Every business in Oman needs a website, whether it is a home business, SME (Small/Medium Enterprise) or a Large Corporate. If you are planning to get your website done, you may be wondering about the cost of website designing in Oman. In this article, I will tell you all about website pricing and all the fundamental elements that directly reflect on the price.
Who is going to build your website?
The question is who can you trust with building this important part of your Brand.
The choices narrow down to two main options:
- A Freelancer
- A Website Designing Company
Freelancer Vs. Company
The first thing you need to realize, is the difference between hiring a Freelancer and a Company to do this job for you.
Basically, both will give you a Website, but what is the difference between the two?
A Freelancer:
A freelancer is a person who has a certain level of skill and knowledge, and either works for multiple companies as a contractor, or is self-employed but doesn’t have a registered company or business.
What is the advantage of hiring a freelancer?
The benefit of hiring a freelancer is mainly that their charges are less than hiring a dedicated website designing company.
What are the disadvantages of hiring a freelancer?
1- Dedication
Often, freelancers do the freelancing on the side, or part time. Therefore, the more projects the freelancer has, the higher the chances that less attention will be paid on the little details that matter.
2- Website Support
The freelancers usually do not take any long term commitments, support is very limited, and the second the job is marked complete, the freelancer is free of any obligation towards you.
3- Standards
Aside from all that, one of the main disadvantages is that there is no Standard or quality assurance and quality control over the product (website) that’s being built for you. It’s like having a building, built with no quality guarantees.
4- Communication
The communication is usually through a Website, meaning, if the freelancer chooses to not be online, you will have a hard time getting in touch with them.
5- Limited creativity
As the freelancer usually works on their own, the ideas that one person can come up for a design, is usually less than an entire Designing specialists team.
6- Reused Codes and Graphic Assets
It is not a secret that every developer and designer uses a ready made code in various parts of a Website, however, there is always a line that should never be crossed when it comes to reusing codes and graphic assets such as images and/or short-codes. Due to lack of resources, a freelancer would reuse their assets from previous works, leading to an unoriginal outcome.
How a Freelancer charges for designing a website?
The freelancers take in consideration the following when giving a price:
- Complexity of Project
- Man Hours to complete the task (one person)
- Value of the Website
A Website Designing Company
A dedicated web designing service provider, with a team of experienced and talented employees, with a clear job description for each employee in the area they are most professional at. It is a registered business in the ministry of commerce operating under the Omani Law.
What are the advantages of hiring a Website Designing Company?
1- Minimum Risk
As you may know, in The Sultanate of Oman, businesses mainly succeed by reputation. A company would always guarantee customer satisfaction for a good reputation. A company avoids any scams, or dishonesty with the clients.
2- Dedication
Each team member has a specific set of tasks to perform, following a time-line. This ensures that your projects gets maximum attention to the smallest details and guarantees a top notch outcome. Each team member is responsible for their assigned tasks, and will have to answer to their project manager if any of the tasks are not performed according to the plan.
3- Communication
First question that comes to mind is, Why is it important to have a meeting with the company before giving them a Website Designing Project?
The answer is, simply because it is the best way to convey your requirements and expectations.
4- Creativity
A Website Designing company usually has two or more web designers, and with the combination of two or more creative minds, a unique and complete design is built.
5- Custom Design
Unlike a freelancer, most of the website Designing companies offer custom designs. Even when ready assets are being used, they are licensed to a single customer, whether it is images or design templates, a company does not use the same images or design templates on more than one client.
6- Legal Contracts
When it comes to accepting a website Designing project, a company has strict steps to project initiation. Along with the Quotation and a detailed Scope of Work, a Legal letter of Agreement is provided by the company, that lists down all the terms and conditions of this business deal, from start and delivery dates, to revisions, ownership and payment schedules.
7- Standards
A company follows a set of international website Designing standards and guidelines, some of the standards followed by a company like Alpha Web Agency are:
- Clear Sitemap
- Following branding standards
- Placement of Contact Information
- Navigation Menu across the top
- Home Page slider
- Most valuable proposition placement
- Call to Action Placement
- Search feature placement
- Media Optimization
- Proper Linking
- Social Media icons placement
- Responsive Design
- Color Palettes
- Compatibility with Web browsers
- Search Engine Optimization
- Error free, easy to use Content Management System
See how we design websites in a 7 phase process
VIDEO:
8- High Quality Results
A company would usually care about every website as much as they care about their own, at the end of the day, it reflects their image and capabilities. But that is not all what this is about, a company would make sure that the website fulfills its purpose. If the website doesn’t match the visual standards or the functional expectations, the website will be redesigned as many times as needed to get the best outcome.
9- Support and after service
After your website is built, a company is obligated to provide you with Tutorials or in person training. It is also a company’s responsibility to provide you with Free Website Support for a time period of 3 to 6 months.
Website Support includes services such as:
- Content management system updates
- Plugin updates
- Security Monitoring
- Compatibility and bug fixing
- On call support
What are the disadvantages of hiring a Website Designing Company?
I wouldn’t call these disadvantages, but to be fair in comparison to freelancers, there are a couple of “disadvantages” when hiring a Website Designing Company:
- Higher Prices than Freelancers
- Longer Time of Delivery
However, there are no risks involved when hiring a company, as everything is documented and is under the jurisdiction of the Omani law.
How a Company charges for designing a website?
The pricing of a website depends on the following:
- Man Hours to complete the task (a team)
- Complexity of the Project
- Market Prices
- Country’s economy
- Prices of all necessary assets for the project
- Cost of Operating
- Cost of Outsourcing (if required)
- Value of the Website
What type of Design are you looking for?
- Custom Design
Built from scratch, usually designed on photoshop and then recreated in Vue.js or React, HTML5 & CSS3. The custom Design gives the client the full flexibility with the style, and a 100% originality. Entirely build on original ideas and original designs. Works with a suitable Content Management System.
- Template
Built from a ready made template, modified to the client’s preference. This decreases the time required to complete the website. Although it is a template, a company would never use the same template for two customers. And as it is a template based design, the customer usually gets a few design options to choose from. The template is then modified to not have any similarity with its initial looks.
What type of Website are you looking for?
- Static Website
A Static Website is usually used for introductory purposes, these websites consist of a few HTML pages (five pages on average) containing basic information about the company it represents. A Static Website does not have a Content Management System, therefore any changes that you want to make, will require modifying the HTML files.
- Dynamic Website
A dynamic Website is one of the most popular websites nowadays, it includes a Content Management System which allows the user to update the website’s content instantly without any technical knowledge. Using the Content Management System an unlimited amount of pages can be created .
- eCommerce Website
The purpose of an eCommerce Website is to have an online store, it also includes a Content Management system to frequently update products, manage stock counts, create discount vouchers and more. eCommerce websites in Oman are on the rise, and many business owners have witnessed an increase in sales. In Oman, an eCommerce website can also be integrated with an Online Payment Gateway through Gateway providers like Bank Muscat or National Bank of Oman (NBO).
To learn more about the specifications of those websites, visit our Services.
Why is Search Engine Optimization important?
Search engine optimization or SEO is one of the best ways to attract visitors into your website organically. Previously I have written an article about How to Write SEO Friendly Content, which highlights the importance of Search Engine Optimization in every website.
Why is the Design important?
The design of a Website is what catches the visitors eye. It’s what the visitor remembers most about your website and it’s the number one impression maker. Design doesn’t only mean the looks, it also means the User Experience. A good looking, user friendly website will likely help in the conversion rates of your casual visitors, turning them into your frequent customers.
Why is the Content important?
When creating a website, the designer evaluates the content, and designs the website around the content. Your content should not only be easy to read and rich in information, but it also should be Search Engine Friendly. Nowadays your visitors are not just the humans, you also have some google robots reading through your content to index you in the search results.
How to choose the right domain name?
A domain name is the address of your website, through which your visitors will be able to reach your website. Domain names are often chosen to be as close as possible to the business name.
Here is a simple guide, to help you choose the best domain name for your business:
- Keep it Short
- Include your business name within
- Try to not use any numbers or hyphens
- Try to avoid using unknown domain extensions (.studio .news .club .shop) unless it defines your activities, the best extensions to use are (.com .net .org and .om)
What is Web Hosting?
Have you ever wondered where all the websites are being stored in? Or loaded from?
Every website needs to be hosted or stored in a server ( a computer that has high computing power, multiple CPU’s and a large RAM memory, with a very stable and strong internet connection, that keeps it connected to the worldwide web). These servers are provided by the website Designing companies and other web hosting companies.