which I like for the fact that you can configure feeds from multiple sources.

Feel free to give it a try.

https://repuso.com?via=mark91
  

I think that overall many clients are unwilling to give designers and/or design agencies the freedom to create something genuinely interesting and unique.

It has been a staple in my professional design career to run into clients that have no design experience, but feel they are perfectly qualified to judge or dictate design. These same clients wouldn't argue with a lawyer, plumber or mechanic, but designers are not respected as a profession in many parts of the world. This perception needs to change.

The best way is to limit who you work with as a client. Remind them they came to you and you want their business to succeed. Sometimes you need to work a client up in phases of what they consider "risk". Innovation and design are both tricky business.

The other issue is many junior or hobbyist designers do not understand how to correctly structure information to create easily consumable content. The structure of the information is just as important (if not more sometimes) than the visual aesthetic.

A common problem for many website designers is that they provide one off transactions for clients.  

For clients on the other hand, a website is a simply a marketing tool which won't provide any value unless people find it.  

If I were a web designer I would find like minded partners that can provide these crucial complimentary services and take a commission.  This should build an ongoing revenue, keep the web designer involved with clients journey through online marketing, provide additional revenue opportunities & with the right SEO, PPC & Social Media partners you should receive referring work back through for web design work.

Providing complete solutions should allow for better margins & better conversion from leads into sale.  It might take a little bit of effort to establish, but you might have 100+ clients that can be referred through your soon to be created network.  That sounds like untapped opportunity.