Are you wondering what the average cost of website design for small business is? The cost of a small business website can be overwhelming, especially when there are thousands of agencies, and none of them seem to want to share their prices. I mean, why not just share your prices? Am I right? Well, I agree with you, which is why we ensure our prices are easy to find. So, if you are looking for our own website design prices, use our calculator. We provide some information on the cost of a website on that page, but I want to give it more focus here, especially for a small business website. If you are more into knowing the general prices of agencies everywhere and why it costs what it does, this is the article for you. So how much does it cost? Lets dive in and find out.
What Goes Into Every Website?
Every website has 4 pieces that must be considered when considering website costs. Please note, I am saying building a website and not maintaining, hosting, and marketing the website. We will go through some of that later.
Design
Every website has to be designed. Even a templated website has some kind of web design phase that is needed. Mistakenly, people assume this stage is not required or doesn’t need much attention. But before you fall onto that boat, I want you to consider the following. According to one study, around 94% of people will leave a website simply because of low-quality design, and 75% of a company’s credibility is based on website design. So, ensure your website design is top-notch. Not hiring a professional website designer here could cost more than the few bucks you saved having the website built; it could cost the business’s reputation!
Copywriting
The second piece of a website is copywriting. Copywriting is when you craft the message and wording of your website. Most people assume copywriting is a small step, but it can be one of the essential parts of your website. Why so? Because people, and Google, will judge websites on their content; hence, if you have poor or unappealing content, they will leave instantly. So again, don’t skimp here.
Development
The third piece of a website is web development. While some websites can be designed and developed in-house by a small team of developers, most require outsourcing for an agency with the right tools and resources to take on such projects. The development stage includes combining all the pieces of design and copywriting to create a website. This stage is significant because it determines how well the website functions, which is essential for user experience on your site. For instance, if you don’t have SSL certificate on your website, many users will not trust your website at all. You could also get a slow website. And according to another study, 19% of people will leave your website after 2 seconds of loading time. 25% of people will leave your website after 4 – 6 seconds of load time. and search engines, like Google, won’t rank you! So be sure you hire a professional web developer. If you don’t, you will have paid for a website no one visits.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential to have your website visible online. If your web design doesn’t include some search engine optimization, then you may find that you don’t show up on a search engine, like Google, and that is not good!
Website Cost Breakdown
Other Factors
Some other factors will impact the costs involved in web development.
- How much does it cost for a basic website? These sites are usually cheaper, just depending on how many web pages you need.
- Do you need a custom site? A custom website will come at a cost, requiring a professional web designer.
- Do you need a complex site with a database? A professional web developer will be required to get you what you need here.
- Do you need premium plugins? (premium plugins are for website builders and can help with a great many things, like installing an SSL certificate).
- How many web pages do you need? Each page, in general, can costs anywhere from $200 – $1,000 depending on the web development and web design requirements.
Different types of websites
This may be obvious to some people but can be a complete shock to others. There are actually multiple different types of websites out there. And these websites have their purposes. **GASP!** I know, right? Who would have thunk it? If you already know the differences between website types, click here for the pricing.
- Landing Page – a single-page website. This could be for an ad, or it could be the entire website. It could even be a long-form page.
- Business Website – usually built with multiple pages to showcase products, services, and/or information about the business.
- Personal Website – a website for fun, an online resume, bio, portfolio, and more.
- Blog Website – This website usually makes money from ads or affiliate marketing. This site is primarily informative and doesn’t sell anything (usually).
- Event Website – This website is built for a single event.
- Membership Website – This type of website is built for coaches, groups, or anything else where you charge a monthly online fee. Sometimes these include an online store as well. Additionally, these sites require longer time frames for website development.
- Ecommerce website – This is for you if you want an online store. Please note that this type of site requires an SSL certificate.
- Online Forum – This type of website is built for communities and discussions. It could even be built for sports communities.
- Intranet – This website is for an internal-facing company website or network. These sites are usually required to be a custom site.
Cost of Each Type of Website
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Landing Page | $75 - $5,000+ |
| Business Website | $500 - $150,000 |
| Personal Website | $50 - $100,000 |
| Blog Website | $500 - $100,000 |
| Event Website | $400 - $100,000 |
| Membership Website | $1,500 - $200,000 |
| e-Commerce Website | $1,000 - $150,000 |
| Online Forum | $2,000 - $200,000 |
| Intranet | $1,000 - $100,000 |
Why Do You Need A Website?
The first answer is simple; you need a website to market your small business online and make your presence known. Whether for business, personal branding, or just having fun, websites are becoming more prominent in our everyday lives. With the right design, copy, and development team, you can get a fantastic site that will bring in customers or opportunities.
The second answer deserves its own section, so here is:
Salesperson Vs. Website
A website can give you more reach than an in-person salesperson. Think of how many people can see your website at once. Now think how many people a salesperson could talk to in one day or week. There is no comparison, which is why websites are helpful for businesses. They don’t cost much labor and time, but the return on investment (ROI) can be incredibly high if done correctly. Just look at this chart for the cost of a salesperson and then compare it to the previous chart for the price of a website for a small business.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Salary | $52,000 - $70,000 / Year |
| Commission | 20% - 30% of Gross Margins |
| Insurance | $8,000 - $22,000 / Year |
| Training | $400 - $3,000 / Year |
Also, a website allows you to market yourself globally; it’s just up to you to ensure you do it right with your website’s design, copywriting, and development stages! That leads us into…
DIY Builders vs. Agency vs. In-house
Now, this is where it gets tricky and can make all the difference. You have three options, each with its pros and cons:
DIY Builders
Website builder services such as Squarespace, WordPress site, and Wix offer pre-made website templates. These do it yourself website builders usually have low upfront costs but may not allow you many customizations in design or development. And the DIY web design templates are bland at best. This is a great time to remember that 94% of people leave a website because it is poorly designed. And a little-known fact is there are many regulations that can cause you to be SUED if you don’t implement the website right. So, you may want to think twice before going with DIY website builders.
In-house
This means hiring a website designer to build your business website. It gives you more flexibility in customizing the website but can be costly due to salary and benefits packages. And let’s be honest, most small business websites don’t require an in-house person who focuses on this around the clock.
You could also use one of your current employees, but remember, they likely don’t have the design skill needed for this task. And if they don’t understand the regulations, you may want to steer clear.
Agency
This option is like having both DIY builders and In-house teams combined. Agencies will give you more design and development flexibility while offering lower prices than an In-house team. They are also used to working with different businesses and types of sites so that experience can be invaluable. They should also understand all the regulations involved with website building.
There is a caviat here, so listen up. In some cases, you will want to consider whether or not it is your own website, meaning you have ownership rights to your business website. Some agencies and freelancers build a website at a very low price, but they have some monthly fee. And what happens when you want to leave? You have to pay them for your own site. And it’s usually a hefty fee. So don’t be sucked into this thinking that you are going to save money, because in the end, you are not.
How to Choose Who To Hire?
When looking for a small business website, you should get someone who understands what they are doing. Some things to look for are:
- What are their website design stages? They should not be skipping steps.
- Do they have, or are they an experienced web developer?
- Do they have professional website designers?
- Do they have an experienced copywriter?
- What is the cost to build the website?
- Do they have a hosting plan (more on this later)?
- Have they worked with a small business like yours?
- What type of website builder do they use?
- – WordPress Website Builder is a good choice as it is robust and allows for complex development, but it can be passed on to the customer quickly.
- – GoDaddy and almost every other builder is frightening and should be avoided, as it comes with monthly costs.
- How long will it take to get the business online (1 month is a good turnaround time).
- Do you have ownership rights to the website?
- Will they be able to implement your website on any web hosting companies’ sites?
Costs of Website Maintenance
After you go through the sea of web designers and hire the right one for you, then you pay for the website, and all the website costs are over, correct? Not quite.
After you build a website, or more likely, a web designer builds your small business website; there are some other website costs that you need to consider, from domain names and website hosting services to ongoing maintenance costs and further website development projects.
Domain Name Cost
A domain name is your unique name on the internet. There are some free domain names you can get, along with a free website, but these are hardly professional and can rarely be found on search engines. But typically, you will spend around $15 on a domain name.
Web Hosting Costs
After the web development process, and you have a small business website and a domain name, it’s now time to consider what web hosting provider you are going to use. There are many hosting providers out there, so taking time to understand what you are looking for can be important.
Shared Hosting
This is the most common hosting type and is usually the cheapest. This means that multiple websites are on a single server, so the cost is shared among all of them. Shared hosting plans are typically around $10/ month for small businesses, but this can depend on the plan you pick. Note that this plan can be slow, and you need to be sure that it provides an SSL certificate for your website.
Dedicated Hosting
This type of web hosting plan allows you to have your own server dedicated to just one website. This is useful if your website is large with lots of traffic as it will be more reliable than shared hosting. Dedicated hosting plans can range from $50-200/month depending on your needs. And yes, this one is faster.
VPS Hosting
Virtual private servers (VPS) are like cloud computing; they use virtualization technology to break up a physical server into multiple virtual servers. This type of hosting is more expensive but provides more control and power than shared or dedicated hosting plans. Depending on your needs, VPS plans are usually around $30-$120/month.
Website Maintenance
After you have the website built and hosted, there are still some ongoing costs associated with maintaining it. These can include updates to the design, content added or removed from pages, bug fixes, etc. Depending on who you hire, they may charge an hourly rate or a flat fee for these services. You must understand what is included in their maintenance packages so that you know how much it will cost each month or year to keep your website running smoothly and error-free. Most web design companies will offer maintenance as part of their packages, which can range from $400 – $5,000 per year depending on the size of your website and the maintenance complexity.
Website Marketing
Your website is built, and now you want to get it out there. This isn’t as easy as it sounds and can take some effort on your part. You will want to focus on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your website so that potential customers can find you in Google & Bing searches, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, or creating content that gets shared. These activities require a budget and time investment.
The cost of website marketing depends on the complexity of your goals but typically starts at around $300/month for small businesses and can go up significantly depending on the scope of work required to achieve desired results. There are also many tools available that automate various tasks such as email campaigns and social media management which can help reduce costs.
How Much Does A Website Cost Overall?
The cost of creating a small business website and maintaining it can range from $400 – $10,000/year depending on your individual needs. This can include domain name registration, web hosting, design & development costs, ongoing website maintenance, and website marketing efforts. Be sure to research each type of cost to know what is involved in creating a successful online presence for your small business.
When it comes down to it, your company website is the face of your business or brand – no matter what type it is! And though website costs can sometimes be intimidating, it is crucial to have a website. And knowing which kind of website you need and how much you should spend on it is vital to getting a successful digital presence. So don’t forget to research each website builder, DIY builders, agencies, and in-house web designer before choosing who will build your site. And suppose you already have a website but feel like it isn’t doing enough for you; though its content may be great, consider giving it a refresh or an optimization. In that case, this could make all the difference for potential customers or visitors. If you need a website design or refresh, contact us today! Our team of experienced professionals can get you the right website for the right price!