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September 24,2024
How to Get a High Quality Website
One of our favourite quotes is “If it’s done right, it’ll last forever”, a statement that is specifically true for how important a quality website company, with talented developers and designers is. Sure, you could get a website built for you, or even build one yourself both at a lower cost than professional website builders you’ve seen around, but there will be costs with this decision – elements that get missed, security that lacks, and performance that struggles in comparison to your competitors…
In this article…
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Heres why finding a quality website company is so important:
Why finding a quality website company matters
It’s is essential for creating a strong online presence. Keep in mind that your website often serves as the first point of contact with potential customers, and a well-designed, professional site can make a all of the difference in how your business is perceived.
Outside of how your website looks, you want it to perform well, and be accessible to all – A good, quality website company will ensure that your website is not only visually appealing but also user-friendly and accessible, which enhances the overall user experience and keeps your visitors engaged.
Following this, at a quality website company, experienced developers will be available, and are crucial for optimising your website for search engines. This means ensuring fast loading times, implementing necessary security measures and more.
Investing in a quality website company can save you money in the long run as it reduces the need for frequent fixes and updates. Overall, a high-quality website enhances brand consistency, supports scalability, and more contributing to the long-term success of your business.
You might now be wondering. How do I know if a company is quality or not? To figure this out, let’s go back to the basics.
What Is Quality?
A quick google search will tell you that quality is defined as ‘the degree of excellence of something’ – this usually permits to a high degree of that something, for example. A pair of headphones, vs a pair of quality headphones will ring a slightly different, more convincing tone than the latter.
Quality in the context of web development refers to the degree of excellence in design, functionality, usability, performance, and security of a website. A quality website meets and often exceeds user expectations.
Why Quality Matters:
User Experience: A high-quality website provides an excellent user experience, making it easy for visitors to find information and perform desired actions. This keeps users engaged and increases the likelihood of conversions.
Trust and Credibility: A well-designed and functional website builds trust and credibility with your audience. Users are more likely to trust a business that presents itself professionally online.
SEO and Visibility: Quality websites are optimised for search engines, leading to better visibility and higher rankings. This attracts more organic traffic and potential customers.
Security: A secure website protects user data and builds confidence, especially for ecommerce sites handling sensitive information like banking details.
Scalability and Maintenance: High-quality websites are built to scale and are easier to maintain, saving time and costs in the long run!
So, while getting a quality website sounds great, what does that added quality impact?
Objective: The primary objectives of prioritising quality in web development is to create a website that effectively meets business goals, whether it’s driving sales, generating leads, or building brand awareness. Quality ensures the site performs well.
Time: Investing in quality may require more time upfront in terms of planning, design, development, and testing. However, this investment of time pays off by reducing the need for frequent fixes, updates, and redesigns in the future. High-quality websites are more durable and might require less time to maintain, allowing businesses to focus on other critical areas.
Cost: While developing a high-quality website might involve higher initial costs, it is often more cost-effective in the long term. Quality websites are built to last, reducing the need for frequent, costly repairs and redesigns. They also perform better in attracting and converting visitors, leading to higher returns on investment.
How to get a quality website
Getting a quality website comes down to optimising, planning and building around a few different areas, these include:
- Design
- Development
- Support
- Marketing
The design of your website is crucial in determining whether it’s perceived as high or low quality. The type of website you choose to build can significantly influence its effectiveness and quality.
Bespoke Builds:
Custom or bespoke designs are created from scratch by a professional web designer and/or design team to meet the specific needs and preferences of a client. This approach offers the highest level of uniqueness and flexibility, as the design is tailored specifically to your brand and requirements – and, is done by a professional.
However, custom designs are generally the most expensive option. The time and expertise required to create a unique design from the ground up does contribute to higher costs.
- Unique design elements: No two bespoke websites look the same, making your brand stand out.
- Custom functionality: Features and functionalities are built to match your exact requirements, enhancing user experience.
- Scalability: They can grow and evolve with your business needs.
Reusing an Old Custom Design:
Reusing an old custom design involves taking a previously created website design and adapting it for a new project. Repurposing an older custom design can be cost-effective and time-saving. However, the quality of this approach depends on the relevance and quality of the existing design.
Edited Templates:
Edited templates involve taking a pre-designed template and customising it to fit your specific needs. This method strikes a balance between cost and customisation, offering more flexibility than a standard template but at a lower cost than a fully custom design
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- Less expensive than bespoke builds but more customisable than basic templates.
- Quicker to design and build around as the core structure is already in place.
Templates:
Templates are pre-built website designs that can be quickly and easily set up. They are the most cost-effective option but will lack any uniqueness, and as a result lack quality:
- Easy to set up and use, ideal for small businesses or startups.
- Often constrained by the template’s design and functionality.
- Your business is at risk of looking similar to other websites using the same template.
How to Make It High Quality
Regardless of the type of website you choose, certain elements can elevate its quality:
Ensure It’s Targeted to the Audience: Understand your audience’s needs and preferences. Design your website to cater to these, ensuring that the content, layout, and features resonate with them.
Analyse your competitors‘ websites and work to offer something better. This could be through superior design, more intuitive navigation, or more valuable content.
Call to Action (CTA): Design your website with conversions in mind. Effective CTAs are used for guiding visitors towards desired actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. Make sure these CTAs stand out, and are easy to navigate.
Effective CTAs are crucial for guiding users towards desired actions and enhancing the overall user experience. To achieve this, there were both design and content considerations. For the design, we needed it to be clear to navigate, but also wanted to include elements that had been used throughout the website to build on that consistency. Content-wise, we crafted clear, concise messages that highlight the benefits of taking action, employing persuasive language and a sense of urgency to drive engagement.
Results of Quality Design
There are numerous benefits of having a quality designed website for your business. Not only will your products or services appear more professional and trustworthy, a fresh and unique design will build excitement and even encourage users to engage with your brand.
Additionally, by using custom, high-quality images that go beyond using stock photos. Edited or layered images that reflect your brand and services create stronger engagement and a more personal connection with your audience. These can also be used as brand elements throughout your socials, further improving your overall branding.
Ultimately, a well designed quality website not only attracts visitors but keeps them engaged. The combination of good design, relevant content, and good navigation builds a stronger link to your services, increasing the likelihood of conversions or repeat visits.
You might need to revamp your websites current design, figure out if thats the case in our guide to website redesign
By focusing on these elements, you can ensure that your website stands out as a high-quality, effective tool for your business.
Development
How you get your website developed can be the difference between something that is secure, fast and considered high quality, and something that is slow, buggy, easy to hack and more.
There are a range of different ways that developers can build your website in WordPress.
Custom Build Following WP Methods:
This approach involves developing the website from the ground up, with a focus on code. By following the WP methods, developers can optimise the website for speed, ensuring fast load times and a smooth user experience. This attention to detail also makes the website easier to update and maintain, reducing the risk of issues arising from WordPress updates and lowering long-term maintenance costs.
Custom Build:
Custom builds are fully tailored solutions developed to meet specific needs and preferences. This approach offers lots of flexibility allowing developers to use any programming language, that suits the project best.
Custom builds offer complete freedom but requires more effort to ensure maintainability and security.
Builds with lots of plugins:
A custom build with lots of plugins strikes a balance between a fully tailored solution and leveraging pre-existing tools to speed up development. This approach involves creating a website using a custom-built foundation while integrating numerous WordPress plugins to add functionality and will often require custom code.
Another alternative to the custom builds with lots of plugins is to use a template build. While this is quicker to do, it comes with the complications of compatibility and security issues.
Challenges of Plugin Heavy Builds:
- Relying heavily on plugins can negatively impact site performance. Each plugin adds additional code, which can increase load times, and make the website harder to debug.
- Some plugins may have vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers. It’s essential to carefully select plugins from reputable developers and keep them updated to minimise risks.
- There’s a higher risk of compatibility issues, Plugins can cause errors, break site functionality, and complicate things like updating.
The benefits of quality website development
When it comes to building a high-performing website, quality development is key. Investing in meticulous development practices ensures that your site not only functions seamlessly but also excels in speed, security, and is easier to maintain in the longrun. Here’s a look at the benefits that quality development brings to your website.
Good Coding Practices: Good coding practices are the foundation of good web development. A good development team will use good coding practices, and as a result reduce bugs and simplify future updates.
Website speed: This is crucial for user satisfaction and SEO. Speed not only improves user experience but also affects search engine rankings, making it a critical aspect of quality development.
For example, in a recent scan, one of our wordpress websites had a score of 100%.
(see below)
This means that the site is fully optimised, this demonstrates a commitment to delivering top-tier performance, ensuring that the websites we make meet the highest standards of speed and reliability.
Enhanced Performance and Speed: A quality-developed website leverages best practices in coding, caching, and optimisation to ensure rapid loading times. This results in a smoother user experience, reduced bounce rates, and more. Faster websites not only attract and retain visitors but also gain favor with search engines.
Marketing
A quality marketing strategy, paired with a well-built website, can significantly boost your business’ ability to convert leads. When your website is designed and developed with quality in mind, it will enhance user experience, making it easier for visitors to engage with your content and take action—whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting you. This increase in conversions translates directly into higher sales and business growth.
Moreover, Google loves fast, well-structured websites. Search engine optimisation (SEO) becomes easier with clean code, quick load times, and a mobile-responsive design. A well-built site isn’t just liked by users—it’s favored by Google, which can improve your search engine ranking and bring in more organic traffic.
Your Business Impact
Investing in a high-quality website doesn’t just offer short-term results—it creates long-term value for your business. A well-built site, crafted with durable design and forward-thinking development practices, can last longer before requiring significant updates or overhauls. This means fewer costs for rebuilds and ongoing maintenance. Additionally, a high-quality site will perform better in your marketing campaigns, as users will trust the professional look and a better functionality.
In the long run, your investment in quality pays off with greater longevity, better performance, and more robust results from your marketing efforts. Your business benefits from a website that stands the test of time while continually supporting growth.
Is a quality website it worth it?
Absolutely. While the initial cost of a high-quality website may be higher, it pays off over time.
Heres what you need to expect with a quality website…
Cost:
While the initial cost of a quality website is typically higher than a template-based option, it proves more cost-effective over time. A high-quality website is built to last, meaning fewer updates, fewer bugs, and lower long-term maintenance costs. The initial investment pays off by reducing the need for frequent repairs and rebuilds.Longer Lifespan:
A high-quality website doesn’t need to be rebuilt as frequently. While lower-cost websites may require a rebuild every 2-3 years, high-end websites can last 4-6 years or even longer. We’ve had clients with websites that have lasted over 10 years and still receive compliments today—proving that investing in quality up front can pay for years to come.While things like emplates can offer a quick and affordable setup, they often come with limitations in terms of customisation and flexibility. Over time, as your business grows and needs change, updating or expanding a template-based website can become more challenging, especially if the original template doesn’t support new features or updates.
In contrast, a custom-built website is designed with scalability in mind, allowing for easier adjustments, updates, and more, which makes it more efficient to maintain in the long run.
Higher Conversion Rates:
One of the biggest benefits of a quality website is its ability to convert visitors into customers. A well-designed, quality site is more effective at guiding users to take action, whether that’s making a purchase, filling out a contact form, or signing up for a newsletter. Over time, this means a higher-quality website will not only last longer but also generate more business.
Final Thoughts
Getting a quality website is absolutely crucial for a variety of reasons, not only does it benefit your business in regards to conversion rates, and engagement. It also helps to change and improve peoples opinions of your business.
First impressions are very important which is why getting your website perfect is super important!
Once you take into consideration the different costs and areas associated with a quality website you can make the steps to ensure your site is in the best possible condition it can be. And, you should always be striving to continuously improve it.
