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How much does a website cost? Part 1

We get asked this all the time. It’s a reasonable question, but there’s no simple answer. Most sites vary in one way or another, and it’s important to understand the variations in pricing to get an idea of what’s achievable in your budget.

 

What function do you need the website to perform, and what’s involved in creating it?

These are some of the most important questions when deciding what you want a website for. Do you want to just have a presence that can be found by Google and other directories? Do you want it to be just a point of contact for potential clients? Do you want to increase leads and sales? Do you want to sell a product online? Is it a tool that your business will be using to build a database of potential sales leads? The list is endless…

 

To give you an idea of what’s involved in creating a simple/basic website, here’s a breakdown of what’s included in building a basic custom website:

 

Brief: the website is for a small local business that sells and services pneumatic equipment. They’re looking for a site that has a few pages describing the business, and some of the products and services that they sell. They want a clear call to action for customers to contact them by telephone or through a simple contact form.

 

Initial Website Meeting – usually about 1-2 hours

This is where the website’s function and goals are decided. It’s also about giving us an idea of exactly what the company does, how it’s positioned, how the business currently markets itself, how they intend to drive traffic to the site and much more.

 

Website Design – approx 2-3 days

Using the existing company branding, we create a rough wireframe to get a good idea of the website’s structure across the mobile and desktop versions. Once we’re confident it fits the brief, we’ll choose the right fonts, colours, icons, imagery, etc. to complement the brand.

 

Website Development – approx 6-8 days (depending)

Once the website design is approved, we convert the designed site into a working, interactive site. From here, the internal pages are created, templates are coded and all the fine tuning begins. Pages begin to take shape and questions arise, such as should this page have a form? What information do I need to collect from customers and who will receive a copy of the submitted form? What offers/products do I want to promote on the homepage? What are the main pages, to include as links in the main navigation menu?

 

A mobile/responsive website is created so that it works well across all platforms, such as tablets, smart phones, desktops, etc. We also support older browsers back to Internet Explorer 8 – we use the latest coding practices, which can sometimes look different on older browsers.

 

Support and Training (Training is generally about 1-2 hours)

Support is generally in the form of phone calls and emails. We usually train clients to be able independent with the site, so that they can make all the changes they’d like to on their site. Some clients aren’t too experienced in using the content management systems, and in some cases even using computers, so training for these clients takes a little bit longer.

 

As you can see, this all adds up. So an average website will still take roughly 2-3 weeks, assuming all content is supplied before we begin, which rarely happens.

 

That’s the end of the first part of How much does a website cost? In the next part, I’ll be explaining Features, such as blogs, forms, private areas, eCommerce and more, which can have a large effect on your website quote.