Today, many customers looking to make a big purchase or try a new service will visit a company’s website first. Websites are efficient and effective tools for conveying how your organization solves customers’ needs. They are an immediate signal of your business’s credibility or lack thereof. 

Even when you intuitively know this as a customer, it can be overwhelming to think about as a business owner with your own website. With Utah web design costs on par with the rest of the country, you may worry about the return on investment of building a new website or redesigning your existing one.

Your hesitation is to be expected. Yet an effective, professional, high-quality website is key to growing your business. Let’s look at the benefits of having a website, your options for website design, and the average website cost for a small business. From there, you can decide whether you’d prefer to build a site yourself or choose to hire a Utah web designer.  

6 Benefits of a Website for a Small Business

The main goals of any website are to give your company credibility, build brand recognition, generate leads, and provide basic customer service. You can use it for community building via updates, event announcements, and SEO copywriting (blogging). It can also be a tool for expanding reach via digital marketing campaigns.

1. Credibility 

One of the main assets a website delivers is credibility. Imagine you are trying to choose between two new-to-you products. You can’t decide, so check both products’ websites for more information. 

You try to open product A’s site, but it won’t load on your phone. You can’t find information about the item you’re interested in. When you finally find it and click, the entire site freezes and crashes. 

You punch in product B’s site and quickly navigate to the item you’re considering. Without intending to, you end up researching and purchasing several products the company offers. 

Since over 70% of businesses have a website, you likely have some version of these experiences regularly. Whether aware of it or not, you form opinions about the websites you visit in about 0.05 seconds. If you have an experience like with product A’s site, they may have lost you as a customer, as almost 90% of users won’t return to a website after a bad experience.

2. Brand Recognition

On the other hand, a positive experience with a customer increases the chances of 

engagement. Research by Stanford University shows 75% of users base a company’s credibility on the design of its website. This may mean customers spend more time on your site getting to know and interact with your brand. If they’re happy with what you offer, they may highly recommend you to a friend.

An effective website establishes your brand and what it stands for. When it’s visually representative of your company, it sets you apart from competitors, which leads to increased profitability over time. 

3. Lead Generation 

Whether you’re looking to spread the word about your nonprofit to potential donors or bring in more return clients, generating leads is one of the top reasons to invest in custom website design. A well-designed site makes it easier for your target audience to discover and connect with you. 

When you work with a website design company in Utah, ensure the website design agency optimizes your site for search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) increases your company’s chances of showing up on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc. By performing the necessary research and understanding how to optimize your site, those looking for a product or service like yours are more likely to find you.  

4. Customer Service

A basic but necessary function of a website is answering simple questions. These may be questions about products and services, hours, location, or other related inquiries. 

Traditional phone and email question-and-answer systems rely on manual, one-off communication that can take up a lot of resources. A website, however, isn’t held back by any of those constraints. A well-designed website provides customers answers to frequently asked questions 24/7 and frees staff up for more productive tasks. 

5. Community Building 

Effective branding is not only brand recognition but also brand loyalty. When clients engage with your company over time, their repeat business has value beyond any individual purchase. 

Loyal clients become your community and your (free) brand ambassadors. They share your website or read your newsletter to get updates and announcements. Bonus points if your website is designed and built to accommodate running promos, opening a new location, or launching a new service, allowing you to stay in touch with and remain relevant to an audience that already knows and trusts you.

6. Digital Marketing 

Email, social media, and web-based advertising are all forms of digital marketing. Some companies also reach customers using text messages or video subscriptions. No matter how deeply you dive into the world of digital marketing, it all starts with a website. 

Your company website sets the tone for how you talk about the purpose of your business and connect with your customers, aka your brand voice and personality. Your site uses your company’s colors and logo to create a recognizable image and identity. It portrays your values and message to your target audience, positioning you to be successful amongst your competitors. 

When you create clarity around all these aspects using your website as a foundation, the path forward to expanding your marketing strategy is made easier.   

WordPress vs Squarespace 

Let’s be real. Even when you know your business needs a website, you probably don’t want to pay for one. That makes sense — seeing an ROI on a website can take months. 

The entrepreneurial spirit that made you a business owner may also make you wonder if you can create websites for your businesses on your own. With the right attitude and determination, of course, you can! 

There are two big names in the DIY website space: WordPress and Squarespace. You don’t need to know how to code to use them, and if you have enough time on your hands, they can be great ways to build your own website. 

Of course, they each come with challenges – though diving into their individual pros and cons deserves its own post. (Check out our WordPress vs. Squarespace comparison to see which is right for you.) One word of warning, be realistic about biting off more than you can chew — redesigning a website you just built but isn’t performing is especially frustrating.

The Average Cost of Website Design for a Small Business

If you aren’t sure you want to go the DIY route and spend several months or years building your own website, your next question will be, “How much does a website cost?” And you likely already know the answer: It depends. 

In general, the cost of website design for a small business can range widely from about $5,000 for small sites with out-of-the-box themes to $25,000 for larger, carefully researched, custom-designed, and efficiently developed sites that are one-of-a-kind. The total fee depends primarily on the number of pages you need and your requirements for unique website functionality. Costs for builds in certain industries, such as ecommerce, will be higher.  

If you’ve already attempted to build a website, you know it initially appears to be a less expensive route. But – like anything – if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right (and getting it right the first time). There are benefits to paying experts in web development to do the work for you. 

Website Design: Utah

The best website designers in Utah understand how to enhance user experience through intuitive navigation and functionality. They prioritize aesthetics, building and developing custom sites with unique and attractive layouts. They also understand that beauty is more than skin deep, adding multi-layered SEO features so you reach the right audience. 

Expert web design agencies know that reaching an audience means nothing without an income-generating call to action. They ensure the CTA is engaging in every format through responsive web design that loads quickly and correctly on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile. They give your site the support it needs by handling time-consuming project management, ongoing maintenance, and hosting, as well as content marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. 

And unless you can devote all your valuable time to research, design, and data entry, a web designer will do all this much faster than you ever could. 

If you’re interested in working with a service-oriented web design team with a proven track record for launching attractive and effective sites in Park City, Salt Lake City, and beyond, send us a note today.