In this day and age there is absolutely no reason why you should not have a website but how much to spend on your website is the 64,000 question !
For those that don’t want to read on and want the answer NOW – here is a little table:
If you want to do it yourself with something like sites.google.com – Free
Basic static template driven site around 5 pages – Between $350 and $500
Medium size business website with some customization $1,000 – $2,000
Fully custom designed website $4,000 plus
Ecommerce website agency – between $4,000 – $8,000
What should a local business website include?
Most businesses don’t actually need a website that is all that complicated. KISS – “keep it simple stupid” is always a good motto to follow for a small business and as far as websites go, that could not be more true.
A good local business websites needs:
- Prominent contact details
- Information about the business and its services
- Useful resources
- Some nice pictures and video
- Sign up to your newsletter
- Links to your blog & social media accounts
So why do website design prices vary so much?
The price of a website depends on the following elements:
- who you get to do your website – a friend or student, a freelancer in your area or one overseas or a local agency
- if you want to use a website template or have a unique design
- how many pages you want
- what functionality you want on your website
- if you want an e-commerce or shopping carts
Who do you need on your website design team?
If you want the bells and whistles website, the costs are often higher because of the time and the number of specialist people involved in building your site. Website specialists include:
A website programmer or designer which is the person that registers the domain or website name, find and manages the website host, builds the website shell / template, pages and functionality. A website designer usually has an IT background and is skilled in programming.
A graphic designer which is the person that creates all the graphics and images for the website. If you are using an existing website template you don’t need a graphic designer but if you want a custom built site then then you might need one. Sometimes the website designer has some graphic design skills. Otherwise they may outsource certain elements of the website to a graphic designer or buy graphic elements and pictures for the website.
A photographer is someone that can take pictures for your website. These may be of you and your staff, your products and services, your building etc. Depending on the business, you may be able to get away with purchased stock images on your website or digital photos that you have taken yourself. Professional looking photos though will generally look better than non professional ones.
A copy writer is someone who can write the content of your website. This is not the job of the website designer and generally the website designer will ask the client for the website content. As a business owner you know your business and your customers better than anyone else and you know what you want to say on your website so it is generally the business owner who provides the website content to the website designer, however if writing is not your thing or if you want a professional writer to put your thoughts into compelling words, then you should hire a content or copy writer.
Last but by no means least is a search engine optimization specialist which is someone who has a look at the website and content and optimises it for the search engines. They will also submit your website to directories, build links for you and get your website listed in as many places as possible. The SEO expert should be someone that is involved from the beginning as they should do the research into what search terms people may use to find your business and therefore what pages you should have and what name those pages should be. They should work with the website designers to ensure the website structure is search engine friendly and work with the content writer to include your most important searchable words in your content and with the graphic designers and photographers to name the images to include your keywords.
Each specialist is looking at your website from a different point of view – the designer wants the website to do cool things, the graphic designer wants it to look pretty, the copy writer wants the words and meaning to stand out and for you to make sales, the search engine optimisation person is focused on getting your website found and driving traffic to your website. Each of these elements are important in their own right and most business owners don’t understand all the work that goes into building a great website that is appealing to the customers and gets found.
Have a Website – Don’t put it off
The most important thing is to actually have a website so I have clients who are getting the bells and whistle website but who have asked me to build them a good temporary website in a couple of day to they have a web presence whilst their flashy website is being built.
This is the website I built for the graphic quill: http://www.graphicquill.com.au/
I have other client that I built temporary sites for whilst they got quotes for large websites and who ended up liking the one that I had made and not going for the custom one at all.
This is the website I build for earl’s hardware: http://www.earlshardwarestkilda.com.au/
I have other clients that needed a website quickly and cheaply to get their business off the ground fast.
Here is a website I built for Maid2Party http://www.maid2party.com.au/
And I have consulted with companies and their website designers to optimise the website and get it found for certain keywords.
These are a few in that category:
http://www.coolpac.com/
http://www.tdefrance.com/
So if its website advice and management you need or if its website building and/or search engine optimisation, please let me know if I can help.