Most business owners know that a well-built website can improve a company’s sales. It can also help improve customer retention and user experience through a user-friendly and simple interface. A website is among the most effective marketing tools for businesses today.
If your business doesn’t have a functional website, there is no doubt that you’re missing out on a lot of potential clients. But what is the cost of creating a website? Unfortunately, there is no one answer to this question.
The cost of web design differs based on numerous factors. These factors include the web developer you choose, components of the site, and the design you want. Nevertheless, most new entrepreneurs and e-commerce business owners want to know the cost of building a website.
Therefore, in this article, we will answer all your questions about this topic to help you avoid wasting time, money, and other precious resources.
How Much Does it Cost to Build a Website?
When looking at the cost of creating a website, keep in mind that all amounts listed are estimates, and no one can tell exactly how much the job costs. Remember that you need to plan and talk to Your web developer about your idea to get an actual website cost.
Some developers are quite cheeky. They offer clients a final price of building a website without fully understanding the design and needs of the clients. This often results in the developer asking for more money along the way, and you end up paying more than they initially quoted.
Sadly, many clients fall for such an unrealistic promise. You may see developers offering websites that cost $300 to $500. While it’s true you can get a website for such low prices; it may not be as efficient as a more expensive site.
Additionally, cheaper websites are made by inexperienced web developers who may not focus on UX/UI design, site customization, or even SEO optimization. To fully understand how much it will cost you to create a business website, below is a breakdown cost of different types of websites:
A Small Business Website
Small businesses require basic, uncomplicated websites for their digital marketing efforts. Because small businesses may not have the budget to create a large website, they often settle for a basic informational site with minimal customization. These sites often have 20 pages, no specified unique functionality, and only several stock photos.
Creating a high-quality and basic small business website may cost around $2,000 to $8,000, depending on your developer. When creating a website for your small business, ensure you choose a developer based on the quality, UI/UX design, and the site’s responsiveness. While getting a basic website is more feasible, a low-quality site will negatively affect your business and lead to losses.
Medium-Sized Company Websites
Medium-sized companies prefer a more complex website with around 75 pages. These sites are content management system enabled, with unique functionality and custom design imagery and layouts. Such a website may cost you $10,000 to $25,000 depending on your location, the unique features you like, and the developer you choose.
An E-Commerce Site
If you’re running an online business, you will need a sophisticated, high-quality e-commerce website. Your website will be your main selling platform and will act as your physical shop. This is where your clients will come to purchase your goods, communicate with your customer service team, check out any deals or discounts available and browse your new product offering.
An e-commerce website is slightly more complex than other types of websites. That’s because it requires the integration of a payment gateway, unique page layouts where clients can browse and buy products. Other necessary features for e-commerce sites include copy-writing, imagery, beta testing, and CMS.
Creating an e-commerce website will cost you anywhere from $5,000 to $40,000. The final price will depend on the number of products you sell, their intricacy, and the number of pages you’d like the site to be.
A Large Business Website
A larger business requires a more complex website with a few hundred pages, a content management system, custom design imagery and layouts, and unique functionality.
Other web designs also include additional supplementary features such as multimedia creation, blog integration, and personalized development. Creating such a website may cost you around $25,000 to $40,000, depending on your specifications.
Other Essential Web Design Expenses
Now that you know an estimate of how much it costs to build a business website, it’s time to focus on the annual costs you will pay. Running a business website also comes with additional financial responsibilities for your business.
Below are the expenses you will incur when you commission a new website to be created:
Domain Name
A domain name is a URL that users type when looking for your business online in their search engines. If you don’t have a domain name, your target consumers will require your site’s IP address when they want to visit your business website. A URL also features any custom email addresses you have created for your business.
So how much will a URL cost you? Getting a URL will cost around $10 to $20. However, you should expect to pay more for a personalized domain extension such as .online or .accounting.
Depending on the choice of domain, customized extensions cost $200 to $300 annually. Most companies prefer paying for the domain name annually. However, others prefer paying for multiple years in advance.
Website Hosting
Buying a domain name is like purchasing a piece of land. You will have a physical address, but you will require something on the land to keep all your things. In this example, your website content is all your things and your web hosting is the land.
You can get web hosting services from a web hosting company. Fortunately, most companies today offer shared web hosting for businesses to reduce the price. You should expect to pay around $10 to $100 per month for managed website hosting.
However, the web hosting services you need will depend on the traffic on your website and the features you add. The more features and traffic to your site, the higher you will pay for managed web hosting.
Most web hosts offer their clients annual and monthly plans. Monthly plans are more expensive than annual ones, and you should consider paying for a yearly web hosting plan.
SSL Certificate
A Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate helps encrypt and encode sensitive data online. This data includes your users’ credit card information, addresses, names, contact information, and other personal information. If you’re an e-commerce business with a website, you must have an SSL certificate.
This is because the SSL certificate will protect your client’s personal information and sensitive data from being intercepted by hackers. You can get an SSL certificate from a Certification Authority (CA) for a little as $10 to as costly as $1,000 per month.
Most CAs require clients to pay for their SSL certificate annually. However, you can also pay for numerous years in advance.
A Content Management System
A content management system (CMS) is what your website will use to display articles, videos, text, and pictures to users. While this isn’t a mandatory feature for your site, having one will make your site more efficient and save you time.
Depending on the management system you choose, it may cost you thousands of dollars. You will also pay more for a customized CMS. Enterprise CMS systems are billed annually. However, Word press is free.
Website Design Expenses
Web design helps you create an authentic and aesthetically pleasing website. Ensure you contact a professional web designer to help you with the job. A professionally designed website will be more attractive to your target consumers and will offer a streamlined UX.
But what are the expenses involved in designing a website? Read on below to find out:
New Web Design or Full Redesign
Does your old website need a makeover or you’re looking to launch a new website for your business?
You will need to employ the services of a website designer. Ensure you invest in a reputable designer to help you design or redesign your site and test it. For the best web design services, call this Web Design agency.
The cost of redesigning your website will range from $1,000 to $20,000. However, the amount you pay will depend entirely on the type of website you have and the level of customization you need. The final price will also depend on the CMS your site is using.
So how often should you get your website redesigned? Websites are vulnerable to malfunctions if not well maintained. For this reason, it’s essential to refresh your website every few years to keep things modern and fresh.
Responsive Website Design (RWD)
To ensure the performance and usability of your website, it’s essential to have a responsive web design. In 2015, Google algorithm started favoring and backing sites with a mobile-friendly design. This means that sites with a responsive design ranked higher on search engine result pages (SERPs).
A website with an RWD can detect a visitor’s device and tailor the screen size and layout to fit the device used. Newly designed sites come with a responsive design.
However, upgrading an older web design to a newer theme will cost you around $2,000. You will only pay this amount once because the upgrade is a one-time task.
Website Theme Design
Some CMS systems such as WordPress provide website owners with themes that promptly alter a website’s format and appearance. While using WordPress is convenient for most business owners, you will lose the authenticity of your site because it will look similar to other sites using the same themes.
Most website themes are free to use. However, a premium theme will cost between $10 to $100 based on the features offered.
But if you want exclusive rights to use the theme, you will pay a little more. You can also commission a personalized website theme specially made for your business.
Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines
In the past, SEO content was optional, and most website owners didn’t bother much about it. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case anymore. If you’re running an eCommerce business, SEO is mandatory.
Search engine optimization is a chain of tasks that determine where Google ranks your site on the result pages. The main idea is to get your site to rank higher than your competitors and attract more traffic.
Optimizing your website for search engines helps users easily find your site when they are looking for content and products in your area of specialty.
The cost of SEO varies from one agency to another. However, this is one of the most costly expenses of running a business website.
When launching your site, you may pay an upfront amount of $3,000 to $9,000 and an additional monthly maintenance fee of $200- $500 on average.
However, the cost of SEO depends on your company size and the type of website you have. The bigger the business, the higher the cost of SEO.
Unfortunately, optimizing your site for search engines isn’t a one-time thing. It’s an ongoing process that requires a dedicated budget.
When hiring an SEO marketing company, ensure you settle for a reputable and experienced company with professionals who know what they are doing.
Don’t just settle for the cheapest available company in the market. They may not be as effective as their more expensive competitors. It’s always better to pay an experienced, competent but expensive company instead of an inexperienced one.
Now You Know the Cost of Web Design
A well-designed business website can be the difference between a successful business and a failing one. The cost of web design depends on numerous factors, such as the web developer you choose, the type of website, and your host service provider.
Read the above guide to help you understand the overall web design pricing. Remember to hire a web designer with a proven track record.
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