Why a Website for $500 is a Scam?

Websites are considered the online face of a business, which is why a lot of businesses spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to have highly dynamic websites that bring in thousands of visitors a day. This is also why the $500 websites popping up online are so tempting to business owners, and a lot don’t even give these offers a second thought, not thinking about getting scammed. But what exactly makes these cheap 500-dollar website scams and how do you spot it? Yes websites for $500 exist, but it will not be the best website for a business. In fact, it will not be a good website for anything.
First off, you will pay $500 upfront, and for one year you will have a less-than-stellar website that might have simple features that will seem okay because your details are all in the home page, but your visitors might think otherwise. At the same time, this will mean it will not be optimised for search engines, so it is highly possible that it will not appear on Google searches for relevant keywords.
Another factor is cost consistency. Yes, it is possible to get a working website for $500, but after a year problems will pop up, and will even ask you to pay around $500 to $600 a year for web hosting. If you get fed up and want to switch hosting providers, they will charge you $2,500 for the entire website, maybe even more, which will then prompt you to just pay the annual web hosting fee.
Finally, these offers might give the illusion of getting a deal, especially during the start of the transaction. These $500 website offers will provide free consultation, where you will talk to a salesperson who will speak perfectly and tell you all the things you want to hear, about how they will be there to help you every step of the way and virtually zero red flags about it. But as soon as you pay the amount, and you start having questions about your website development, you will be transferred to a third party call centre somewhere in India. Language might not be a problem, but knowing that the one that sold you the website service is a third party company will not give you the peace of mind that you need. You will then be speaking to a project manager not directly involved with your project, and the relaying of your instructions will take some time to show on the website. This, in turn, will be reflected on how your website appears to your customers and clients, thus affecting your online business.
theAD doesn’t do all that; we always make sure to give you value for your money, plus more. From conception of idea to making the website live, you will be directly speaking to one local project manager who will always be in touch with the development team. What we quote will be what we charge, and all web development projects have a complimentary one-on-one yearly review to see how we can improve your website together. We want to grow with you. Email us at info@thead.com.au or say hello at (02) 8080 2100 and tell us how we can help you.