Azorvida IT Services: How much do I have to pay for my website?

How much do I have to pay for my website?

If you’re thinking about starting a Landing Page, a Blog, a Support Site, a eCommerce site or a Media/Content site based on static HTML or on a CMS like WordPress, one of the first questions you’ll probably ask yourself is “how much does this website cost?”. It’s an important question! Figuring out the best way to start a website early on can save you a ton of money in the long run.

One of the biggest issues with figuring out the price is that web design is a service, but most clients see a website as a ‘product’. Many of them believe that they can walk into a ‘virtual store’ and order a 5 page website for fixed fee. However a website is something that should be created according to your needs!

So, the first question I want to ask you is:

“Do you think you need a website?” This is important… and let’s just get this out of the way… you need a website. Period.

And not just any website, but a great website with a clear, crisp easy to navigate design, with superb usability and functionality. Furthermore, YOU need to be able to easily update that website. It doesn’t matter if you are a national corporate brand, a NGO a local business, or a NPO … you still need a website!

Your business can be broad or niche, it can be large or small, and despite what you may believe… you need a website!

Now that you know what you need, I will explain all the things that are involved in building a website.

Visitors

Keywords need to be researched and selected so that you can rank highly in Google and attract visitors to your website. This means research, back linking, article writing and content curation to ensure you have the right content to attract visitors attention.

Structure and Conversion

Someone has to think about pages, navigation and usability, and the best way to get users from here to there. Once visitors get to your website the content needs to styled so that it persuades them to take action on your website – buy that widget, fill in that form etc.

Text

It doesn’t matter if you write the copy yourself or hire a specialised copywriter the text still needs to be collated, spell-checked, proof read before it can be used.

Pictures

Regardles of wether you have your own photos, need them taken, or simply want to use stock images they still have to be resized, retouched, and organised.

Design

There needs to be some thought put into choosing colours, fonts and graphics so they work with your brand and match your other marketing collateral.

Page Layout

The location of headers, footers, sidebars opt-in boxes, and social media icons need to be decided to provide the best possible chance of converting visitors into clients.

Coding

Your website will need good quality code that works quickly and doesn’t crash causing errors, or breaking your website completely.

Compatibility

There are dozens of different web browsers that run on Macs and PC’s that all need to display the website without a glitch. This means coding, testing and fixing all of the issue to provide the best experience for visitors – regardless of what they use.

Mobile

Visitors to your website using mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones will soon make up the bulk of the people looking at your website. This means someone has to ensure your website looks good on different sized screens while still being able to be read and used properly.

Social media

Successful online businesses will leverage social media including Facebook, Google+, Twitter LinkedIN etc. So someone needs to integrate your social media accounts into your website and create easy methods to share your content with others.

Go live

Someone has to buy your domain name, install your site on a hosting server, set up the DNS, get your analytics, webmaster tools and sitemaps and make sure everything is working.

Maintenance

Think about it...you maintain your health, your car, your lawn, your house, and all so they look good, don't stop functioning or come apart. Your business website needs that maintenance, too. Keep in mind that when you support your website also with the appropriate website security, you may be elevating the trust of your consumers, which in return increases revenues for you. The success of your site depends on the attention it gets.

So, how much does a website cost? A really fundamental article about this theme you find on the executionists Blog, a series of “website cost” articles, which are the most popular, garnering about 30,000 views per month.