Lee launched Leeds-based digital agency L33 in April 2018. Lee is a Microsoft certified digital specialist, and has worked in the web design industry since 2000. He is highly experienced in building complex and engaging sites using the latest technology. Since starting his career Lee has worked with some large multi-national clients including Ford, NHS and Cheshire Constabulary. In launching L33 he aims to bring a fresh new approach to digital design, development and branding.
Want a new website? Why choosing the cheapest isn’t the best solution
If you are a sole trader or SME, you probably won’t have masses of budget to spend on web development. You may be forgiven for thinking the best option is cheap and cheerful - a simple web design with a few nice images and some simple text about who you are and what you do. This can be great as a starting point, but a website needs to grow organically, and give people a reason to keep coming back, otherwise it can quickly become stale and out of date. It won’t attract customers, won’t sell your services, and ultimately won’t make any real difference to your bottom line.
Some web design companies will create a website and host it for you, but will expect you to update the content yourself, or will charge you excessively for every minor change you want to make. Once they have designed the site you are beholden to them, and some web developers may take advantage of this, treating hosting your site as a license to print money. Even if you have a CMS (content management system) which enables you to make your own changes and additions, who really has time for this as a small business owner in 2018? Wouldn’t you rather be free to get on with your core business activities?
Like it or not, we now live in a highly digitised age, where people spend significant amounts of their time devouring online content, browsing social media, and expanding their social networks. While regional newspaper sales have seen a steady decline over the past decade, online media has grown exponentially. There seems to be a constant thirst for online news and information, with Google being the first port of call for people whenever they want to find out about - well, anything really!
This always-on mentality presents small businesses with a massive opportunity to bypass traditional media channels and drive customers directly to their website, by generating regular usable, sharable, likeable content. Your website, and social media channels, if used correctly, are powerful PR tools. You can harness this power by hosting content that educates and informs people about your industry, highlights the latest news and trends, and therefore positions you as an industry thought leader. This gives your organisation kudos, demonstrates your expertise, and ultimately gives people a reason to keep coming back to you.
Great online content will also boost your SEO (search engine optimisation) massively, helping your website up the Google rankings and ensuring your company is top of the list in relevant searches for your services.
Sounds great doesn’t it, but where do you find the time to invest in content creation? Large organisations with big marketing and PR budgets have whole teams of people dedicated to this stuff. This is why you need a web design company that not only designs and hosts, but also then maintains and grows your online profile, driving traffic to the site via relevant social media channels, and generating creative, useful and interesting content that keeps people coming back for more.
Many web design companies blind customers with techy language that baffles and befuddles, but when you strip it down, it’s not rocket science, you just need to keep being interesting and relevant. So if you are an SME looking to grow your company’s online profile, we won’t blind you with buzzwords, we believe honest straight talking is the way to get results.