How much do websites cost?
Websites can be built to include many different features, such as email list subscriptions, social media plugins or online credit card payments.
Website cost varies widely depending on what your requirements are and what you want to achieve with your website. We’ve found that people enquiring about websites have become more knowledgeable over the years, although we still get the odd person who wants “A website just like facebook for under $250″! Website cost can be greatly affected by your web designer’s impression of how easy it will be to deal with you as a customer. Are you asking them to build a website for you, or are you asking them to create an entire business plan from some fuzzy idea that you had 3 minutes before you called them?
As a rule, the more complicated the website, the more it will cost. However, there is now a lot of software available that allows us to built advanced websites much more cheaply than in the early days of web design. Here’s a few guidelines for some common website costs.
Graphic Design
Website graphics are usually the first step on the way to building your website. The cost of web graphics will vary greatly depending on the type of website and amount of graphic content. A very basic graphic design may only account for a small part of the overall cost, whereas a fully animated website could easily run to thousands in graphic design costs.
Copywriting
“Copywriting” refers to the writing of promotional text for your website. Often, the client will already have “copy” that they have prepared for brochures, advertising or other marketing that can be used in the website. You can save money by writing the website copy yourself but don’t underestimate how difficult this may be. If you enjoyed writing essays at school, you might be fine. But if not, consider asking us to write your website copy for you. Good website copy can make your internet marketing more effective and therefore, more profitable. We can provide you with costs for website copywriting based on the number of pages you require.
Web Design Cost
Preparing a plan for your website design will help the project run smoothly and to expectations.
Web design will usually make up the bulk of your website cost. This is the process of installing software, building the graphic design and website copy into your web pages. It could also include special features such as a content manager, online shopping carts, social media plugins and other tools such as RSS feeds and email marketing.
Static Websites
A static website is a collection of individually built web pages that are not easily updated by you. This sort of website is ideal if you are on a budget or require only a basic internet presence. Most static websites we build are around 4-5 pages. If the website requires many more pages, or is likely to be regularly updated, it is more cost effective to build a content-managed website. Updating a static website yourself would require knowledge of website coding or web design software. Static website cost can be as low as a few hundred dollars from a “budget” web designer. However, we offer a more complete package that includes customised design and comprehensive search engine optimisation.
Content Managed Websites
With a content managed website, you are able to update your web pages without assistance from your web designer. There is a secured admin area that is accessible by multiple users at the same time. An unlimited number of pages can be added along with links, photos, attached documents within categories created by you. These kind of websites cost a little more initially but will save you money in the long run. They are also much more flexible than static sites and tend to rank higher on Google.
Online Shopping Websites
An online shop with all the bells and whistles, built from scratch, once cost tens of thousands, but now we can build them for a fraction of that. Most online shops will be in the $4k-$10k depending on your requirements, number of products, complexity of shipping charges and payment processes. Get a quote for an ecommerce website
Mobile-Friendly Websites
As more and more people use smartphones and browse the internet online, it has become more and more important that websites can be easily used one a mobile device. We can convert existing websites to be mobile friendly or create websites that will work well on mobile devices. Cost for a mobile-friendly website conversion is from $500+gst. Actual cost depends on the way the website has been built. Read more about mobile friendly websites here.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Most web designers do very little search engine optimisation (if any) for their clients. SEO is the difference between being on page one or page ten of a Google search. We usually carry out on-site SEO as part of the website cost. What is the point of having a great website if no one can find it? SEO can also be offered as part of an ongoing service for websites that are in competitive industries. Read more about SEO here.
Minimising your website cost
The more prepared you are, the more effectively your web designer will be able to help you. No preparation means more work for the designer and more cost for you. If you know what pages you want, have an idea of layout and colours and can provide some text and quality photographs, your website cost can be reduced significantly.
Finally, when choosing a web designer, there are also other things to consider like ownership of copyrights and what ongoing services are provided like web hosting, support, search engine optimisation and internet marketing. Also remember that you are likely to have a long term relationship with your designer, so you need to feel confident that they are able to continue to support you in future.
