What should a web site design cost?
Posted on September 4, 2008
Filed Under Internet Business | This post was written by Joe Almeida
This is a question that is not easy to answer because it involves several factors. Unless you have the necessary facts, you won’t know if you’re getting what you deserve for your money. As a
general rule, you need to consider that the cost for a website will be based on how long it takes for design and implementation. There are three areas that a web design company must be well-versed in: artistic/creative, technical, and marketing. Those are the key ingredients to a successful website.
On the topic of marketing, although it’s beyond the scope of this post, it deals with the promotion and marketing of your site. The nicest, most functional website in the world isn’t likely to be successful if no one knows about it. I will address the details of marketing, more specifically Internet marketing, and how it relates to your website in future posts. There will be many posts on this because this is a varied topic, but learning general details of Internet Marketing and having a web design company with marketing abilities in your corner can really have an impact on the success and growth of your business.
Here’s a checklist of items that should or could be included with your website, an explanation of each item and whether a particular item should cost you extra or not.
Let me be specific about something, I am referring to a custom web design here, not a template. A template is a website already pre-designed and, with a few alterations, made into a website for you. A template will never be original or specifically made for your business and target market. Even worse, there is a high probability that there are a few websites out there that will already look a little like yours, if it’s made from a template.
With that said, here is your list of what your website should include and what you could pay extra for:
Navigation bar: Do you need a search feature on your website or is a navigation bar with a FAQ page sufficient?
$$-Both should be included at no additional cost
A navigation bar is a basic component of a website, a FAQ page can be included as well, if it fits your business.
Search capabilities will be included at no additional cost with mid to high end websites.
A properly designed website is essential to keep your visitors on your site. If your site is confusing or things are not easy to find, people will go somewhere else quickly. A navigation (menu) bar at the top or along the left side of the page is what people are accustomed to and know how to use. Don’t let your designer get fancy and attempt to include a “cool” or “interesting” way to navigate your site. Your visitors won’t understand it and will leave. Keep it simple. For examples of this, look at the more popular websites: Google, Ebay, Amazon, Yahoo. Their designs are simple, but easy to navigate. That’s the model to follow! As for a FAQ page, it’s another standard page that people are accustomed to and will help answer any common questions that people have about your product, service or idea. A FAQ page is great way to keep people on your site by letting them know what you want them to know about your business.
E-Commerce Systems:
$$-Usually will cost extra as an additional feature for a website. There are projects that only require an E-Commerce system and you would only pay for the E-Commerce system on these.
Do you want to sell products on your website? If so, you need to have an ecommerce system incorporated into your site. This will allow you to upload product pictures, enter a description and a price for your products and sell your products to your website visitors. I will get into payment processing systems (the systems that give you the ability to accept payments from your customers) in a later post. These payment processing systems are integrated into your ecommerce system by your web designer, so it’s not something you need to be concerned with, but it’s good to know how things work and what the costs should be.
Feedback and contact forms:
$$ Simple forms- should be included at no additional cost
$$ Interactive Forms-will have an additional cost.
This depends on the type of business you have. For some businesses, a simple contact us page with an email address and phone number is sufficient. Other businesses are good with having a contact form which will email the contents of the form to you once your visitor clicks the “submit” button on the form. Then, there are certain businesses that require a more complex feedback form because it becomes an important part of the online business model.
For example, one of our client’s owns a restaurant and wanted a way to interact with his customers through the website we built for him. We created the equivalent of a “comment card” on his website where his customers could send their experience at the restaurant to him. On the back end, when a feedback form was received, the senders name and email address were saved and stored in a database automatically. The client then began to announce that this was available and, to his surprise, the customers began to use the system immediately. He took the time to read each submission and, for the ones that had a bad experience, he sent an apology and emailed a free dinner coupon, good for their next visit. In addition, he began building an email database of customers and is sending an occasional “special discount” and other promotional emails. The discounts are usually offered during specific (slow) nights of the week. He has eliminated the “slow” nights and is busy all the time now!
This is an example of a feedback form actually contributing to the growth of a business. In summary, only you know what’s best for your business, but there are certain tools that are essential to some businesses and your web designer should suggest the specific tools that will help you, in your particular industry.
Site statistics:
$$: This should be included with every website.
It will show you:
- How many visitors you have.
- Where they came from e.g. search engine.
- If it’s a search engine, what words they were searching for when they found you.
- Where they are located geographically.
- It should show you graphs to see trends over periods of time.
Do be afraid to ask for this because this should be included at no cost with your website. It is important to have this information because it really helps you decide where you should go with your marketing efforts.
Animation:
$ This will cost extra on low-end websites or be blended into the cost of a higher end websites.
Start by asking your designer if there will be animation on the website. This is not a requirement for a nice website, but if it’s kept simple, can sometimes enhance the look of your website. Animation is not for every business site though. For an example of a professional project, which uses flash animation, but maintains a professional appearance go here: http://www.privatepass.citi.com/site/ . Now use your imagination to visualize if you would like to see flash animation on your website.
Quality: How do you know the quality of work that a web designer produces? Your first answer should not be: I’ll go see if they have a portfolio. Why? Portfolios are nice, but they do not always represent what you will get if you decide to go with that designer. First, there could be a team of designers working at a particular company and, if you see a sample site in the portfolio that you like, you don’t know if the same designer will be the one to work your website. Second, you don’t know the budget of the customer who owns the website you liked.
The true measure of quality is what you will see in the first stage of development. This is where a good web designer will interview you to understand your vision and expectations for your website. He or she will find out what your expectations are and who your target market is and begin designing with this in mind. Then, you should receive between 2-4 samples that will show you what your website will look like. You will be given the option of picking and choosing what you like from each sample or just select one in particular (if you fall in love with one of the samples). Then your website will be built based on your selection. When you receive these samples, you will see the true level of quality that you will receive from that designer and you can then make a decision whether to move forward with that particular designer.
Ultimately, the cost of having a custom web design done by a professional will come down to time. The high end, more experienced design companies, will work faster, but will have a higher hourly rate. In contrast, those that charge less per hour will be less experienced and, will end up taking longer to complete the project. I recommend finding a company with a team that has experience in the three areas (artistic/creative, technical, and marketing), but does not quote you an astronomical amount. The true way to find the right company to develop your website is by doing your homework. It will be worth the time you put into researching different companies because A.) This is not a small investment for your business; B.) Your website will represent your company; C.) With the wrong designer you could encounter a series of nightmares where you don’t get what you expected, you have to waste an enormous amount of time sending emails back and forth with requests and complaints, you will have a low quality website and you might even have to spend more money by contracting another designer to finish the job!
There are some questions that I suggest you ask the company you are considering:
Do they have a team or is it only one person?
Do the people on the team have experience with the following programming languages: PHP or ASP, Flash, CSS and JavaScript? (These are the popular Internet programming languages).
Do they have a graphic designer on the team?
If they answer yes to these questions, then push a little more and ask how many years of experience they have in these areas? If you feel they have answered honestly and you’re comfortable with the answers, then it’s time to tell them about your web design project and let them quote you on it. If the price seems right and you feel comfortable with what you have heard, then move forward and demand they give you at least 3 sample looks for your site as the first step.
Most will ask you for a deposit in order to create your sample looks (they want to know that you are serious about being a client). This is ok because the deposit should be fully refundable if you are not happy with what is produced. The reason it is refundable is that the samples will be images (screenshots) of what your website will look like, not actual websites. Therefore, the website will not actually be started until you decide on a look and give the green light.
I can hear you saying OK THIS IS ALL GREAT AND USEFUL INFORMATION, BUT THE TITLE OF THIS POST IS WHAT SHOULD A WEBSITE COST…SO?
Since you now know that there is no standard price, let me give you a couple of case samples with prices:
1.) A small business needs a website for their business because they want a presence on the Internet. The site is simple - about 5 pages with information about the business, the services they provide, a form that can be submitted and the information received via email. There is not enough money for creating animation or fancy graphics, so existing images will be used. A smaller, less experienced designer may take on a project like this for a few hundred dollars. A medium sized web design company might quote $1800 to $4000 depending on the specifics. A larger web design company would probably not take a project this small.
2.) A mail order company wants to get into online sales. They currently have no website. They have a mix of about 200 products with a broad target market. They also don’t have experience with using a computer so they need all their product pictures uploaded to the site, the descriptions must be setup for each and each product should be available for sale on the website. Depending on a wide range of variables, a project like this could start at about $5000 and go up all the way to about $10,000.
Generally, the more you spend on your website, the more website you will get for your money, but not always. The right web design company will want to establish an ongoing relationship with your company, not take you for as much money as possible. There are many sub-projects that could develop from the first website project and word of mouth advertising is very powerful on the Internet.
Therefore, a good web design company will consult with you and understand what your needs are, what your business does, what your expectations are and they will offer suggestions and ideas on how to achieve your goals in a project plan which will show you the details of your project. In addition, they need to understand marketing and the psychology that goes into it in order to build your website and optimize it for the Search Engines. Depending on the project, they could offer promotional ideas and may even have services like article marketing, press releases etc. available, which will give your website a lot of exposure. If you find a company like this and you are armed with the information in this post, you are probably going to be happy with the result!
If you have any questions or would like to share an idea, please feel free to comment here!
Good Luck!
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