Part 2 – The Truth About Website Design Costs

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This week’s BUILDINGBLOCKS article addresses the remaining three factors affecting total website design and development costs.

Freely jump to any particular factor or section that interests you, or continue enjoying the read!

• The Skinny Review
• Fourth Factor: Content Development
• Fifth Factor: Website Size
• Sixth Factor: Overall Service & Maintenance
• Getting Started

In case you missed “The Skinny— Part 1” of this blog article, here’s a recap of the first three factors that affect website design costs.

During Part 1, we discussed the first three factors that affect web design costs.

The first factor is site type.

Site type addresses who will build it or by what means. In other words, will you choose a do-it-yourself site builder template, work with a freelance website developer, or hire a professional custom developer? Each type has an associated cost, with site builder templates being the least expensive on average.

Factor two— website design and layout.

This particular factor addresses what the site will look like, its visual aesthetics¹, and the consistent layout flow on each page. The more elaborate and animated a site is, the more it will cost for the design work aspect, especially if companies require custom features, exceptional UI (user interface), and additional designs for responsiveness.

The third factor is site functionality.

‘What do you want your website to do for the people visiting online?’ That is the top question pertaining to site functionality and interactivity. Functionality has a lot to do with programming, and similar to design, functioning must be responsive and create a favorable UI. However, functional features must include high-level responsiveness so the site can show well and work on any digital platform. By this, it should also provide a positive UX (user experience) for visitors.

Overall, the true website costs of plan development, building, and site maintenance depend highly on six primary factors, namely—

1. Site type
2. Website design
3. Functionality
4. Content
5. Site Size, and
6. Monitoring and maintenance

Due to these essential factors, website prices will always vary from as low as $500 to upwards of $50,000 or more. In the end, website cost is determined by what each company needs on their site to conduct business online, stay connected to customers, and remain industry competitive.

Now that we’ve recapped part 1 of this blog series, let’s take a closer look at the remaining three web cost factors: Content, Website Size, and On-going Maintenance.

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Factor 4: Content is still King $Ka-Ching next to website functionality!

Next to site functionality and layout, content is the second most critical element to consider in website design cost. It’s about ‘What words are on each page and how are they being conveyed?’ Not only does content lure visitors to your website, but also its amount is what determines page numbers and cost.

In addition, fresh, relevant, and optimized content is your essential communications tool, so utilize and incorporate it wisely to help promote site visitor connections and your ROI.

For example, when content developers write copy messaging using SEO best practices, the chances of a site connecting potential leads and customers to business product and service solutions increase astronomically.

There is a power that comes with content marketing. Many people still wonder, ‘What exactly does content do for your website?’ I say, it’s naturally simple yet strategic.

• • • Content is essential to connecting customers to your products and service solutions.
    • It’s also vital to helping increase SEO rankings so your business appears on search queries (SERP).

The three aspects that ultimately affect content pricing for website pages are:

• • Who is providing the content?
  • Will the content be enhanced for SEO?
  • How much content will there be? (Number of pages.)

Content Logistics also affect design cost- Who will write the content, and how will it be provided?

The logistics of getting content onto each website page is also where costs can vary. For instance, companies that already have relevant content but may need refreshening, optimizing, and copy rearranging for new site pages, will pay less for their itemized content portion. On the other hand, those requiring content writers for page copy development and optimization will pay more.

Consistently Adding Fresh Content to Your Website – Blogs Are Essential!

By far, blogging is the best way to continue adding relevant and engaging content onto a site. For instance, if you want to ensure your website functions like a lead-generating tool, industry resource articles help make that happen!

As a vital part of a website marketing strategy, blogs also consistently show Google that a company site is active, competitive, and marketable in its industry. So, what you say and how well you say it matters and should always be conveyed through content marketing messaging.

Since blogs also fall under website updating and maintenance, additional content marketing costs are associated with writers adding these new pages. So, businesses can have staff write and post blogs regularly, or they can choose to hire a marketing industry expert to write and publish articles on the site. And, of course, the latter typically includes higher costs, usually at a per-word or per blog-type rate.

Bottom line? You’ll always want to ensure your content is on-point, relevant, and consistent with keyword searches and brand messaging. If not, you could end up having a beautiful site you paid thousands of dollars to build, with no potential customers visiting it.

Factor 5: Your website size, or its number of pages, is another price factor.

One of the first questions a web builder program, freelancer, and professional developer will ask is— ‘How many pages will your website have?’ If you’ve just started a business and must be frugal with your funds, beginning with a basic web builder site is best. You can have anywhere from 3-7 pages, but the average small site consists of five pages.

Of course, the bigger the website, the greater the cost. Large corporations can have hundreds of intricate pages on their site, but small and mid-sized business sites may have 20 or fewer. Along with builder development, design, functionality, and content, page count determines its size and ultimate cost.

In the end, your basic website must include the following prime pages:

• Home Page
• Products and/or Services Pages – Usually 2 to 3 separate pages
• About Page – Who are you? What value proposition or solution(s) do you provide? And why is your business important for the online visitor?
• Blogs Page – An active industry blog page is NOT an option; it’s a “must’ion!”
• Connection/Contact Page – What if visitors want to reach you? They need to be able to contact, purchase something, or access services from you, so your information is vital to closing the sale.

Factor 6: HOW and WHO will monitor and maintain your asset is the final factor in determining overall website design cost.

Like your smartphone and other digital device needs regular maintenance, modern websites are online devices that also require routine maintenance and updates. Without it, they could crash, go offline, or even be compromised through advanced hacking techniques. So, you should know how much it costs to build your site and what it takes to maintain it securely.

Overall, website maintenance and monitoring are the most variant of all the pricing factors to consider in its build and upkeep. Maintenance will depend on:

• The type of site you have— its functionality and complexity
• Your invested maintenance budget, and
• Which maintenance features are must-haves to keep your site up and running

Web monitoring and maintenance costs vary. And you pay either monthly or annually, depending on your preferences and the service provider(s) you choose. And on average, companies will spend between $400 to $50,000 annually on vital maintenance fees.

The primary elements of website maintenance must include features like:

• • Annual Web Hosting Fees – Where will your website domain name live and be maintained?
  • Website Domain Name – What is the name of your website (the URL that includes the domain name)?
  • SSL Certificate – What is the digital certificate, or ‘Secure Sockets Layer,’ that authenticates your site’s identity and enables encrypted online connections?
  • General Website Maintenance – The fee you pay to ensure someone fixes things that break down, like site code, functionality, domain identity, etc.
  • Content Management Systems (CMS) – What software plan will you use to help create, manage, and modify your website content without needing to rewrite code or know how to write site page code?
  • E-Commerce Functionality – If your website uses e-commerce, who will maintain and update its functionality or resolve issues/problems that appear on it?
  • Developer Fees – Whether you used a web builder, freelancer, or professional developer, they all will have additional maintenance fees for your site.

Website Maintenance is Essential to the Health of Your Site

Overall, the more features and functional elements a company site has, the more it will cost to keep it running securely and smoothly. However, when people opt not to invest in site maintenance and regular server monitoring, their website becomes extremely vulnerable. As a result, the chances of functional and programming crashes, breakdowns, and compromised security significantly increase.

Is your site more than three years old? Let’s talk about options for something new!

Whether you have an old geriatric site or no site, we can help begin the conversation about options that will work best for your business. To get started, however, take the first step and contact us online or call 281-203-0529.

Then again, if you’re not yet ready to meet, go ahead and get a FREE website analysis on us. See how well your site is currently performing and check its status. Click the link below to get started!

^References

1. ^{‘Work Hard Anywhere” web design photo concept by Kevin Bhagat.}