What’s the Real Cost of Bad Web Design? It’s Not Just Money!

We often think of web design as just visuals, but it’s more than that; it also includes hosting, ongoing maintenance, and SEO. All three are essential to doing business and meeting your customers’ digital expectations.

As a Columbus marketing agency, we’ve seen the true cost of bad web design, helping businesses recover from broken websites, poor web hosting choices, and neglected SEO. Here’s what you need to know about bad web design and the costs to fix it:

Does Bad Website Hosting Hurt My Business?

Absolutely.

Hosting is foundational to your website. It stores your files, connects your domain, and facilitates key integrations, including CRM tools, booking platforms, and social media feeds.

When your hosting is down, your digital business is down. That means you lose functionality in the following:

• Your website
• Your domain
• Critical services tied to your site (CRM, email, etc.)
• Business opportunities

Additionally, poor hosting choices can incur hundreds of dollars extra each month in unnecessary costs. And if your server fails or is held hostage by your hosting provider, you may be forced to rebuild your website from scratch. This can easily cost you $3,000 or more before factoring in any downtime-related lost revenue, so make sure to choose a reliable hosting provider for your website.

What Happens When My Website is Poorly Designed?

Your brand can get damaged. Customers lose interest when they have a bad digital experience.

Look for these key indicators when your customers are having a bad digital experience on your website:

• Low Click-Through Rate (CTR): Poor meta titles, descriptions, or content, as well as a suboptimal user experience, can significantly impact your CTR and negatively affect your search rankings. Make sure your content catches your customers’ attention on SERPs and when shared.
• Short Engagement Time: If users land on your site and leave quickly, your content and design aren’t meeting their expectations, which can penalize your overall SEO. Remove any obstacles between your users and what they are looking for.
• Outdated Design: A site that looks like it was built in the early two thousands suggests to users that your business is dated. And if you’re out of touch digitally, why should they trust you with their business?

On a related note, after a complete website redesign for a local business (whose site hadn’t been updated in 5+ years), we observed inbound sales increase organically by 15% in just 12 months. This organic growth didn’t require our client to hire any additional sales reps for cold calling. Good web design saves and generates money.

What’s the Cost of Poor Website Maintenance?

Your website needs regular updates to keep up with the changes in your business, industry, offerings, and audience.

If you neglect website maintenance:

• Your content becomes outdated
• Your site security becomes vulnerable and may fail
• You lose relevance with younger, digital-native customers

And here’s the kicker: fixing a neglected site is costly and can lead to the following:

• Fixing a broken website: $1,500+
• Rebuilding a broken website: $4,500+

Generally speaking, the longer it has been since your website’s launch, the more it will cost to fix it.

What Happens If You Ignore SEO?

Search engines won’t ignore you; they’ll forget you.

If your site isn’t optimized for SEO, you’ll slowly drop in search rankings. Eventually, your site may disappear from search results altogether (even for your branded searches), and customers won’t find you.

Getting your SEO back on track is possible and may require:

• A full website rebuild: $3,500+
• An aggressive SEO strategy: $1,500+ per month

The golden rule of SEO is that it’s not a one-time setup; it’s ongoing. Skipping SEO now means paying for it in missed opportunities.

Total Cost of a Bad Website

Recapping the above, take a look at the costs behind bad web design:

The Bottom Line

Don’t build a website just to check a box. Make sure to plan accordingly and dedicate resources to good web hosting, website design, ongoing maintenance, and SEO. Otherwise, a poorly designed and maintained website will cost you:

• Sales
• Reputation
• Opportunities

That’s why partnering with a top web design agency ensures you get web design right the first time.

Ready to fix what’s broken?

Contact Uplancer Agency for a free website audit and SEO consultation. And if you’re working with an agency that’s not hitting the mark, learn how to fire your web agency to get your business back on the right digital track today!