5 Signs You Overpaid For A Website And Appropriate Solutions

A website is an integral component of a business’s digital marketing strategy—and it helps to invest in high-quality ones. However, it may sometimes feel like the value of your website doesn’t match the amount you’ve spent on it.
Generally, website development and designing can cost between USD$12,000 and USD$150,000, and the average maintenance costs can range from USD$400 to USD$60,000. With this in mind, you might have paid more if your website development prices exceed the maximum.
In this article, we’ll explore five signs indicating your website developer might have overcharged you and what you can do about it.

  • The cost assessment is unreasonably high
    As mentioned, an average website shouldn’t cost more than USD$150,000 to develop. This price is, however, not inclusive of hosting plans and other miscellaneous charges that happen after the initial website development process. Moreover, the cost generally doesn’t include maintenance costs you may incur down the road.
    However, this number can be a good benchmark to assess whether or not you’re overpaying for your website’s needs. For better reference, ask for a cost breakdown from your developer to know exactly what you’re paying for.
    To maximize your money saving effort, you can also look for discounts and coupons online. Web developers, like other businesses, offer such discounts to increase their sales, improve customer loyalty, and make their marketing more targeted. Discounts, coupons, and other deals also help web developers improve brand awareness and promote client loyalty. Availing these deals can help lower your web development costs without compromising quality.
    However, you should know where to look for these discounts. Most of the time, you can get them directly from the developer’s website. But if you’re checking out multiple options and comparing costs, it may be more beneficial to visit discount platforms that collect and publish coupons, promo codes, and other deals from multiple providers.
    The experts at dontpayfull.com scour the internet for the latest deals and compile them, saving you from the hassle of visiting hundreds of websites individually to look for such deals.
  • The site is poorly done
    A low-quality and poorly done website can make your business appear unprofessional. This can wreak havoc on your business’s digital marketing strategy as, according to studies, 42% of people are likely to leave a website because of poor functionality.
    Below are the telltale signs to look out for in a poorly done website:
  • Poor visual design: You can identify a poor website design by the shoddy use of colors that clash and don’t harmonize. Its typography is also considered poor if it’s incredibly difficult to read. Generally, a lack of proper visual hierarchy indicates poor design, contributing to a low-quality website.
  • Slow and less responsive: The ideal website loading speed is two seconds. So, if you have one that takes longer than three seconds to load, it can eventually lead to loss of traffic, credibility, and revenue. It’s also good to note that it usually takes a user 20 seconds to decide whether to stay on a website or leave. So, having a responsive site is crucial.
  • Frequent errors: Ideally, websites should be free of errors or bugs to be seamlessly functional. So, if yours isn’t running as smoothly as expected, it could be a sign of performance issues, which may also be an indication that your developer didn’t do comprehensive testing before its launch.
  • Challenging to navigate: Excellent navigation is essential for retaining website visitors and minimizing bounce rates. So, if the site’s interface is confusing, it could indicate that your website developer may not have prioritized user experience when creating your website.
    A good website should be visually appealing and easily navigable. That said, the quality of your website should match the price you paid to website development companies.
  • You can hardly make changes yourself
    A professional website developer should include a feature-rich content management system (CMS) that allows you to make changes in the future. As your business grows, you may have to modify your site to improve user experience, including deleting, adding, improving local SEO, and editing content for updates. If you can hardly make any changes, it may indicate that you have overpaid for your website development.
  • Not optimized for site engines
    Search engine optimization (SEO) is the pillar of digital marketing for most business websites. Notably, almost 68% of online experiences begin with search engines, emphasizing the importance of optimizing your website.
    SEO helps drive traffic and enhances your business and website’s online visibility. Therefore, it helps to be cautious about paying excessively for a website that isn’t optimized for search engines.
  • The development took longer than expected
    A proficient website developer should guarantee short website development spans. Ideally, building a website should take about 10 to 14 weeks, including planning, content creation, website designing, testing, and review.
    Unless your developer encounters unforeseen or unavoidable causes for delay, they should be quick and efficient with the process. That said, it can be a sign you’ve paid more for a possibly less experienced website developer if they take longer than the maximum 14-week span to finish the project.

Go-to solutions in case of overpayment

  • If you suddenly realize you’ve overpaid for your website, the most reasonable thing to do is to get back to your developer for retouching to enable your website to meet your desired standards. Ideally, your developer would accept their fault and redesign your website without additional charges.
    Here are some of the other things you can do if you’ve found out that you’ve overpaid for website development:
  • Review your contract agreement: The website development contract should include your expectations and definition of requirements to facilitate the process. You can then use this contract to review and check if your requirements were met. If not, you have the right to request improvements.
  • Seek legal advice: If your developer fails to comply with your request for website changes and redesigns, you can seek legal advice.
  • Request for a refund: It can be slightly challenging to request and obtain a refund for unacceptable work. However, you should go for this option if your agreement allows it. You should, however, be prepared to negotiate with your developer and reach an amicable solution, even if it takes a little compromise on your side.

With all these in mind, it’s also crucial to refrain from working with a substandard web developer when there are more competent ones out there. The U.S. alone had around 178,900 web developers in 2020—and this number is expected to grow to 205,000 by 2030. For best results, always work with the best developer you can afford to avoid overpayments.

Conclusion

Overpaying for website development can be an unpleasant experience. It may force you to take a step back when you’re building a business site and optimizing your marketing strategy. So, it helps to recognize the signs that you’ve paid way more than you should, especially if the developer creates a website with a quality that falls short of your expectations.
It can also help to know possible recourses to follow in case you realize you did overpay your developer. To play it safe, ensure your contract agreement terms specify your requirements and have provisions that allow for changes after the handover. This can help prevent possible altercations if your website developer fails to comply.

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