Once you have asked yourself "Do I even need a website nowadays," and have determined that you indeed do need one, The next thing you likely want to know is how much will it cost? In this article, we will cover what you can expect your development costs to be and what options you have for maintaining and growing your online presence. Unless otherwise stated, all build options and costs are referring to our process, not anyone else's.
Please note that prices given here are a courtesy more than they are an estimate of what your project will cost. Cost transparency on website development is rare in our industry and we are simply attempting to give you more information before taking any next steps
The scope of your website
This should not come as a surprise to anyone, but it is still worth mentioning; the bigger your website is, the more it will cost to build it. The more pages your site has, and the bigger those pages are, the mort effort that will go into them. The real news is that the size of your website usually does not affect the ongoing maintenance costs; However, the features (like live chat, submission forms, blogs , online stores, etc.) your site has does affect it. But smaller is not always better if SEO is a driving factor for your website. Here are some common setups for websites today:
One Big Landing Page
If your budget is tight or you just don't have much you need to say to a potential customer, then having one big main page that people scroll down to see each section might be suitable for you. While the vast majority of your content will be found on this one page, it is not uncommon for some additional links to be present, though the pages they link to will be just a fraction of the size of the main page.
Typical Build Cost: $800-$1,200
Typical Monthly Maintenance Cost: $30
Pros
Quick development and less content needed from you.
Simplest for users to navigate (just scroll down).
Good setup to start with and add pages on to later as needed.
Lowest cost of SEO refinement.
Cons
Might not be enough info to rank high on search engines.
Not suitable for sites with a lot of content.
Landing Page and Detail Pages
This site setup consists of a main landing page with sections of information that can be clicked on to go to detail pages with more information. If you started out initially with One Big Landing Page, then this is what that site will likely develop into. A site structure like this is ideal for a business with several aspects that need 'highlighting' on the main page but also have a lot more information that can be 'drilled-down' into as needed.
Typical Build Cost: $2,000 + $250 per page above five
Typical Monthly Maintenance Cost: $30-40
Pros
Most familiar type of website.
Plenty of room for expansion of content and features.
Gives a more professional feel over smaller sites.
Good ranking potential on search engines.
SEO refinement options are extensive.
Cons
Can impact SEO if valuable keyword pairs are not found on the same pages.
More content for the business owner to provide to the web developers.
Landing Page with Details and Search-Specific Landing Pages
Our final type of common website structure is everything in a Landing Page and Detail Pages setup and also several pages specific to keywords or questions frequently searched for by your customer. For example, A brick-and-mortar mechanic shop might also provide mobile mechanic services. Instead of relying on keywords specific to a typical mechanic shop, a new landing page is created that contains terms and phrases that are specific to a mobile mechanic service. Another example would be a residential home builder in Oklahoma City who is expanding to Tulsa. Since it is very common for users to search for " home builders oklahoma city", it now makes sense for the website to have a generic, non-location-specific landing page and a landing page specific to home building for each of the geographical areas.
Typical Build Cost: $2,000 + $500 per landing page
Typical Monthly Maintenance Cost: $30-60
Pros
Clients are introduced to your company with exact information they are looking for.
Can offer an edge over competition's search rankings.
More than one local presence can be established while maintaining professionalism.
Great for a business that offers multiple services not typically related to each other.
Cons
Requires knowledge of industry-specific keywords from the onset.
Needs the most content from the business owner to provide to the web developers.
More cost in SEO refinement.
The time cost of development
There are two types of time cost when it comes to building your website; Time needed from you and time needed from a developer. When it comes to your time, that largely depends on the amount of content you have already. While the more images and videos, the better, the bulk of your work will be in typing up text you want your customers to see. More on this next in the next section.
Regarding our time in development, it typically takes 2 days per page, 4 days per landing page another 7-14 days for the rest of the website in general.
What is needed from me?
Content, content, content! The more you know what you want to say to your customers, the better the result and faster the development. There really is no such thing as too much content, as long as it is rich in quality and is not just you repeating the same thing worded slightly different. We are not experts in your field and probably cannot come up with what you need to say in order to land the next project, but we can work around your schedule to get content from you in the easiest way possible. Typically, it is best to start with everything you want to say on your main landing page, if that is known, and then work on all the other pages in whatever order comes easiest.
Before your website development begins, there is an almost-guaranteed chance that you have several dozen (or more) quality pictures of your work. Tagging/naming those pictures with exactly what is shown is essential for using them on a website if you plan on finding new customers from internet searches, even if they are not searching just for images. We recommend at least a couple of videos as well, to either be in a gallery or on a page.
As you collect content to put on your website, think of what your customers are searching for and try to match those words when describing your services offered. Be descriptive; while you do not want to intentionally repeat the same words over and over, it is important to be detailed in what you are describing. For example, if are a painting company, then instead of saying "we paint walls," you could say "we paint interior and exterior walls." If your potential customers are searching for it then you should be mentioning it.
What to expect after a site is live
Aside from any changes that you see fit, post-development consists mainly of Search Engine Optimization. This includes modifying the text on existing pages, creating more content with blog articles (like this one), adding more named images to galleries, better naming existing images on pages, researching competition's keywords, analyzing site traffic metrics, and setting up free account for Bing and Google ads.
While all of this can be done by the site owner, it is a meticulous process that requires a levels of trial-and-error, regardless of experience. We bill $125/hr for this service and offer lower per-hour rates for sets of hours greater than one.
If your website will have blogs, then this is the easiest aspect of your website for you to add content through. As your site ages, it can rank better by adding more content over time, and blogs are ideal for this.
The cost of changes
Once your website is built to your satisfaction, it may be months or only a matter of weeks before you have identified changes, big or small. At this point, all of it can be done by you or someone else inside your company. Or it can be done by us; If you prefer, we will work with you to provide an affordable solution that does not require you to dabble in web design. Cost varies according to the changes needed.
We hope this helps give you a better idea of what to expect regarding your website. While the intent of this article is to provide you with as much information as possible before you being the website creation process, a lot of the time needed to build your website is going to be specific to the nuances of your website needs. Accordingly, the actual price we provide to you might be more or less than what is shown here.