If you own a business, then it has to have its own website. You can choose not to have your products and/or services screaming from the billboards. You can also ignore the part about handing out flyers to your would-be customers. But if you really want to be where your potential customers are, then you have to piggyback on your business website. A website is the most critical marketing tool for a small business owner. As someone who is cash-crunched and has to juggle his scarce monetary resources to run the business, you will naturally want to know next, "What does it cost to build a website?" There are multiple tasks involved in the creation of your site, and all these tasks are priced differently by the service providers. The cost of your website will vary depending on how much you will spend on each of these tasks.
Cost of Buying a Domain Name and Hosting Your Website
While premium domain names cost a fortune, you can rest assured in the knowledge that there are plenty of other domain names that cost only a few dollars a year to maintain. You can buy a domain name from one amongst the countless registrars strewn all over the web. They can charge anything from $6.99 to $30 a year for a domain. A simple.com domain name can cost $8-$10 at GoDaddy or any other popular registrar, as published in a Forbes report. If you are lucky, you might even pick up a domain name at a discounted price. You can host your website for free, but then you will have to contend with a lot of downtime that translates into you losing out on the money-making opportunities. A commercial web host charges you based on a number of factors€"the number and kind of files you have on your site (more audio and video files will cost you more), the number of pages, and the number of visitors you expect in a day. You can choose a basic package€"at around $10 a month€"to begin with. As your website garners popularity and you decide to add more multimedia-rich content, you can upgrade to a pricier and more feature-rich hosting package that will ensure your website is always on.
Cost of Designing a Custom Logo
The logo will be the most visible face of your business. Your potential customers should be able to readily discern all that is good about you and your business just from looking at the logo and without stepping into your brick-and-mortar store or interacting with you on social media. So it goes without saying that the creation of the logo is one of the most critical aspects of building your business website. If you want a professional designing company to create a logo that reflects your brand identity, expect to pay anything from $70 to $250 an hour for the work. On the other hand, you can hire a freelance logo designer for $20-$100 an hour to do the work. The rates of a freelance designer vary depending on his experience and location of work. Outsourcing work overseas can be cheaper but the quality of work is usually not guaranteed.
Cost of Designing the User Interface
If you want your visitors to stay hooked once they land on your website, then you cannot afford to build the look-and-feel of your site around those $5 templates that are so easily found on the Internet. You have to hire a professional designing company who knows what it takes to cast a spell on visitors. They can charge you anything from $1,200 to $3,500 (depending on the complexity of the design) to create a custom user interface based on your needs, your brand identity, and what will appeal to your target audience.
Cost of Developing the Website
You will obviously want to develop a feature-rich website that performs equally well across multiple devices and platforms. Given the ubiquity of mobile communication devices, you will want your website to incorporate a responsive design. Be prepared to pay at least $500 to design and develop such a site. You will need to shell out extra money for each new feature you add to your website. For instance, integrating a photo gallery will cost about $200. If you want to include forums and/or chat rooms, contact forms and surveys, and newsletters in your website, you will have to pay about $300-$400 for each feature. Search engine optimization and social media marketing efforts will additionally cost you $500-$4000 for each option. After spending so much money on designing, developing, and marketing the website, you will of course, want to track its progress. Integrating Google Analytics will cost you anything between $200 and $2000.
Cost of Creating Custom Content
It will cost you nothing to write all the content yourself and post it on your business website. But do you have the time? And more importantly, can you optimize the content to appeal to the search engines? Can you add the subtle marketing touches to swing your audience into action? Can you keep your business blog updated regularly? Because you cannot, you will need to hire a professional to write content customized for your website and suited to your business goals. Expect to pay about $100-$150 per page if you want your website content to be written, posted, and arranged in a neat layout. In a nutshell, don't expect to shell out anything less than $1000 to build a basic business website. This is a website where your customers just get to look at your products. If you want to build more interactive websites, your costs naturally go up. A website that manages to woo both human readers and search engines will set you back by $2500-$7500. It is always a good idea to get in touch with several service providers and request quotes that you can compare. The quotes will vary, but now that you have the knowledge of the indicative prices, you will be able to make out who is over-charging and who is low-balling and should be avoided.
Cost of Buying a Domain Name and Hosting Your Website
While premium domain names cost a fortune, you can rest assured in the knowledge that there are plenty of other domain names that cost only a few dollars a year to maintain. You can buy a domain name from one amongst the countless registrars strewn all over the web. They can charge anything from $6.99 to $30 a year for a domain. A simple.com domain name can cost $8-$10 at GoDaddy or any other popular registrar, as published in a Forbes report. If you are lucky, you might even pick up a domain name at a discounted price. You can host your website for free, but then you will have to contend with a lot of downtime that translates into you losing out on the money-making opportunities. A commercial web host charges you based on a number of factors€"the number and kind of files you have on your site (more audio and video files will cost you more), the number of pages, and the number of visitors you expect in a day. You can choose a basic package€"at around $10 a month€"to begin with. As your website garners popularity and you decide to add more multimedia-rich content, you can upgrade to a pricier and more feature-rich hosting package that will ensure your website is always on.
Cost of Designing a Custom Logo
The logo will be the most visible face of your business. Your potential customers should be able to readily discern all that is good about you and your business just from looking at the logo and without stepping into your brick-and-mortar store or interacting with you on social media. So it goes without saying that the creation of the logo is one of the most critical aspects of building your business website. If you want a professional designing company to create a logo that reflects your brand identity, expect to pay anything from $70 to $250 an hour for the work. On the other hand, you can hire a freelance logo designer for $20-$100 an hour to do the work. The rates of a freelance designer vary depending on his experience and location of work. Outsourcing work overseas can be cheaper but the quality of work is usually not guaranteed.
Cost of Designing the User Interface
If you want your visitors to stay hooked once they land on your website, then you cannot afford to build the look-and-feel of your site around those $5 templates that are so easily found on the Internet. You have to hire a professional designing company who knows what it takes to cast a spell on visitors. They can charge you anything from $1,200 to $3,500 (depending on the complexity of the design) to create a custom user interface based on your needs, your brand identity, and what will appeal to your target audience.
Cost of Developing the Website
You will obviously want to develop a feature-rich website that performs equally well across multiple devices and platforms. Given the ubiquity of mobile communication devices, you will want your website to incorporate a responsive design. Be prepared to pay at least $500 to design and develop such a site. You will need to shell out extra money for each new feature you add to your website. For instance, integrating a photo gallery will cost about $200. If you want to include forums and/or chat rooms, contact forms and surveys, and newsletters in your website, you will have to pay about $300-$400 for each feature. Search engine optimization and social media marketing efforts will additionally cost you $500-$4000 for each option. After spending so much money on designing, developing, and marketing the website, you will of course, want to track its progress. Integrating Google Analytics will cost you anything between $200 and $2000.
Cost of Creating Custom Content
It will cost you nothing to write all the content yourself and post it on your business website. But do you have the time? And more importantly, can you optimize the content to appeal to the search engines? Can you add the subtle marketing touches to swing your audience into action? Can you keep your business blog updated regularly? Because you cannot, you will need to hire a professional to write content customized for your website and suited to your business goals. Expect to pay about $100-$150 per page if you want your website content to be written, posted, and arranged in a neat layout. In a nutshell, don't expect to shell out anything less than $1000 to build a basic business website. This is a website where your customers just get to look at your products. If you want to build more interactive websites, your costs naturally go up. A website that manages to woo both human readers and search engines will set you back by $2500-$7500. It is always a good idea to get in touch with several service providers and request quotes that you can compare. The quotes will vary, but now that you have the knowledge of the indicative prices, you will be able to make out who is over-charging and who is low-balling and should be avoided.
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