Let’s break it down
When asked “How much does it cost to make a website?” we can't simply just give you a fixed rate. No legitimate agency should, it's a red flag if they do. Often, agencies are able to have set prices because they figured out how to grossly profit off of yourself & others in need. It's important to deal with an agency that breaks down your vision into more detail and customizes your quote.
There are a lot of factors at play, right?
Your business is one of a kind. Requiring a one of a kind web build-out. Meaning it’s important to discuss your vision in depth. Doing so might either increase or decrease the cost of a fair quote.
There are always questions that need answering to determine a reasonable quote. A few questions any web developer will ask you are:
· What’s the mission of the site?
· Does it need membership abilities?
· Or eCommerce?
· Any custom programming?
All of these factors impact the overall price.
So where can you get a good average?
How can you determine how deep into your wallet you have to reach to get a custom professional site built? Well right here. Generally, a website built by an experienced American or European developer will cost around:
· $ 2,000 to $6,000 for small businesses
· $5,000 to $10,000 for medium-sized businesses And
· $10,000 and up for franchises and larger businesses
The prices can be slightly lower to get your site done by someone in a developing country. This is a largely known fact by marketers. We have our own name for these businesses called: white label marketing agencies, or virtual subcontractors regarding individuals. Like any business here they can contact these agencies and individuals to work on your site, so they gain a larger profit off your investment.
Catastrophic Downside
We wouldn’t recommend doing business with agencies that practice this form of lazy design. We’ve heard so many horror stories over the years and worked with so many business owners who ended up losing tons of money and time from trying to outsource a project on sites such as Fiver. Or dealing with agencies that were in fact white labeling. Best to stick to developers you can trust and who understand your business, industry, and culture.
Now back to the main question...
How do web developers calculate their prices?
Generally, website agencies charge by the hour.
And, if you want to hire a decent agency that will give you a good website, their prices will generally range between $80 – $180 per hour.
As a quick example:
If a developer is charging you $100 an hour; you know that he or she will spend about 30 hours on a $3,000 website and, about 50 hours on a $5,000 website.
And 30 hours is pretty much the quickest it will take to complete a small business website.
30+ hours Why So Long?
Let’s say an average, a small business website is about 10 pages in size. It will take the designer and developer about 5-8 hours to set up your site and make the required pages. From there another 3 hours per page after that.
That’s already over 30 hours of work right there.
If we factor in initial customer service, making the site mobile responsive, making edits, and optimizing the site for SEO at the conclusion. Even a relatively small website project can quickly take over 40 hours from start to finish.
Let's talk “hidden costs” this you need to be aware of!
Domain comes first.
Before anything technical can really start, you will need a domain name (A name people can type in to find your site’s content).
This is like www.promotonics.com or apple.com
Domain names are cheap. They should only cost you about $10-$20 a year. Although that is not always the case. Some domains can really get up there in cost, like $10,000 up there. For the most part, yours will be within the $10-$20 per year cost.
You’ll also need to host your website somewhere.
This is essentially paying rent to keep your website up and running every month.
Just like rent, hosting varies depending on where you put your site.
For most of my clients, I recommend investing at least $50-$100 a month in a strong hosting platform so their site is always up and can handle as many people as needed.
The other cost is maintenance.
Websites, just like a house, need some care and updating now and then.
Although some hosting providers will offer small fixes etc, the best option is to put aside another $50 – $100 a month for updates, backups, changes, fixes, and security – Security especially! In this day and age that’s a necessity.
Once your website is finished, you will also need to promote it to your customers.
Keep in mind, there are nearly 2 billion websites out there right now.
So, no matter how pretty your site turns out, it’s almost impossible for your clients to find you.
Unless you have a marketing budget
One digital marketing strategy I suggest all our clients do is at least to invest in a few months of SEO. Search Engine Optimization, essentially using ranking techniques to get your site found on Google. Now, The cost of SEO can vary greatly depending on your target, industry, and other factors. That's a conversation we’ll be dissecting in our next blog post. So, keep an eye out.
How to Choose who to design your website
These days with platforms like Squarespace, Wix, or Weebly seemingly anyone can start building a website. Giving way to a boom to amateur marketers flooding your FB timeline. As well as throwing out rates that look tantalizing to many. Like those who have chosen to utilize marketing agencies with white label practices, we have seen a variety of real-life horror stories via their attempt at building your vision. Not to mention the large monetary loss along the way.
Saving money is particularly important, especially these days with the impact of COVID-19 rippling throughout our global economy. Yet it’s always important to keep in mind that, you pay for what you get. Here at Promotonics, we’ve worked with a variety of small, medium, and large franchised businesses. Our online reviews speak for what we do. And what we do is work with you directly to see your business succeed. We direct the light to where it it belongs, ON YOU!