The cost to develop a website essentially comes down to the time taken to design, develop and maintain the website. Unless you are purchasing a fixed price solution, prices can vary widely depending on the calibre of designer you have chosen, and the type and size of solution you are after.
A typical small business website can range from between $4,000 for a basic site including hosting and domain name, to over $40,000 for an integrated e-commerce and business resource planning tool. Larger projects usually begin at around $20,000, and quite easily push to 6 or 7 figures, given these projects are quite often integrated to existing (legacy) IT systems or core marketing activities.
An example of some of the the features that you can include in a website can be found at a recent blog post that includes 20 fey features to consider when looking at and specifying what you want in a website. Remember that the more features and options you want, just like a car the price will go up.
If you are wanting to make your website a marketing portal to help your business get found online, another resource that you can check out is another post called “10 Key Strategies To Make Your Website an Inbound Online Marketing Machine“. This will give you the key strategies in the use of content, blogs and other strategies that will help your business get found by search engines.
If your project has the potential to increase revenues or reduce costs, then work on a return on investment (ROI) basis. A site that costs you $40,000 to produce, but produces more than $40,000 in value to the business over the course of a year is entirely viable for ANY business. Work with your developer early to discuss the ROI potential for your project.
Other activities, such as online advertising, email campaigns, competition websites etc can cost between $3,000 and $10,000 to implement.
When dealing with potential developers or a chosen partner consider for starters some of the following
- Provide a definitive brief
- Get clear on what the goal or goals of the website are
- Give examples of a website that you like the look and feel of
- Request an itemised breakdown of hours and rates
- Ask for individual pricing for the various features and functions of the website
- Ensure that you will have ownership of the code for the website after completion
- Make sure you are aware of any ongoing fees either monthly or annually
Industry standard rates are anywhere between $100 and $200 per hour depending on the designer/developer. Without fully understanding both your requirements and the process to be undertaken, mistakes can be made if the fit between developer and client is inadequate.
Remember, you do get what you pay for.
What have your experiences been with developing your website. Look forward to hearing your experiences and comments.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The amount required for creating a website vary from our requirements that we want to share on that site. If our site is normal one then it will not cost much but a business or organizational site will cost more.
http://www.superoldcars.com
The benefits of a Drupal based website continue to evolve as SEO changes and evolves. Our financial services website would be difficult to manage had we chosen a less capable CMS.
Cheers,
http://www.livingstonefinancial.com.au
I need help to get started on line . I have written a book.and I need to start self publish on line. Do I need a website ///? AND HOW DO I GO ABOUT THIS ? can someone help me.? libby
i only want to sell my book. its called stop the world i want to get of.
this is a book is true story about how i lived my life. good and bad and how i got through it all.i got so exited when i finished the book . i printed 200 books. i could not sell many for the covers were not in good standerd i though. so i gave them away, people think and tell me what a good book. and its one you cant put it down once you start reading.i have my disk. and manuskriped . i just need to get someone to set me up.
and for that person i will pay back as for every book that i sell 2 dollers will go into the bank in his or her name. and im shore that this book will sell. libby