“How much will it cost?”
That’s the first question I get asked by a prospect.
“How much will it cost?”
That’s the last question I get asked by a prospect.
I’ve asked it. I bet you’ve asked it.
It’s a fair question; after all, you’ve got to make smart investments in
your business and you can’t jump into a project blindly. But asking how much
a website costs is a bit like calling your contractor and saying, “I want
you to build me a house. How much will it cost?” He’d look at your
cross-eyed for a while and then ask you a million questions about how many
rooms, what type of flooring, whether you’ve already purchased the land or
not… all of which have very real parallels when it comes to building a
website.
To make matters worse, there can be a huge gap between the costs you get
from different developers. Why is one offering a website for $500 and
another asking for $5,000? Is one stupid, or the other a scam artist? How’s
a person to make a smart decision?
What should a website really cost?
I’ll save you the effort of reading all the way through to the end if
you’re here for “the answer”: there isn’t one. There isn’t ONE answer for
the same reason there isn’t ONE website that looks, functions and evolves
like every other website.
However!
There are some very real and relevant things that you should consider and
a few things to know about how pricing works. Read on to get the inside
scoop so that before you ask the question next time, you’ll be armed with
information.
The Preamble: Where Does The Cost Of A Website Come From?
In a DIY world, most non-developers don’t understand the work that goes
into building a website. There are plenty of tools that let you
drag-and-drop your way to an online presence in a few hours and call it a
website.
That’s not the kind of site I’m talking about.
I’m talking about a website that reflects your business, your goals, your
brand. I’m talking about a website that adds value and is a strong tool in
your marketing arsenal. One that is optimized for search. One that works
across browsers and operating systems. One that doesn’t stick you with
another company’s logo at the bottom of it because you got it for $49.00 and
now you’re obliged to perpetually advertise someone else’s brand.
So assuming we’re not talking drag-and-drop, “stick your logo here” types
of websites, let’s talk briefly about what goes into building one.
Content. Whether you pen a few paragraphs or hire
someone to do it, it’s got to be written, organized, keyword optimized,
human being optimized, spell-checked and proofread.
Photos. Whether they’re original or stock, someone has
to find, organize, retouch and properly size and output them for web.
Design. There’s high end custom and there’s minimal, but
someone has to consider colors, fonts, graphics and how they all work with
your brand.
Structure. Someone has to think about pages, navigation
and usability, and the best way to get users from here to there.
Layout. Headers, footers, sidebars, call-outs, pull
quotes, opt-in boxes, social icons. These things don’t magically place
themselves on the page, nor should they be stuck somewhere haphazardly.
Optimization. Beyond keywords, there are considerations
for code quality, site speed, meta data.
Functionality. Opt-in boxes don’t program themselves.
Nor do contact forms, shopping carts or other features. There are
fundamental questions like “what happens if…” and “then what?”
Compatibility. With half a dozen common browsers and
twice as many versions, multiple operating systems and platforms, not to
mention mobile, someone has to make sure your site works.
Launch. Someone has to install your site on a hosting
server, set up the DNS, get your analytics, Webmaster tools and sitemaps in
order and make sure everything is working in real life, including all those
opt-ins and contact forms.
If this sounds like a setup for “…and that’s why a website has to be
expensive!” it’s not. It’s just the practical reality of building a site.
There are things to do and things to consider. These are just some of those
things and they all go into determining a cost.
Things That Can Affect The Cost Of A Website That Have Nothing To Do
With The Website
All things being equal (same site, same requirements, same amount of
work) there are other things outside the project itself that can impact
cost.
Geography. If you ask a company in New York to give you
a price for building your website, they are probably going to give you a
higher cost than a company in New Jersey or Maine or Wisconsin. Are they
scamming you? Probably not.
The cost of living in New York is pretty high. So is the cost of doing
business. A company covering its SoHo rent necessarily has to charge a
higher rate than one run virtually out of a couple of home offices.
Sometimes you have to make your decision, not based on cost, but based on
value – which company do you want to work with? Which one has the most
experience, the best portfolio, the most responsive people? A higher cost
should not disqualify a company if that’s the one you’re confident can get
the job done.
Experience. A less experienced person may charge less
because he doesn’t have the full-blown skill of a seasoned professional.
That’s not to say he’ll do a bad job, but it’s always a risk when you’re
working with freelancers who build websites “on the side”, self-taught
“learn web design in 21 days” types and people who are just starting out in
the industry.
If cost is a big factor it might be a risk worth taking. Just do it with
your eyes open and don’t expect things to be as thorough as they might have
been with a more experienced professional.
Experienced developers can charge you more because they bring the weight
of their expertise to bear on your project. An experienced developer may be
able to do your site in half the time and charge twice as much, but remember
you’re dealing with value and not cost. You should expect an entirely
different experience and result.
Size. Of the company, that is. If you’re comparing costs
between a single developer and a company, chances are the company price is
going to be higher. Why? It has more to do with expertise than overhead.
In web development there are many skills. There are Photoshop and design
skills. CSS and HTML skills. Copywriting and SEO skills. Programming skills,
with subsets of skills across a vast array of programming languages. It’s
unlikely that a single person can excel at all of these. So when you’re
working with a single developer, you are naturally limited by what that
person has in his skill arsenal.
But when you work with a company, you have a team of professionals, from
project managers, copywriters and testers to CSS experts and programmers at
your disposal. In this case, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.
It pays to consider your project needs before you jump at a particular cost
option.
You. Here’s a little pricing secret among developers:
annoying people get higher price tags. Now, I’m not saying this is you, but
if it is, your developer is probably sitting in a dark room right now
pulling his hair out and wondering just how much he needs to charge you to
cover the cost of his stress-induced therapy.
Part of development is project management and if evidence indicates that
you’re one of those picky, indecisive people who will disappear for months
on end, hold the project up then show up with instant demands and want the
shade of blue changed with each revision – well, you’re just going to pay a
price for that.
Relationships. The world is built on relationships and
you can probably negotiate a lower cost if you have a good relationship with
your developer, if you’ve gotten a referral from a friend and can do some
name-dropping or if you simply find a developer willing to work out a deal
with you.
Remember, this is a service industry. There is no widget price. Costs are
based on the factors I’ve mentioned here plus “going rates” and about a
dozen other little nuances. So don’t be afraid to talk to a developer about
the cost. But do keep in mind that there’s a limit to negotiation and a
developer who offers you the $5,000 site is unlikely to come down to your
$500 budget. At that point you should probably reconsider your goals and
budget altogether.
Now That You Have Bit Of Background, Let’s Talk Money
Pricing is not a magic, secret recipe. It’s just the cost of doing
business, plus the value of expertise, plus the time needed to complete a
project in a particular set of circumstances with a particular set of
requirements.
This pricing is based on what I’ve witnessed in the industry, what my
company does when it comes to pricing and what I’ve seen works and doesn’t
work in the real world.
No doubt some people will cry in outrage about such high prices and some
will lament that I’ve given the industry a bad name by coming in so low. But
I’ve worked with developers across the country, many good, a few bad, and
this is the best consensus I can give you. This is what my competitors will
tell you, too… minus a few bucks so they can appeal to your cost-conscious
side.
I’m taking a “stacked” approach here, which means that as the price range
goes up, you can assume that you get everything in the previous range plus
some additional goodies. Of course, this might not be the way it works in
the real world. For example, your site may have some specialized programing
requirements that put you in a higher price range, but you may already have
your logo and branding guidelines so you don’t need any additional creative
work. Such is the challenge of creating a budget for a website!
$2,000-$4,000. This is most likely your entry-level
range. In this price range you can expect a decent professional to put
together a site for you that includes common functionality such as a content
or image slider, contact form and opt-ins, photo gallery, blog and a branded
design. While this range will afford you a site that goes beyond the generic
template-look with features like a designed header or background and
consideration for colors, fonts and layout, it’s not going to buy you a
completely custom design. Often, sites in this price range are based on a
WordPress theme or HTML template.
Even at an entry level you should expect basic optimization. That means
your site is built to current code standards and optimized for
speed, functionality and fundamental search requirements. While your content
may not be optimized, the rest of your site – from basic meta data
to sitemaps and other essentials – should be.
What you will not get at this level is copywriting or any content
creation. You should come prepared with whatever content you want on your
site and that includes copy, photos, videos or whatever else you need, plus
your logo and branding requirements.
The bottom line: this is where you’ll be if
you’re just getting started, a small service business, or one without
ecommerce or data management requirements. Plus platforms like WordPress
afford you the convenience of content management without the added
expense of custom programming. It’s often a good place to start on a
redesign, since you likely have your logo, branding and content ready
and will only need to tweak and perhaps reorganize it.
$5,000-$8,000. In this range you can add a fully
customized design. This is where you get to sit down with an actual designer
and talk specifics when it comes to branding, style and layout. Custom sites
tends to be more time consuming to plan and build, so if you have
specialized site requirements whether for design or functionality, you can
expect to hit the higher end of this range.
You can add basic ecommerce in this category but don’t expect too many
bells and whistles.
The bottom line: this is where you’ll be if you want
to move past a basic design and if you’ve got fairly simple ecommerce
requirements and don’t need anything customized like inventory
management.
$10,000-$15,000. In this range you can get quite a
robust website with accommodation for more custom requirements when it comes
to programming, photo galleries and portfolios, forms, or other
functionality.
You should also be able to get some keyword optimization here and
depending on the size of your site, you may also be able to sneak in some
copywriting. As with the last price range, you should come prepared with
your branding materials.
The bottom line: think of this in similar terms to
the previous category but with “more stuff” and a couple of added bells
and whistles; perhaps multiple photo galleries, quite a few product
pages, or more complex user forms. It’s also where you want to be if you
need someone with a copywriter’s eye to kick your content up a bit.
$20,000-$30,000. In this price range you can sit back
and relax because you can afford to work with a copywriter who will take
care of content creation and full-on optimization for you.
It also buys you sit-down time with a designer, not only for your
website, but for logo and branding development plus mobile considerations,
too, although it won’t necessarily afford you anything specialized like
custom photography or video.
The bottom line: this is sort of the all-inclusive
vacation of websites. It’s where you want to be if you want to take more
of a “hands-off” approach to your website and let the professionals deal
with everything from the creative to the content to the optimization and
construction, with some bonus collateral materials like business card
and letterhead design.
$40,000-$60,000. In this category you can reach beyond
“website” into “application”. This is where programming and functionality
become so custom that your site is built purely to satisfy your business
needs. Very specialized content management systems, inventory management,
integration with third-party APIs and other special functionality come into
play here.
You can also get a pretty robust ecommerce site with inventory and
specialized content management that caters to the nuances of your product
line and pricing scenarios. Just remember, the more requirements and the
more little details and functionality you add to your project, the higher
you go on the price scale.
You’ll get a fully customized design in this category, including mobile
and, if you need, branding. However, copywriting at this level
becomes more complex as you are likely dealing with product descriptions or
other unique types of content so I haven’t included that here.
The bottom line: if you’re a retailer, distributor,
manufacturer or other corporate entity with specialized data management
or ecommerce needs, this is the place to be. In this range, your
developer will create a project specification that details your website
needs and then build around them.
$60,000+. That little “+” is enough to mean “whatever
you want, sir”. If you’re in this price range you probably aren’t too
concerned with budget anymore and there isn’t really a point to discussing
limitations.
The bottom line: if you’re a corporate entity with
serious internal and external requirements, or maybe a startup with
funding and an experimental idea, you can reach for the stars.
What A Website Should Not Cost
$500. If that’s what your site cost, I bet you’ll find
at least one fuzzy pixelated photo, at least one mis-programmed form
validation, at least one missed optimization opportunity. Maybe you can get
your blog set up for $500, but you cannot build a professional web presence
for that little. Even an unskilled developer charging $50 an hour can’t put
together an optimized, functional, professionally branded site in 10 hours.
Please do not tell me how you know someone who did it because I promise you
won’t want me to look at that site and pick it apart.
How To Decide If The Cost You’ve Been Given Is Fair
So now that I’ve given you some pretty broad ranges and a lot of
variables to think about, how do you take that and translate it into
something that makes you feel confident signing on the dotted line and
starting your project?
For starters, if you’re comparing costs between developers, make sure
it’s apples to apples – you may not be able to do it exactly, after all
there are a bunch of subjective factors involved as we’ve discussed – but
you should know what you’re getting in terms of feature set and
functionality. Then take into consideration the experience and portfolio of
the individual or company you’re looking at hiring, the attention you can
expect to receive and the general rapport between you and a potential
developer. Even if the cost is perfect and everything else seems right on
paper, you may want to think twice about hiring someone if you don’t feel
that somewhat ethereal sense of connection and comfort.
Finally, you should consider one of the biggest and most often neglected
questions…
…and then what?
Once your website is built, you’re barely part of the way there! You need
an “and then what” plan for making sure your site is hosted securely and
your data backed up properly. You need a maintenance plan, whether that’s
you on a WordPress CMS or your developer making changes for you
periodically. You need to stay on top of errors and alerts in your Webmaster
tools and you need to get out there and market your website, track its
progress via analytics and keep making changes as you learn what your
visitors want and need.
That may be the job of your developer, your marketing company or simply
you, but it’s certainly something to think about.
At the end of the day, I want you to approach your next web project with
a bit more information than you had before so you can read the bottom line
on your next proposal and feel confident that you’re being neither stupid
nor swindled. With these guidelines, I hope you now have a place to start.
Are you freaked out yet? Do you find my ranges absurdly
high or insultingly low? Are you still thinking, “yeah, but what about…?”
Let me know! I’m happy to answer questions.
