Forrester Research recently evaluated web design capabilities of top interactive marketing agencies across 18 criteria, and reported that Sapient, imc2, Razorfish, IconNicholson, and IBM Interactive led the pack for transaction-led projects.
This was due in large part to the “high usability scores earned by the client reference sites they supplied.”
Organic, just shy of the leaders’ circle for transaction-led projects, received impressive scores for its online branding work, which boosted it into the leaders’ circle for image-led projects.
New to Forrester’s rankings this year, Ascentium, Blast Radius, iCrossing, OgilvyInteractive, Resource Interactive, and Rosetta emerged as strong performers, a category rounded out by returning agencies Critical Mass, Molecular, R/GA, VML, and Whittmanhart. Arc Worldwide completed the research firm’s list of evaluated web design and development firms.
Don’t have half a million dollars to invest in your website? Don’t get discouraged.
While these web design and development agencies are out of reach for most small businesses, there are many reputable smaller scale web designers and developers that deliver high-quality websites that perform well.
In fact, if you do your due diligence, you can get a basic website professionally designed and developed for as little as $5,000 to $15,000.
You don’t need to spend $15k on a site, unless you are a decent sized company. A decent web designer can put something basic together for a couple Gs.
@Kevin
You can certainly get a website for $2,000, and you can just as well get a designer to put a website together for $200. BUT remember, you get what you pay for. A crappy website might be easy on the wallet, but will it get you ahead? Or will you just make three meager attempts at a website, and in the end end up with garbage.
Three lousy websites might equal one that actually helps your business grow and make money.