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Did you know that nearly one-third of small businesses have not yet capitalized on the marketing potential of a website?*
If you are here reading this post, that means you are ready to take your business idea to the next level! You are one step closer to your potential clients.
A professional website is an essential piece of your online presence. However, it is easy to underestimate the amount of work that goes into building a professional website. In order to help you decide on your website investment, we have listed the factors that define the cost of a professional website.
Deciding how much you need to invest in your web design:
Let’s imagine that you will buy a brand new laptop. Below are the questions that you would ask to yourself, right?
– Why do I need this laptop?
– What will I be using this laptop for?
– What are the important features for me?
and also,
– For how long do I want to use this laptop?
– What kind of laptop can I afford / how much do I have?
Websites are the same. Building your online presence is an investment, and it costs money. You may want to ask yourself similar questions when it comes to web design and development.
Let’s make it simpler. Before investing in a website, ask the below questions yourself,
– Why do I need a website?
– What do I want to do with this website? (collect leads, sell products, promote services)
– What functionalities do I need? (a contact form so my audience can fill it in and contact me, shopping card feature so I can sell things on my website? Or an e-newsletter form so I can collect leads to promote my products and services?)
– Is a website a long-term investment for me? (or am I just trying out to see if things work out?)
– What is my budget?
As in the example of the laptop, the price range for website design and development is between €200 – €10,000. A cheap to mid-range laptop may function perfectly but it may not have the storage capacity you need. If you need a one-page website with no functionalities, you could as well be paying €200 for a web design. This could mean no visibility and failing to look professional. Not to mention the frustration and the future costs that may arise in the future.
Factors Affecting the Cost of Web Design & Development:
Let’s see a variety of factors that influence the cost of web design and development.
Number of Pages:
The more pages you need means more work. And this naturally increases the price you need to pay for your website. Do you need a simple website which has 4 to 5 pages or a website that includes sales landing pages and blog post pages?
Functionality:
A website’s technical components affect web design and development cost. These could include e-commerce functionality, chatbots, Instagram gallery or lead generation forms. The more functionalities you need, the higher the cost.
Design:
Design of a website doesn’t only mean logos and the use of photography or colours. There are three types of design that should be taken into consideration. These are UI (user interface), UX (user experience) and graphics design.
User Interface Design defines the controls on your site. It helps visitors to navigate easily and complete tasks on the website.
User Experience Design is the quality of interaction between your website and users. This is not about the visuals, but the overall feeling of the experience.
Graphics Design & Visual Identity: Your website should reflect your visual identity as well as brand personality. To achieve this, you need to use your own colour palette, brand photography and assets on the website.
A good web designer and developer take UX and UI into consideration while designing and building their websites.
Customisation:
There are lots of templates that individuals can use to build websites easily. Even though it seems like an attractive option, there are many reasons not to use them. First of all, template websites come with little or no on-page SEO options. Also, templates may not allow you to put in place the functionality you wish to have. They limit your flexibility.
Mobile-friendliness:
These days, people use their mobile devices more than desktops and laptops. Besides, Google favours websites that deliver the best mobile experience for your audience. So it is important for your website to be responsive or mobile-friendly.
Web designers are aware of this and they spend extra time on making your website mobile-friendly. This also requires testing on various devices.
Copywriting:
Most web designers provide copywriting services as an extra add-on. This may cost between €60 to €300 per page and more pages mean more copywriting, which then leads to more costs. If you have your copy ready, your web designer will still need to adjust it, and this means extra hours of work.
Extra Costs on Top of the Web Design & Development price:
Domain name:
Unless you go for a premium domain name, registering a new domain name costs between €10 and €20 a year. Plus, some hosting companies include domain registration in the first year of subscription.
Hosting:
Web hosting costs between €3 to €30 based on the hosting type and provider. However, it is important to know that cheap hosting often comes with various problems. Have a look at our blog post here in which we listed the various web hosting options and prices.
SSL:
SSL certificates are essential for a website’s security. There are free SSL certificates in the market as well as paid ones. Free SSL certificates are issued for 30-90 days, and this means the website owner or developer needs to renew the certificate every 30-90 days. If you go for a paid option, it costs above €100 per year.
Maintenance:
First of all, entrepreneurs should never consider a website design as a one-time cost. If you want your website to be searchable, the content needs to be fresh – which means you will need content updates regularly. It is good to include maintenance costs in your marketing budget.
SEO:
Having a website doesn’t mean your website will be searchable. However, web design goes in line with SEO. Mobile-friendliness, user experience, navigation, page speed and images affect a website’s SEO. Web designers should be aware of this, and they should include at least a basic SEO in their web design plans.
If you want to hire a professional SEO agency, the hourly rate varies between €100 and €150 per hour. It is important to know that SEO is a long-term investment and a monthly retainer is the best way to work with an agency or freelancer.
Website Redesign:
When you work with a cheap developer or create your own website for free, there is always a risk of having something broken. And when something is not working, you may end up paying extra to have your website redesigned or fixed.
Besides, you need to take branding into consideration. Once you have new branding, your website should be in line with it.
Conclusion:
It is also important to understand the difference between a web designer and a developer. Web designers use a third-party program (such as Photoshop or Canva) to design the graphics while a developer brings the web design to life. In other words, it is the developer’s job to turn the design into a real functioning property. We see a lot of web designers who outsource their development side as they either love the design part or simply because they have a graphics design background. This might increase the price for the client as the cost doubles.
A website’s cost may differ based on the web designer’s skills, the platforms they use and the client’s needs. While it is possible to build a website for €200, it may bring disadvantages and future costs within. There is always a hidden cost behind a cheap website.
Entrepreneurs shouldn’t underestimate the complexity and the time put into a business website. They can either go for a do-it-yourself option, hire a freelancer or work with a small web design agency. The outcome will be in parallel with what they decide to invest in their websites.
As Social Influence, we design and develop custom websites to meet your business goals. We include basic SEO in all our website packages and apply the best user experience practices. Need help with lead generation or social media ads to bring more traffic to your website? No problem. Our digital marketing background helps us to help you grow your online presence in an efficient way.
Click here to have a look at our website design & development packages for entrepreneurs.
