When you start shopping around for a new website or web designer, you’re going to come across a wide variety of prices and fees.
You see those commercials for “do it yourself” websites that cost $5 a month. Guess what…Those websites suck. Don’t fool yourself, you know deep down it’s true. Don’t be suckered in.
You’ll find some larger agencies that may not take a project with a budget under $15,000.00, which may be far out of your price range and include a bunch of things that don’t pertain to your needs.
The key to determining how much your website should cost though, is the value that it will deliver for your business.
As I discuss often, your website should be an asset that you are investing in rather than an expense that does not help your business grow. Gone are the days of having your brochure typed out on a handful of different web pages and calling it a day. Not if you want to actually get anything of value from your website.
When budgeting for your new website, think about how much new customers are worth to you. What is the value of a successful conversion?
If you are a law firm and one new client leads to $10,000, then investing in a quality website that drives new leads will be worth a lot more than a local plumber who gets $50 from a new client to fix their leaky faucet. If you are a roofer and a new job will bring you $5,000+ and a website can get you 4 new jobs a month, wouldn’t it be worth a couple thousand dollars a month to have it driving you new leads?
Depending on your industry, different keywords will have more website traffic potential as well as different levels of competition. This will also effect how valuable your website will be based on how many leads it will be able to generate for you.
That’s also why you actually need more than just a website (check our free ebook) in order for your online presence to become a real channel for leads. The real cost of your website should be in getting it traffic and converting that traffic into hot leads and paying customers.
With all that said, the actual design and development to get your website up and running on your domain from an expert web designer will usually cost a few thousand dollars. Websites are more often quoted as project prices vs. an hourly rate now so that you have a better idea up front of what you’ll be paying for your website. Different web design agencies will base their project costs on different hourly rates that they pay their designers and developers. From planning your website, designing it, coding it and launching it, you can expect to be paying for a good amount of hours.
Then the real value of your website comes once it’s live and getting you new business. So PLEASE, do not think that your website is done once it is online. That’s only the beginning.
I’ve heard horror stories of companies paying over $10,000 for a website that they didn’t even like once it was delivered. Of course there are companies that aren’t satisfied with the cheap, do it your self websites.
What is your experience with paying for websites? Have you been duped by a cheap website or overpaid and not been delivered the value that you expected? Leave your website cost and value thoughts in the comments below!
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