How much does it cost to build a website is a common question that plenty of people ask themselves when preparing to either redo their current site or get a new website from scratch. No matter what field of work you are in, every business should have a website. Your business should be able to make sales not only when your physical storefront is closed for the day, but also if tragedy strikes and you have to temporarily close the physical doors (take covid-19 for example).
While it’s true you can’t pinpoint exactly how much you will pay for a website, we have come up with key factors in determining an estimate on how much you might be charged when looking to start up a new website.
Let’s dive in!
When it comes to determining how much it costs to build a website keep in mind what type of VALUE it will bring to your business.
Let’s take for example if you are in the real estate investing business. You go to a business to get a website built, in hopes that you may pay, let's say less than $500 for the complete build for the site. As you start to go over project details with the company you start to tell them you want the site to look clean and elegant. You mention you want not only to draw visitors to the site but you also want to capture leads so that you can reach out to them in hopes that they have a property to sell.
At this point you are not just asking for a website, you are asking for a SYSTEM. You want them to build you a system that helps add revenue to YOUR business and you want to do it for less than $500…. That is simply not going to happen.
You don't go to a fancy restaurant and hope to get McDonalds prices.
There are a bunch of different options when it comes to the functionality of your website. Are you looking for a storefront to sell your products? Are you looking to gain organic traffic and convert them into paying customers? Maybe you are looking to use your site to just display updated information in regard to the services that you offer? All of these different situations will determine the price of your website.
If you perhaps were looking for the latter of those, just displaying information on your website about your services, this could very well be the cheapest of all other options. In this case you have no complex features that need to be added, so the time that is put into the website build would be very low.
When planning to purchase a website, first write down the website value or what the objective for the website will be.
With so many do-it-yourself platforms for your website build, it’s very important to figure out what you would like to use for your website.
Just to name a few:
The list goes on and on…
Just like with anything else in life, these platforms will cost you. Here is a breakdown of what the price tag would be depending on your platform of choice.
[wpdatatable id=4]The fees above are based on the smallest package they offer which would not include a storefront (if you are looking to sell products).
Wix is definitely good for those who are just looking to get up and rolling with their new website ASAP. It doesn’t take much time to create your website using their easy web building tools. You can also just pick from a massive website template and change out whatever text or images does not apply to your business. Another plus when it comes to Wix is the SEO for your website. Wix does a good job of taking a lot of this off of your plate. Just fill in the info Wix asks about your site such as Meta Tags and Descriptions and they help with getting your website ranked.
The downside is that your website is not transferable. So if you decide to later get a different platform such as WordPress, you would need to have your website fully rebuilt.
Just like Wix, Squarespace is also a great place to get up and running as quickly as possible. The pricing is just a tad bit higher, but just like everything in life, you get what you pay for. There are really great reviews for both companies and you rarely hear any bad news about them. This article by Chris Singleton is really good as it goes into detail about the pros and cons of using Squarespace.
Free of charge, WordPress is one of the most popular CMS platforms out there. Here at KC Web Designz we use WordPress because it allows you to use so many different tools to turn your website into exactly what you need it to be. Well, why is it free some may ask?
With WordPress, there is definitely a learning curve that comes with it. If you want to stand out from the rest of the crowd, you need to design and build your website so that it looks different and not like the rest. This means avoid using pre-built templates that others have used. To accomplish this, you can write your own custom code and build the site from scratch. Or the other option is to use a page builder and create your own custom design.
Elegant Themes (one of the most popular WordPress Developers) had a great breakdown of the pricing when it comes to either getting a custom-built WordPress Website or using a Premade theme and a website builder.
The GoDaddy Website Builder is among the list simply because there are still many people who feel this is an easy tool to learn and build your website with. It's simple, just click the template you want and change out what needs to be changed. The biggest downside to Godaddy in our opinion is that their level of customer service is really low. This comes from offering cheap prices. Since the prices are so low, you have many people who go that route and because of this, they have too many customers that they can't provide the level of service that you really need.
This is going to be a great tool for those who simply want to do it on their own but not spend a bunch of time on it. If you feel you won't need to ever speak with them then this can definitely work for you.
So to summarize, there are multiple platforms that you can have your website built on (not all of them are listed here). Pricing, of course, varies depending on the size of your website as well as the functionality of it.
The main thing to keep in mind is your time. Time is money. So when getting your website started, it will save you money by doing everything yourself if you are one to catch onto things quickly. If you feel it may take you time to learn all the aspects of building a website then that's when a developer would come in handy. The last thing you want to do is not know what’s going on in your business because you are focused on building out your website.
Your domain name as well as a suitable hosting company is just as important as the website itself. Of course you can’t have a website until you have a domain name or a URL. With that name you also need a hosting company to host your website files.
You can take for example a car (your website). It doesn't matter what type of car you have if there is not any gas in the car (hosting account). Depending on the fuel that's put into the car will determine how well that car runs. That being said, be sure to make sure you look into a very quality web hosting company. Getting a bad hosting company can result in slow website speeds, and a hacked website.
Here is a list of reputable hosting companies as well as their yearly fees (fees may differ depending on your time of reading this article)
[wpdatatable id=3]There are definitely more hosting companies than what is listed these are just a select few that we have chosen. The key is to do your research to see which one will be right for the type of website you have. One thing I like to do is actually give their 800 customer service number a ring and see how long it takes them to answer the phone. This helps you to see if you had an issue how long it would take to actually talk to someone.
Remember, you don't put 87 gas in a diesel truck. Similarly speaking, do NOT go with a hosting company just because they may fit your budget. Your “gas” is your hosting company. Don’t ruin your website because you wanted to go the cheaper route.
So to answer the question “How much does it cost to build a website?”, giving an exact amount on a website cost is not really the most realistic because there are so many factors that go into building out a website. Let’s take for example if your car is making a loud screeching noise. You’re not a mechanic so you're not really sure what the noise is but you know it needs fixed. You can come up with an estimate in your head but you won’t know that exact price until someone tells you exactly what is wrong with it. Same with your website, you can go and kind of get an estimate but until you speak with someone and explain the website purpose and so forth, you won’t know for sure how much it will actually cost.
To summarize what we’ve discussed, when pricing out your next project first take a look at the website value. Don’t expect to get this goldmine of a website and only pay crumbs for it.
Next, determine what platform you would like to have it on, whether it be WordPress, Squarespace, etc… Then figure out what company you would prefer to purchase the domain and hosting from.
If you have any further questions please feel free to reach out to us and we would be happy to assist wherever possible.
Leave a comment and let us know who your favorite hosting company is and why, we’d love to hear from you!
No doubt everyone has been affected by the latest global pandemic of COVID-19 worldwide. Schools have closed for the remaining school year, and businesses have shut their doors after years of hard work. What about those businesses that are still floating above water? Is there anything that can be done to help them during this pandemic?
KC Web Designz has come up with 3 things that can assist in saving your business. We are sure that these will assist in keeping your business functional during these troublesome times.
Let’s get started!
We can’t stress this enough, that having a website or some means of online presence is VITAL in keeping your business alive. Unfortunately, due to not having an online presence, some businesses have already closed their doors. During this time of social distancing and shelter-in-place rules, people are not going into businesses, as they are closed for the time being. How else will your business earn income if people are not able to come directly into your store?
Let’s take a look at two major reasons why having a website can be very important for your business and then we will break it down in more detail. Marketing Strategy & Sales.
Marketing Strategy - When you have a website you give your consumers a place to go when they either have more questions or would like to purchase a product. While they can find you on social media, understandably your social accounts will not have detailed information as your business website would have. You also have a chance to rank your website on the major search engines with proper SEO strategies. If you use email marketing with your business, what better place to send those consumers than to your business website?
Your website is “home base” when it comes to your marketing. No one likes a company that just takes from their consumers. What can you give back? If you can provide even a simple post on “how to do this” or “simple ways you can..”, whatever the case may be, what better place to do that than a blog on your own website? Even if you don’t have the time to blog, there are so many other avenues such as podcasts and image galleries.
Sales - As mentioned before, you open to the door to so much more revenue for your business. Instead of marketing to just those in your area or those who may already know about you, you now have a much bigger audience. By implementing proper SEO strategies, you can rank your website to be seen on page 1 of Google. Who wouldn’t want to rank on page 1?
The next time the world is in a panic and everyone is on lockdown, you can remain calm knowing that your business is functional despite it having to close its physical doors.
Another thing to consider is that if your business does not have a plan in which all employees work from home, now is the time to make one. Of course, we would like to just snap our fingers and make this coronavirus disappear but realistically speaking, we know that’s not going to happen. We could very well see it die down, but there will surely be another spurt of cases globally. Knowing this, it’s important for businesses to prepare now so that if and when it does happen, they will be better prepared.
Staying connected with your audience is just as important as having a website. Think about it for a minute. Let’s say you don’t currently have a website but you do have social media. A potential prospect comes to your social account to see if you're still in business during this pandemic. If you haven’t posted any updating news or info on your business then that person could very well believe that you have shut your ‘online’ doors as well as your physical doors. You just lost out on a sale because of your lack of social presence.
Stay updating your accounts and informing others of what’s going on. Even if you give a brief overview of what others can do to remain safe in these troubling times. This shows that your business is not only active, but they also care as well. If email marketing is your thing then send out an email blast to your current customers letting them know you are still in business.
We’ve all received countless emails thus far about COVID-19 from many different businesses and after awhile it can definitely seem annoying. The plus side is that we KNOW they are in business because we have seen emails from them. Even if they are not in business they are at least communicating and letting others know the latest update on when they may open their doors again.
We’ve all heard it before, communication is key, the worst thing is to not hear from someone at all.
There is so much funding that people tend to lose out on simply because they don’t know about it. By now we have all heard of the stimulus checks that will be sent out based on your household income. But what about funding for your business?
If you are at home, this is the perfect time to really read and research these loans and funding options to see if they will be of any benefit to your business. The key is to research funding options. If there is any fine print then be sure to read that as well. The last thing you want to do is make it 10x harder to get out of a hole once all this is complete.
If you have any business insurance policies that cover interruption in business, be sure to contact your insurance company to understand if you can use those benefits during the COVID-19 situation. If you do not have any insurance, then maybe this is the time to see what options are available to you for the future so that you are better prepared.
Just as communication is key, preparation is key also.
To summarize, you first need an online presence, preferably a website. Then you need to make sure you are staying active and staying connected with your audience. Finally, if possible you want to make sure you study the government funding that’s available during this time to see if it would be of any benefit for your business.
If you have any questions about anything or would like some assistance with any of the above steps then please feel free to reach out to us.
