Bloomington, Indiana Web Design: 5 Things You Need To Know Before You Build
The most important part of any Bloomington business's digital marketing strategy is to have a clear website that helps people learn about your business and automates the sales process.
Here are the things you need to consider when trying to find a website designer in Bloomington, Indiana.
Chapter 1
What is the average cost of web design in Bloomington, Indiana?
Bloomington business owners can expect to pay between five thousand to twenty-five thousand+ on a website depending on the size of the website and their business needs.
For a new website or a redesign, a service-based small business or solopreneur can get an awesome Squarespace custom website that will save them time and elevate their digital presence for around five thousand dollars.
I run a Bloomington web design company that specializes in this type of one-of-a-kind Squarespace website that will require no maintenance and will grow your business for years to come.
Custom coded or WordPress websites are more expensive and usually start around ten thousand dollars for larger businesses or e-commerce sites.
What do Bloomington, Indiana web design companies use to design websites?
The two primary content management systems that Bloomington, Indiana web designers are Squarespace and Wordpress.
1. Squarespace: These websites come at a lower price point and are extremely user-friendly for the business owner or marketing team. Some other benefits of a custom website design using Squarespace include:
Responsive design: This means that websites look great on mobile too.
Easy to update functionality: No need to hire a developer if you want to change the color of a button or update the price of a service
Simple SEO features: These are great for companies trying to build their online presence in search engines.
Social media marketing capabilities: It is very simple to connect and even push content from your website to your social media accounts throughout your Squarespace site.
Tremendous security: Squarespace is a closed platform meaning that third-party creators cannot publish apps to infiltrate the backend coding of your site.
Free tech support and training: Squarespace has 24/7 support for any concerns around your website. Additionally, I give all of my clients personalized tutorial videos, so they can update and add to their website as needed.
Clint Mally Squarespace Web Design Examples
2. WordPress: These websites usually require website development, meaning they require someone with a baseline level of coding experience, and will also require monthly hosting to keep plug-in providers and themes from crashing, and to ensure your site is secure.
A WordPress website is great if:
You have a higher budget and time frame to create your website
You have some coding experience
You have a complex membership site or e-commerce platform
A personal note on WordPress websites
Squarespace is like Apple and WordPress is like Android. With Squarespace, you have a lot of branded options and features within the platform that was also built by Squarespace. This is similar to Apple and iTunes, iMovie, Safari, etc.
WordPress is like Android in that it is built up of a lot of third-party creators.
For Wordpress, one company will host your domain, another will give you a theme or template for your website, another will provide you with a page builder, and a ton of other companies will give you plug-ins that are similar to apps you might get on the marketplace.
When I built websites on WordPress, I ran into one struggle over and over again. When everything is created by different companies:
Plug-ins, page builders, and themes are not always set up to work with each other.
No one place can support you to fix all your problems.
You are left doing a ton of work on the backend.
For example, WordPress as a company cannot help you if your template or theme doesn't look right. Plus, plug-ins do not always support or work with other plug-ins.
And, the majority of issues with WordPress are how different companies' plug-ins, themes, and page builders work with each other.
On the other hand, with Squarespace, you have 24/7 truly helpful support. They can go into the backend of your website and actually fix stuff for you. You have one place you can get answers to your questions.
Here is another way to look at it: Companies that build a website on WordPress charge a monthly hosting fee, which is basically a maintenance fee. This makes sense because your plug-ins and security settings will need updating so it doesn’t crash.
This happens even if you change nothing on your WordPress website after it's built. Therefore, most people pay a monthly hosting fee. This monthly fee is usually around $100+.
Have you ever heard of a Squarespace website hosting service?
No, right?
That's because you don't need one.
Squarespace hosts your website for you, and they can actually help you if something goes wrong as part of their monthly or annual service.
There are tons of hidden costs with WordPress, too. If you don't code, you will need a page builder like Elementor or Divvy and these cost money too. If something is amiss with Elementor, WordPress can't help you and vice versa.
What is SEO for websites and why do I need it in Bloomington?
SEO means search engine optimization.
Basically, it is about helping Google understand:
What your business does.
That you are an authority on a topic.
That your content is worth displaying high on search results.
The goal of Google, and really the goal of most search engines, is to match the best content with a person's question. The way that Google determines this is through its unique algorithms.
Google states that its ranking system is designed to "sort through hundreds of billions of webpages in our Search index to find the most relevant, useful results in a fraction of a second, and present them in a way that helps you find what you’re looking for."
Relevant.
Useful.
Google also states, "The most basic signal that information is relevant is when a webpage contains the same keywords as your search query."
Keywords.
Great marketers know that their great content needs to include the exact words people are typing into search engines.
Does your webpage snippet, or summary, explain what it does with the right keywords that show Google that your content is a good match?
Most of all, how do you find the right words that people are typing into Google search when looking for a product or service similar to your own?
Does WordPress Have Better SEO Than Squarespace?
WordPress does not have better SEO than Squarespace because SEO is made up of a series of best practices and Wordrpess will not do any of these best practices for you.
For example, WordPress users often talk about plug-ins like Yoast. Yoast is a content writing plug-in that gives you a smiley face score (green = happy, yellow = neutral, and red = sad) based on things like keyword use and sentence structure.
While it is cool that Yoast analyzes keyword and keyphrase use, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to SEO. It doesn't address key points like:
Is the keyword or keyphrase in an H1 or H2 header?
What other often related words are used along with these keywords (keyword clusters)?
What are the questions or long-tail keyphrases related to this keyword or keyphrase?
How long should an article be?
Also, while the sentence structure measurer is cool in Yoast, anyone could do the same thing by making sure:
No paragraph is over three lines long
Bullet points or numbered lists are used to break up information (something Yoast doesn't measure)
Bolded words are used to guide readers' attention (something else Yoast doesn't measure)
The reading level of your text is around 8th grade
You are writing for humans and not search engine robots
I personally use Clearscope to create my content. It addresses all of the SEO needs mentioned above and then some. Additionally, it can show you top sources for information on keyphrase and your biggest competitors, too.
What's more, I have taken an article I wrote in Clearscope that received an A+ score using their system, is currently ranking on the first page of Google, and run it through Yoast. Guess what? It failed their test.
Other SEO features—like a search engine preview display, changing the SEO description and adding alt text to images—Squarespace has you covered.
Should I use a local freelance web designer, marketing agency, or design agency?
When considering who you want to build your website it is a good idea to understand the different options you have and the pros and cons of each:
Local Freelance Web Designer
Freelance Squarespace web designers, like me, are a great option if you want to have one go-to person who can support you with all of your website needs.
You don’t have to deal with a project manager, developer, and graphic designer separately, you just talk with one person.
Also, I take one client at a time, so that my attention is never divided between you and another client. Your website is important, and it deserves focused attention.
Another benefit of this is that your website is more likely to be completed on time and be done in a quicker time frame.
For example, I launch ready-to-work websites in just two weeks.
Most designers like me, offer a free consultation to learn about your business and determine if we are the right fit for your goals. Usually, a designer will be able to connect you with another person who is a better fit if you need services outside of their scope or ability.
Marketing Agency
Marketing agencies are great if you need additional digital marketing services other than a website build-out. Agencies usually offer other internet marketing services like social media management, blog writing, and web hosting for WordPress sites.
Oftentimes, they will have a copywriting specialist or graphic designer on board too.
However, in my experience when a company tries all aspects of online marketing, they are often not exceptional at any one service. Also, these agencies usually juggle multiple clients which can extend the amount of time it takes for your project to be complete.
If a website is your primary goal, then it’s best to focus on a web development company where you can get the attention you deserve.
Design Agency
If your business doesn’t have a logo, brand colors, or font choices then a design agency can be a great starting place for building out your website. Having branding guidelines helps your website designer to make every page on your website consistently on-brand.
However, many design agencies don’t do website design.
I have a shortlist of local Bloomington design agencies that I can suggest to you if you that is something you will need for your website.
What is Bloomington, Indiana Web Design?
Bloomington, Indiana web design is when a website is created specifically to attract local business in the surrounding Bloomington greater Indiana region.
One of my specialties is helping businesses win the hyper-local traffic that their website needs. I also assist in helping businesses appear first in search engines when people type in keywords related to their product or service.
For example, this article is a piece of hyper-local content that is meant to answer the top questions related to businesses’ questions around Bloomington, Indiana web design services.
What is Bloomington's population?
According to the 2020 census Bloomington, Indiana has a population of 87,603 people.
What is the name of the company that does the web design for Bloomington Indiana?
Clint Mally Web Design is the name of the company that does the web design for Bloomington, Indiana.
If a WordPress website is absolutely needed for your business needs and you then I suggest David Martin Design.
What is the name of the company that offers Bloomington Indiana Web Design services?
Clint Mally Web Design is the best Squarespace website designer for local small businesses and solopreneurs in Bloomington, Indiana, and Indianapolis