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Our Secret for Affordable WordPress Websites

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Are you a small business owner or non-profit with an unlimited budget for your website? If you’re like most of us, you’re not. Today, we are happy to share our top five secrets for scoring professionally designed affordable WordPress websites. Read on to see how it’s entirely possible to hire a good website designer for a basic WordPress website with 1-10 pages for under $2500. These are all secrets that the bigger web design firms do not want you to know.

SECRET #1

You're paying for their overhead

While a fancy commercial space looks appealing and professional, it’s not entirely necessary in today’s world. If the pandemic has shown us nothing else, smart companies have realized that office space is often unnecessary. Hiring a freelancer or agency that doesn’t have this expense will serve you well. They can afford to charge you less for your website if they are saving on this large expense.

Your website should both reflect your mission statement and be an extension of it. Think of it as a way to further explain the work you do, the goals you’d like to reach and how others can help you get there.

SECRET #2

You're paying for their outdated model

Before well-coded premium WordPress themes were developed and easily available for purchase, web design and development firms had no choice but to develop their own custom themes. First, a designer would spend many hours on branding, wireframes, and the overall look and feel for the website. Then a developer would take the design and translate it into a website with hours of custom coding. Often the two would be at odds with each other which would then require more hours from each to agree or make concessions. With a combined total of 100 hours (which is not unusual or unreasonable in this model) at $100/hr or more, it’s not a surprise why bigger firms are charging $10,000+ for this part of a basic website. Add in the cost for SEO, project management, revisions, and photography, and don’t be surprised if this amount doubles.

Here’s the shocker – most larger design firms still use this model.

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SECRET #3

You can get magnificant code for under $100

WordPress developers figured out over a decade ago that they could make far more money if they sold their code in bulk. There are sites like my favorite, Themeforest, that have over 10,000 premium WordPress themes that make for affordable WordPress websites. It’s important to choose a theme carefully – I only buy themes that are well tested in the marketplace, are well ranked, and have good theme support.

SECRET #4

You can afford to hire a good web designer by using a premium theme

A professional web designer can easily use a premium theme and save you thousands of dollars by shaving off all of the development time needed for a custom theme. Their affordable WordPress websites can look as good or better than a custom-coded theme. Well-supported themes are also updated regularly (as opposed to a custom theme) ensuring that your code is up to date and stays compatible with your WordPress core and plugin code.

SECRET #5

You don't have to pay top dollar for branding and design

While a good graphic designer is well worth it for larger or more expensive projects, if you are building a basic website on a budget, you can work with your web designer on the design elements like colors, fonts, and images. You can even get an affordable logo by going to freelance bidding websites like Fiverr where newer freelance graphic designers will compete for your logo business. Some web designers also design logos and may give you a discount for bundled services.