The price of Cheap Web Design

I lost a couple of projects due to price war. And business partner also looks for a cheaper alternative as well, all due to price war.

3 minutes

There are lots of really affable web design package in the market. But you get what you paid for. This is sum up of what I learn from.

CHEAP WEB DESIGN

Everyone wants a good quality of work with good price, and if you check on keywords research, the search of “Cheap Web Design Malaysia” is 3500+++ monthly compare to “Professional Web Design Malaysia" less than 10.

Website is not as just build to pass up

To build a proper website, it requires a lot of effect & time to make it right.

Example like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), here are some steps that many people didn't bother. Many web designer charge extra for these steps. Some even charge more than the website project.

Install SEO Plugin
Create a sitemap
Create and add a robots.txt file to your site
Install Google Analytics
Submit to Google Search Console
Submit to Bing Search Console

Keyword Research Checklist

Find a primary keyword to target
Find long‐tail keyword variations
Keywords research
Make sure the chosen keyword is an achievable goal

On Page SEO Checklist

Use short, descriptive URLs
Write a compelling title tag and description
Use proper heading on page (and include chosen keyword)
Link to relevant internal and external resources
Optimize your images with descriptive “alt” tags
Schema markup to enhance SERP visibility (where relevant)

Content Checklist

Content checking with TextMetrix to use it augmented assisted writing based on scientifically proven algorithms
Focus on readability
Use short sentences and paragraphs

Technical SEO Checklist

Identity (and FIX) any crawl errors
Make sure your site loads FAST
Fix outbound broken links
HTTPs (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)
Make sure your site is mobile‐friendly (70% of web traffic is coming from mobile)
Fix duplicate content issues

All these are works behind the scenes need lots of effort to get it right.
Sadly cheap web designer hardly focus on this.

How Cheap Web Design works?

ThemeForest

Let me introduce ThemeForest to you. It is a WordPress’s theme market place for everyone, all you need is to pay from USD39 to purchase a theme and replace the content based on the demo. Everything can be done in less than 24hrs.

For most people, that is no brainer deals. This is so CHEAP & FAST.

The most common problem of ThemeForest's multipurpose theme is bloat, hard to maintain in the long run and it affects your SEO.

In the end, you need to rebuild completely for security & SEO.

Nulled Theme / Plugin

Another way is to use nulled theme/plugin. Nulled theme/plugin is a "FREE" version of paid theme/plugin comes with the malicious backdoor.

Some web designers don't know & don't understand the risks and the client wouldn't about it.

Based on my experience of cleaning the hacked website, 90% is due to nulled theme/plugin.

You may check up the story about Nulled Theme/plugin by WebARX

Free Theme / Plugin

Wordpress Theme — WordPress Theme Directory

There are tons of FREE theme / Plugin in WordPress repository to everyone to use. Big thanks to the developer!

Problem is, there is theme/plugin no longer developed, or haven't update for years. WordPress itself is very safe due to continently update on the security patch, but if you have a plugin that didn't update will bring your website security risk.

Here is the list of My Favourite WordPress Plugin, Theme & Tools

Losing Domain

In some case, the agency hijacks the domain and refused to hand over to the client if they found out client no longer need their services.

Website Management

Website is like your house. You need to proper manage for security, offsite backup, SEO, etc.

Article written by Julian Song

WordPress Consultant | Elementor Performance Expert. Meet-up organizer for WordPress Penang; Elementor Community leader Penang and Wedevs Brand Ambassador in Malaysia.