How Much Should You Pay for a Business Website?
In 2018, a website is essential for the success of any business, it is after all your online “business card” for the world. However, at Digital Renovators we know that people find it hard to determine what they should pay for a website to get the most value out of it. We have compiled a short guide to help you decide on your budget and what you should be considering.
Domain Name
Every website needs a domain name, it is how people will find your business online and what they will type in the address bar. It is possible to buy a brand new domain name that is just for your company or you can purchase an old one that has been registered for a long time. The latter will usually be keyword targeted ones that carry a lot of weight and provide a strong foundation for your business.
Brand new domains cost around £10-£15 a year but this cost will vary based on the service you choose to buy it from and whether it is a .com, .org, .net or .co.uk address.
Older domains can cost hundreds, thousands or even millions of dollars and the price can vary based on the age of the domain, its authority and the keyword it is targeting. For example, seo.com sold for $5million, beer.com sold for $7million and hotels.com sold for $11million in recent years. If you choose an older domain, you need to think carefully and you probably will only pay a few hundred for it.
Web Hosting
All websites need to be hosted for them to be available online. This is where your website and its content, images and files will live. Web designers can help you to secure web hosting but they will usually charge a small additional fee since hosting has a cost. There are several options for hosting:
Shared hosting is the most cost-effective solution for hosting. It is where multiple websites are hosted on the same server like a building of flats and each flat is the space for the website where all of its contents are stored. £90-£110 per year
Virtual Private Servers are much more expensive than shared hosting but they give you much more control over the hosting environment. Multiple websites are still hosted on the same server but the owners are given similar control to that of a dedicated server. £200+ per year
Dedicated Servers are the best to use for websites that receive a lot of traffic and need additional security measures in place. They give you complete control over the server and you can choose what software is used, how many websites you want to host and more. However, they are much more expensive than any other options. £1000+ per year
Design and Development
There are many factors that come into the cost of designing and developing a website, so you need to make sure you know exactly what your website needs before requesting a quote from a web designer. Here are some of the elements you need to take into consideration.
Design – Choosing a pre-made theme is much more cost-effective than a bespoke theme and will only cost up to £100. This will allow your developer to make modifications so your website is unique without having to spend hours coding or modifying your website. This would cost over £500 just for the theme, so there’s much more value in choosing something pre-made. The cost of your theme will be included in the price you are quoted by a developer.
Neil from TV Aerial Waves says “Paying that little bit extra allowed me to have a website that was 100% right for us as a company, I would recommend that you write out what you need and then have that priced up”
You also need to think about the imagery and graphics. Do you have them or will the developer need to source them for you? If they will need to provide it for you, this may come with an additional cost as buying stock images or taking new ones will cost both time and money. However, this cost will be minimal in most cases and will be absorbed into your website quote.
Content– This is the words that will appear on your website and the pages that you will require for your products and services. You need to think about how many pages you will need and what will go on them. Will you be able to provide the content or will the designer need to create it for you or outsource it to a copywriter?
We can provide this as part of your website build but there are agencies out there that can provide it at an additional cost if you wish, although you would expect to pay around £50 per pages for this to be completed.
Paul from Pac Asbestos Surveys Leeds says about content “Content has been a huge part of my website, and has help me rank locally for a wide range of keywords.”
Functionality– This is the functions you want your website to have. Do you need a contact form? Do you need a forum? Do you need a blog? Do you need memberships? Do you want to deliver dynamic content? Do you need personalised content? Do you need an e-commerce platform? Some of these may come with additional costs but most should be covered in the cost of your website.
You may also pay additional costs for website updates and maintenance as time goes on since your website needs to get kept up-to-date to remain secure.
Thank you very much to Who is Hosting This for the influencing the content of this post.
