Through our experience in web development for numerous clients, we have observed that most work produced by other web design companies fail to meet the mark. This article looks closely at the reasons behind this trend and highlights how we differ in our approach.
Web Design & Development Are Not Regulated Professions
Unlike regulated professions such as doctors, lawyers, and engineers, anyone can learn a few things from the web and call themselves a web designer or developer. While there are some highly qualified self-taught web professionals out there, the labour market is also filled with many unqualified individuals. Unfortunately, without knowing what to look for, it can be challenging to distinguish between those who are qualified and those who are not. As a result, when a company lacks in-house expertise, it may unknowingly hire the wrong people.
Companies Trying to Diversify into Web Design
Since more marketing activities are online, many traditional marketing companies have diversified into web design, offering low-cost, cookie-cutter websites. Sometimes these websites are bundled with other services, such as a directory or phonebook listings. The service provided is nothing more than filling in the blanks using pre-built templates without putting any real thought into it. It is no surprise that these websites look cheap because they are cheap. However, at least customers get what they paid for.
In other instances, some companies charge a lot of money but fail to deliver quality results. For example, one of our clients hired a Toronto-based marketing company specializing in branding to build a $17,000 website. As the company did not have the resources in-house, they outsourced the work to south Asia. Communication issues aside, the end product was so poor that it had to be scrapped. We were able to help our client get their money back from the agency and correctly built them a new website.
More Profitable for Web Design Companies to Do Bad Work
Most web design companies charge lump sums for websites, which makes it more profitable for them to complete projects as quickly as possible. This often results in corner-cutting and more billable hours in the future for maintenance and updates, especially if the website is challenging to work on. Unfortunately, this creates little incentive for the company to do good work in the first place.
In addition, some companies build client sites on proprietary content management systems developed in-house. We have seen several of these systems, and none are as good as what’s readily available. A couple even looked like student projects that had gone too far. Companies do this to prevent their clients from easily switching to another system and, therefore provider.
Market Demand
Another reason why most web design companies do not produce quality work is that the market accepts mediocrity. Like with any other product, there is always more demand for cheaper options, even if they are inferior in quality or functionality. Additionally, some business owners do not understand the benefits of having a good, search engine-optimized website, so they choose the most affordable option. When the market demands low-cost solutions, suppliers will always fulfill that demand. On the other hand, the demand for higher-end options is always lower, making it difficult to survive for web design companies that refuse to offer cheaper options.
How We Are Different
We prioritize quality over quantity to ensure our brand is not associated with substandard work. Unlike many other web design companies, we do not outsource work offshore, which allows us to maintain strict control over the quality of our projects. Additionally, our pricing model is designed to incentivize us to build quality websites that are intuitive for our clients and efficient for us to maintain. We believe that these factors set us apart and contribute to the high-quality work we produce for our clients.
Summary
The purpose of this article is not to claim that we are the only ones who can design and build quality websites. Although we recognize that we are far from being the best in the world, it is our observation that we do better work than most companies in a similar price range. Therefore, if you are looking for a local web design company in Regina or Kelowna that produces quality work, we encourage you to contact us.
