I’m always interested in seeing what my competitors are doing in terms of website work, and in today’s paper an article featured two redesigns of municipal websites from two different local web design firms. Nothing surprising about that, but what caught my attention was the cost of the two redesigns. Chatham’s website, for a city of 11,500, cost about $3,000, and Sherman’s website, for a city of 3,500 residents, cost $16,849.
Questions about web design agency costs?
The article led me to think about potential and current clients’ questions about the difference between the costs, and to wonder what conclusions they might draw about web design agencies in general.
One question I field from prospective clients is “What value do I receive for a higher price?” And with ongoing financial pressure on local governments, what justification might be offered for the (five times) higher priced website?
Website Redesign: Benefits
In both cases, the benefits mentioned included the following:
- More aesthetically pleasing
- More user friendly; easier to navigate; more logically organized
- Both are easier to maintain using web-based content management systems; Chatham’s uses Drupal, and Sherman’s uses Dot Net Nuke.
- Generally, content and features were similar, with some additional interactive functionality for the Chatham site:
- Chatham’s site features interactive zoning and cemetery maps, with photos of headstones for genealogical research; sign-up for email and text alerts, business directory, contact form, embedded Google calendar, and an FOIA request form.
- Sherman’s site features an online form to report street-light outages, potholes, drainage issues or other problems with officials notified automatically, a sign-up for email and text alerts, calendar of events (only one event in May), and historical photos. Sherman’s website appears to be more focused on economic development, with resources available to businesses or developers interested in new business projects or expansion.
Website Redesign: Look and Feel
Chatham’s new website has a simple, functional layout and menu system. The home page has an interactive slider featuring the latest information.
Sherman’s new website has a richer design, with more photos, design elements, colorful calls to action. It also has a home page slider, but the images aren’t clickable to related content. The mega menus provide quick access to a large number of categorized pages.
Website Redesign: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Calls to Action
For search engine optimization, both sites are very similar with unique titles, but no meta descriptions, and neither has a permanent redirect for www.
Calls to action on the Chatham homepage are mostly inside the slider, but fairly specific in terms of action requested, while the Sherman home page has 3 calls to action on the homepage, but they are fairly generic. Sherman’s entire sub-navigation menu could be considered akin to calls to action since they’re all imperatives: Apply, Contact, Locate, Report, etc., but the expanding menus don’t remain open to provide an indication of the location of the current page, which is a little disconcerting.
Website Redesign: Goals and Return on Investment
Did Chatham or Sherman get better value for their money? It depends on their goals and how well the sites help them reach those goals.
Both communities are to be congratulated for updating outdated websites and investing in a content management system that will allow them to provide up-to-date information quickly, easily and economically.
One possible goal of any municipal website could be economic development, and if the more expensive site brands Sherman as a forward-thinking community with aesthetic sensibilities, then the increased property tax revenue from even one new like-minded business could more than pay for the website. That new business could be the business that redevelops an abandoned property, provides a product or service that attracts new residents or provides jobs for area residents who purchase homes and groceries. Who can count the value of the business that turns around a deteriorating neighborhood or blazes a trail for other businesses to follow?
Website Redesign: the Role of the Web Design Agency
One of the most important roles of a web design agency is to help clients refine and articulate their brand and their goals for the website and for their online marketing. Sherman’s Mayor specifically mentioned the economic development benefits of the redesigned website. An entire section devoted to Economic Development and accessible from the main menu is one aspect that sets the Sherman website apart and could return many times over what might initially appear to be a sizable investment.