The choices you make when creating a website for your business could be either a wise investment that creates growth or a waste of time and money. You’ve achieved your level of success partly by learning when to spend and when to save. But how do you find the right balance when it comes to website design cost?
On the one hand, you’ve seen free website builders from places like Wix.com. On the other, research uncovers online estimates of $10,000 or more. Why so much variation when searching how much does a website cost? And how do you choose the option that meets your goals and grows your business?
Let’s look at what goes into planning, estimating, and building a website. Then we’ll help you discover which website design options help you approximate website prices for your specific situation.
How Much Does a Website Cost is the Wrong Question
Asking what does a website cost to build is almost like asking what it costs to build a house. You could mean anything from a tiny home to a palace, and every detail impacts cost. To get an approximate price, you’d have to provide more details.
You don’t need the average cost of website design for small business. You need website prices tailored to your business needs. In this article, we’re going to give you specific insights that walk you through some of the important decisions so you can find out what creating a website for your business is going to take. Almost always, website cost depends on scope, complexity and turnaround time.
Better Questions when Calculating Web Design Cost
You need a business website that attracts new visitors and converts them into leads. There are a lot of steps to creating a winning business website, but getting a reasonable price quote starts the process. You’ll need to ask the right questions Only then can you get a reasonable estimate of website design cost.
DIY or Hire a Pro?
You’ve seen the ads that say you can build a website in under an hour for less than the price of coffee, but can it really be that easy? The short answer is not if you want a small business website that gets results, which is why we advise clients to avoid using an online website builder altogether. The problem is, sometimes money is extremely tight. You might need to cut costs everywhere you can.
If you have enough time, patience and technical knowledge, there are resources for learning to do your own web design. Even if you do, there will still be some cost involved for domain registration, hosting, SSL encryption etc.
Web design is time-consuming and involved, even for professionals. However, when you hire the right web design agency, what you spend comes back to you many times over as revenue and business growth, plus you skip the frustration of trying to go it alone.
How Many Pages Do You Need?
Even if you haven’t given it much thought, you probably have a basic idea of what you expect to have included in your web design cost. Almost all small business web design include some variation of the following:
- Home page
- About page
- Services page/pages
- Company news or blog
- A page showcasing your work with a gallery, case studies, testimonials etc.
- A page that allows visitors to get in touch
Then depending on your business and industry, you might need product pages, a shopping cart, special tools, features and content for members, landing pages tied to your Google Ads, custom forms, etc. Website cost to build for a small business with just basic pages typically costs between $3,000 and $8,000 when you hire a legitimate web design company.
How Complex is Each Page?
Some businesses just need a place to display their business contact information. They don’t require a lot of specialized functions. If that’s the case, you can probably keep your web design cost down by requesting that your web design company use a template. There are thousands of them available in a range of prices, making them accessible for small businesses who don’t need the additional cost associated with designing and building a custom small business website from scratch.
What are Your Content Needs?
Do you already have the content and imagery that will go on each page? Website prices are affected by how much time the website designer or web design company needs to spend creating what goes on each page. Evaluate your needs for the following:
- Images – Do you already have photos and graphics ready to give to your web designer? Are stock images acceptable? Do you need custom illustrations or infographics?
- Copy needs – Who will create or provide the text that goes on each page? Do you already have search engine optimized (SEO) titles, headings, image captions, excerpts, meta descriptions, and body text or will you need that provided for you?
- Logo design – When you already have a logo, you don’t need a quote included in your website cost to build. If you don’t, now is the time to secure this vital branding element.
- Ongoing content – If you’re adding a blog or news article section, you’ll probably want to start with at least a few posts. If you need those created, you’ll need to factor that into your web design cost.
Are You Selling Products Online?
Ecommerce could get your products in front of a greater audience, but you face stiff competition from online vendors who have already established their online presence. High-quality websites typically get the most traffic, so investing in well-crafted ecommerce website development and SEO means you win.
How much does a website cost when there’s ecommerce involved? Average costs range from $5,000 to $25,000, depending on what you need. Contact us and we’ll help you estimate website cost, based on the number of products and features necessary to encourage site visitors to fill their carts and easily breeze through checkout.
What Add-Ons Will You Require?
When you look at other websites you feel are a great example of what you’re going for, what specific features or functionality stand out? We can create an affordable web design package for your small business, even if you need advanced features like these:
- Social media sharing
- Video galleries
- Virtual tours
- Event scheduling
- Live chat
- Online bill pay
- Fillable PDF conversions
- Site-wide translation
- Third-Party integrations
Like with building a house, everything you add increases the price. But it’s much more cost-effective to include it in the original website cost than to come back and add it later. At Stoodeo we specialize in helping small businesses bundle features into an affordable web design package.
Who Will Perform Maintenance?
The good news about the average cost of website design for small business is that the initial fees are much higher than what you’ll pay for ongoing maintenance. If you built your website, you can probably also maintain it, keeping monthly costs down.
For small businesses with simple websites, maintenance costs are typically low, but again, more complexity means a higher price. Where a small business might pay $30 a month, mid-sized or larger companies can comfortably spend in the thousands.
Add Domain Registration and Hosting
Initial web design cost is separate from some of the ongoing expenses required to keep your website functioning. If you’re not entirely sure of the difference between your domain name, web hosting and website design, think of it as the different aspects of owning a cell phone.
Your domain is your website address, and it’s like your phone number. Only one person can have that number, and when people dial it, they reach you. Similarly, when people type your domain name into a web browser they find your business website. But the domain isn’t your actual website any more than your phone number is your physical self.
Also, you can have a cell phone and a number, but if you don’t pay a provider for service, it won’t be much use. Web hosting is like that service – it allows your customers to connect with your business website. Otherwise, no one can reach you. Like your cell phone bill, domain registration and hosting both are a reoccurring expense no matter what route you go for website design.
Why Website Cost Seems So High
You may have gotten sticker shock when you read some of the average website design prices above. Maybe a few years back, you created your existing website, and the price was a fraction of that amount, and you’re wondering what has changed.
Ten years ago, all you needed was a static brochure site with a little bit of text, a handful of photos, and your contact information. Now, website design is much more complex and meant to be continually changing.
Competition is cutthroat for top spots on search engine results pages, and for good reason. Almost 1/5 of all searchers, 19.3 percent, choose the search result in the top position, and few searchers scroll more than halfway down the first page.
You’re not just competing against others like you, but against businesses with deep pockets and sometimes departments whose job is to focus on one area of digital marketing. Basic, cheap web design just doesn’t cut it anymore. Many opt for a low-cost solution, lose business to their competition as a result, then pay for a redesign later. Don’t be that person.
Building a Website Takes a Team
Website quotes are tricky. Don’t hire a web designer that plays video games most of the day while surrounded by empty pizza boxes and unpredictably cranks out half-assed product. Your online investment deserves better than that. Growing your business online takes experienced professionals who specialize in tasks like these:
- UI/UX Planning – These experts study your business goals and target audience. They understand websites are an onboarding journey of the visitor, instead of just shiny images and buttons. They develop buyer personas, create storyboards and sitemaps, and establish information architecture.
- Design – When you’re building a website from the ground up, this design professional establishes meaningful brand materials and complementary imagery while selecting elegant typefaces.
- Front-end and back-end development – The front-end is what people see when they type your web address into a browser. The back-end is all the functionality and logic in the background that makes your website work. Sometimes a different expert is responsible for each end. A single feature on your site requires hundreds, possibly thousands of carefully crafted lines of code. Everything has to seamlessly work together when a user interacts with your webpage from any device.
- Content creation and population – One expert or team might be responsible for creating or adding your products and product descriptions, blog posts, images, multimedia, and web page copy. Telling your story through content is what wins the reader’s hearts, draws them to return, and establishes trust enough to purchase.
Website Prices – Affordable vs. Cheap
Your website should be designed to achieve specific business goals while engaging with your target audience. When built correctly, your website generates income and sales leads for your business. Casual visitors to your site will learn to trust your products and services. Your company grows and wins online. That’s why it’s crucial to work with the right agency – an affordable web design option might be closer than you think.
Stoodeo offers affordable web design packages that grow your business online. Let us know your goals and we’ll set up a free consultation.