Need a website made?
A good website creation costs money. Of course, this does not mean that you should just give your budget to any web design agency should spend. In this article, you will find a comprehensive checklist that you can use to decide for yourself by whom to hire a professional website have it built the way you want it to look.
Need a professional website made?
Here's what to look out for!
Discussed:
- The purpose of the website
- The cost of creating a website
- The duration of the build-up
- Usability
- SEO
- WordPress
- Mobile optimisation and maintenance of your website
Below is a handy overview of the checklist. Feel free to scroll through if you are more interested in other topics.
For whom is this article intended?
Unfortunately, we cannot satisfy everyone. This article is written with our ambitious clients in mind. These are both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
Questions? Contact us
What is the purpose of your website?
It is wise to set clear ambitions before getting a website built. This is wise for yourself, because you know where you want to go and whether it is worth it. But also for the website builder, because with your clear ambitions, they will better understand how to implement technical solutions.
Just some goals when creating a new website:
- Being found betterby customers in your area.
- Existinggetting visitors to contact you more often.
- Direct sell products or serviceson your site.
- Reaching a new target group with a different design.
- Inform visitors better, which you saving customer service timeand/or provides a higher customer satisfaction.
- With a professional business cardpersuading prospects.
- The increase the quality of your leads.
- New attract talented employees.
- Spend less timeAre to keeping your site up to date.
Examples when creating a new website:
- Greater appreciation by customers in your region
- Ensuring that visitors contact you more often.
- Reaching a new target group with a new design.
- Ensuring a higher customer satisfaction by providing better information to your customers.
- Persuading prospects through a professional business card.
- The increase the quality of your leads.
- Spending less time to maintaining your website.
And we could go on like this for a while.
Formulate key goals for your website SMART.
We will gladly advise you further
What do we mean by a 'professional website'?
Information is widely available online. So you can hire students or give your nephew 'who is handy with computers' a website creation.
As an ambitious company, you quickly run into problems if you don't have the website created by a professional.
- Visitors are driven away by a slow website;
- A plug-in is crashing and you don't know how to fix it;
- On smartphones, the website does not look as nice as on desktop;
- The site is not original; it looks a lot like other websites;
- The planned deadline will not be met.
For instance, a 'free' or 'cheap' website can easily cost a book of sales. Calculate for yourself how much a lost customer costs.
By a professional website, then, we mean a site created by professionals. By a company that has been developing websites for at least 5 years and therefore knows best practices. Later in this article (#14 & #15), we go into even more detail on how to recognise a good web designer.
By a professional website, then, we mean a website created by professionals. A company that has at least 5 years of experience developing websites and therefore knows the best methods. We will elaborate further in this article on how to recognise a good web designer.

Why a WordPress website (and not another CMS)
There are a huge number of systems to build a website with. A website builder such as Wix or SquareSpace can soon satisfy a hobbyist or freelancer.
Multinationals and governments regularly want a customised system, developed in detail for one party. This makes it very pricey to develop and update.
Today, more than one-third of all websites in the world use a WordPress Content Management System (CMS). Ambitious entrepreneurs and marketers in SMEs often opt for a website in WordPress.
Due to the overwhelming popularity of the WordPress CMS system that stands head and shoulders above all other systems globally, you need not fear that support for it will stop. This means you will still be able to use WordPress a few years from now if you want a new design or other functionalities for on your website. Expanding your website is easily done by any WordPress professional. You are not stuck with one particular web designer in this regard.
An easily findable website in Google (SEO)
How many people directly type in a website's URL?
They are much more likely to type in your product name or another relevant keyword on google.
For many companies, search engine optimisation (SEO) is therefore vital. They retain existing customers and gain new ones. An excellent investment that drastically reduces acquisition costs in the long run.
A professional website will not acutely ensure that you rank well in Google, which is why you should also address issues such as search engine marketing and linkbuilding.
Nevertheless, having a website created provides a good basis for findability in Google. A good site structure, loading speed and mobile optimisation contribute to a good positioning of your website in Google. A formula in which every aspect both technical optimisation, content, loading speed and link building are very important. Thus, there are more than 200 elements that influence the ranking of your website.
Ensure a responsive mobile-friendly site
The days of pure desktop sites are truly over.
Meanwhile, almost half of Dutch website visits are on a smartphone or tablet; a percentage that is still rising, by the way.
The percentage of Dutch website visits on a smartphone or tablet continues to rise. By now this is already almost half, we note on the webshops and websites of our clients that this percentage is even much higher (75% of visitors use their mobile on average). If you choose a WordPress website with WebTik, we'll make sure you can also easily track your website from your WordPress dashboard or by logging into Google Analytics. This allows you to keep an eye on where your visitors come from, who these visitors are, which pages they visit where they click and, of course, from which device they visit your website.
Ask the website builder for responsive design. This can ensure that your website looks good on any device.
But what if, in your industry, most website visitors still use a desktop computer?
A mobile-friendly website is still very important then!
- The percentage on other devices can always go up.
- Google uses it as an important signal when determining your position in search results.
Building a fast website is becoming increasingly important
Nobody feels like waiting for seconds for a website to load.
With handy tools such as Pingdom, GT Metrix and Google's own PageSpeed, you can easily test yourself how fast your site loads.
What makes a website fast?
A key component of site speed is web hosting. It can also make a difference whether you compress images and haven't overused caching or enabled too many plug-ins. So there are plenty of factors that can make for fast loading times.
A secure website (HTTPS) creates trust
You know that little lock next to a website's name?
That means you connect to the site via a secure HTTPS connection.
Want to have a website created with new content? Or transfer limited content from an old website? Then HTTPS with corresponding SSL certificate is a no-brainer.
Do you want to have new website content created? Or transfer content from an old version of your website? If so, HTTPS with the corresponding SSL certificate is a no-brainer.
It is imperative for web shops and other websites where visitors leave their data to have an HTTPS connection.
As it is a tricky task to convert a lot of existing content to HTTPS, you should expect a professional website builder to be experienced in this.
Customised website or standard package?
Because many websites use a ready-made design, some are often offered cheaply.
A WordPress template may look nice, but remember that there are thousands of other websites similar to yours. Your competitor may have the same buy theme.
Moreover, there is limited scope for design changes or adding additional functionalities if you work with a standard design. Last but not least, standard templates are not optimised for conversion. Professional web designers use proven methods to attract visitors to purchase or some other form of a conversion. A beautiful design is not everything and can even backfire if the design distracts the visitor from the actual purpose of the website owner.
For the serious entrepreneur, a customised website is preferred.
What elements make for good website design?
It is redundant to design a site with all kinds of embellishments.
Start from the purpose of the page. For example, buying a product, requesting more information or making an appointment. Don't focus on a video background that might look nice or someone else's slider that also looks nice to you.
It's trickier than it looks, but if you can get the user to mindlessly take in the right information and click the deliberate button, then you have good design on your hands.
An optimal user experience on every possible design is the basis of good design. Important is balance and sufficient white space.
What is a good brief for a web design agency?
It would be a shame if you spend a lot of time picking a web design agency only to write a mediocre brief.
It is a waste to spend a lot of time picking a web design agency only to write a mediocre brief.
The better the briefing, the more likely the site will match your requirements. At WebTik, by the way, you can make changes just as long as you want until you are satisfied, your website is naturally online faster if the briefing is complete.
So what should it absolutely contain?
First, tell what kind of company you are, what values you want to convey and what is unique about your brand.
Describe the goals of your website as clearly as possible.
Making of a mood board can sometimes say more than just words. If you do not yet have a (digital) corporate identity, it is good to think about this extensively. Above all, think about what you want to convey with your brand.
Of course, it is also important to clearly describe which pages you want created and why.
How do you calculate the cost of a professional website?
What does a website cost?
Many web design agencies are unfortunately rather shady about costs. They advertise with attractive 'starting prices', but the total amount turns out to be many times higher under the heading of hourly billing.
Many web design agencies advertise with attractive 'starting prices', while the total amount turns out to be many times higher.
Therefore, always make clear agreements on:
- How many pages you want on your website.
- How many different layouts you want designed.
- Whether a multilingual website is included.
- Whether a newsletter module is included.
WebTik has clear All-In prices (€549,-), so you are sure of the total costs and will not be surprised. You can also choose to lease a website for the All-In price of €39,- p/m for a website including hosting, domain name SSL certificate, email addresses and maintenance service.
What does maintaining your site cost?
A website with an associated Content Management System requires maintenance. This is because the technologies on the Internet are moving so fast that updates within the CMS are necessary. Think of plug-ins that are improved and updated. Updates related to improving the loading time of the website. Or technical developments related to maintaining the security of your website (to stay ahead of hackers). In addition, we would like to continue to advise you, implement your possible new requirements accurately and promptly, and speak to you in an approachable way.
A website requires maintenance. Techniques develop so quickly that updates within the associated Content Management System are necessary to keep your website working properly and ensure security. These could be plug-ins that are updated or updates related to the loading time of your website. They may also be technical developments related to the security of your website (to stay ahead of hackers). We therefore advise you to implement any new requirements soon.
The Website lease package or the full-service hosting and maintenance package guarantees that:
- The WordPress CMS is continuously updated to the latest technology.
- Creating backups that in case of a hack or other failures, we can easily restore your website.
- We provide Malware removal in case of a hack attack.
- You can always approach us for questions and/or advice without expensive hourly fees.
- Creating new email addresses.
- Optimising your website's load time for good ranking in Google and better user experience.
To keep the website working optimally in the future, it must continue to be tinkered with. A website is not a product that will work well for years to come. If you have the knowledge, you can do this yourself or have it done by WebTik.
Larger, complex changes within the website or adding new functionalities are not part of this service contract. These are implemented on the basis of a clearly communicated tailor-made price proposal communicated in advance.
For larger, more complex changes, a tailor-made price proposal will be made. This should be clearly communicated in advance and is therefore not included in the service contract.
View our website lease package
How long does it take to have a website created?
If agencies tell you that a website can be made 'in a day', this will be nothing more than a standard design plucked from the internet somewhere. Keep this in mind.
In any case, developing a professional website takes at least a week for a first draft and even several weeks or months for a complex website with many functions that needs custom programming. At WebTik, you will have the first version in a week/two weeks.
Conclusion: pay attention to this if you want a website created
Hopefully, you now have an idea of the focal points for having a professional website created for your business.
- As a serious entrepreneur, set goals you want to achieve with your website before you get a website made.
- Opt for WordPress where you have the most options and which allows you to easily have a new design created later or expand your website with new features.
- Your website should be optimised for the search engine Google to stand a good chance of ranking in Google where you will be easily found by your visitors.
- Your website should look good on any device like mobile, load quickly and be secure with a firewall and an SSL certificate.
- Be unique and choose a customised design. A website will make you unique from your competitors and increase your chances of achieving your set goals.
- Get as detailed a briefing as possible for the web design agency so that your website builder can send you a detailed quote with maintenance included. At webtik, this can be done by emailing to info@webtik.nl or by the offer form to fill in.
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All our advantages at a glance
- 1 amount that includes everything!
- Tailor-made professional website
- Google optimised
- Website built to engage customers
- Free domain name
- and more...