What Is The Goldilocks Principle?
We all know the story of “Goldilocks and The Three Bears” where a young woman named Goldilocks inadvertently stumbles upon the three bears’ house. While there she tastes porridge, sits in chairs, and tries out beds. In each case she determines that the middle of the road option is the best.
This story has given rise to the Goldilocks Principle. This principle states that something must fall within certain parameters, rather than being at an extreme, to provide maximum results. This theory has been applied to economics, engineering, and many other disciplines.
If you have an SMB, this principle also applies to choosing a web design company.
The Goldilocks Principle and Web Site Costs
If your company needs a website, using this principle, you are faced with three options.
You can go with a company that promises:
(1) “free” or low cost websites
(2) mid-priced options
(3) high-priced websites
If you own a small-to-mid-sized company, which is the best way to go?
Do-it-yourself or low-cost web sites? Too cold!
Let’s first look at the free, or relatively inexpensive websites. They are offered by several large web design companies that provide build-it-yourself- options.
They usually offer a variety of online tools and templates to help the user build a website. These companies may even offer ways to increase your website traffic and sell online.
Sounds great?
Well, no not really. These types of websites have several major drawbacks, and I mean major.
Most of these companies own your site. You will pay monthly fees for its use that will never go away for as long as you use your site.
This may seem fine at first, but it really isn’t. If all goes well and you want to upgrade the site to accommodate your growing business, you can’t. You can’t move it off of their sever or have a design professional come in and revise the site. The web design company owns your site. You cannot take it with you.
You will have to hire a web designer and start from scratch, building the new site that you should have had all along.
Complaints about these types of websites include:
- unexpected billing problems including higher than expected monthly chargers
- trouble cancelling subscriptions
- poor customer service with no one dedicated to your particular website
- problems using website building software
- uninspiring template design options
- loss of business files when using their databases
- and the list does go on
Additionally, who writes your content? Unless you are a web site content writer, it will not be get you the results you want.
High-Priced Website Development companies? Too hot!
Websites charges vary greatly. Very expensive websites can cost upwards of $150,000. These websites are created by companies that have many high-priced web design teams and cater to larger, highly-complex site designs. These web design companies can be great, if you are a large business and money is no object.
But there’s no need to go with a high-priced company to get a website that offers great content, design and functionality.
A company that offers great content and technical expertise? Just right!
If you are a small-to-mid-sized company, your website is a critical part of your business. Effective web design is an important and complex matter, but there’s no need to pay the high prices demanded by the more expensive custom web design companies.
But you do want to make sure that you go with a web design company that has the technological expertise and creative talent to create a compelling website that meets your business needs.
Websites need to have a pleasing design, clean navigation, inspiring content, and be SEOs friendly.
They should meet all of your company’s needs. This may include:
- a great shopping cart
- ability to work with external database interfaces and security
- back-up to the cloud
- have the ability to be updated by the owner
In short, your website needs the functionality to make your business more efficient and profitable.
In the current market, website costs can range anywhere from “free” to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Small-to-mid-sized companies will do best when going with the Goldilocks Principle for website costs:
When a website is “free” or “budget, ” beware–you get what you pay for. When a website is wildly expensive, you need to look elsewhere. When a website is market-priced and backed by a company that offers strong technical expertise and creative talent, it is most likely “just right!”
