The Truth: How Much You Should Pay for a Website
Whenever people contact me for any kind of help with a website or blog they have one common question- “How much is this going to cost?”
This is actually a logical thing to ask. People who are not famous or rich have a limited amount of money and they always want to use their money in the smartest way. People are more careful when it comes to paying for something intangible such as a website- doesn’t matter how costly it is you cannot hold it in your hand.
The cost of web design job differs a lot. You can ask 10 different designers for the quotes and you will get 10 different quotes ranging from several hundred to several thousand. How can you decide what amount you want to pay?
Factors That Influence the Cost of Website Design
- The features and components you need.
Never think that your requirements are “simple” and must be cheaper than the standard rate of the designer. Few things look very simple but are in fact very complicated, while others might appear like a big deal but are very easy to be implemented. Your site might contain only one page but that doesn’t mean it is cheaper than the one with 5 or 10 pages.
The main thing is that designers don’t always rate the thing by the amount of time taken by a project. For example, if you have got cut doctors can stitch it within 10 minutes but this doesn’t mean that it doesn’t require precision, skill, and knowledge. Similarly, we have also spent a lot of time in learning what we do. If the work would be so easy then everyone would be able to do it and then there s no need for us to do the job. Adding things like memberships, opt-ins, e-commerce, forums, and other custom functionality is just going to charge more money.
- Your developer’s or designer’s skill level.
You can definitely get a website for $160 but it won’t be the similar quality as the website of $1600. The difference would be the same as between a Lexus and a bicycle. The function of both will be same but one would be definitely better than another. Designers who cost more are providing you with the proficiency that you won’t find at a negotiable rate – and in most of the cases, the profits will certainly compensate the added expenses. If you will select the inexpensive option, you risk employing a designer who sucks. Then don’t tell me that I didn’t warn you.
- As a client how demanding you are?
This is one thing that no one will tell you. But being honest I am telling you this- if you call or email me 50 times a day, request things that are outside the scope of our working relationship, cut into my time with my loved ones, expect thousands of tiny revisions, it’s definitely going to cost you. After some time, designers learn how to sniff out “complicated” clients very easily, but if one will try to sneak through the gate designers will make certain that they are compensated for that additional work. Please keep this thing in your mind that developers and designers are also humans and they also have some life away from computers.
So How Much Should I Pay?
Before deciding on a budget for website design here are some questions that you must ask yourself-
For Blogs
What is the point of having a blog? If you blog in order to share memories and photos with your family and don’t make any money from it, I would definitely not spend even a few hundred dollars for a design. Actually, I would just choose a free theme and leave it at that but if you make many dollars per year from your blog then you must increase your budget.
Now you will think why should I spend more money? What will I gain from that professional design? So let me tell you that if you want to attract advertisers or want to get featured on big name websites a professionally designed blog would be the best choice. It will outperform the general one and if you know that by spending $2000 once you will earn 10,000 just within one year then wouldn’t it make sense to spend the money?
Should I outsource this? A lot of bloggers call me and ask for a quote then they tell me that they will design their sites by themselves and will save money. Whenever such a thing happens I usually, see one of these four results-
- They waste a lot of time in finding what they should do and at the end, the result looks awful.
- They waste many hours and at last, they get frustrated and hire someone else for designing their site.
- They choose a cheaper designer whoever they find and in the end, they again hire me to fix what the designer broke.
- They choose someone and then again hire me and pay for another design because what they got from the previous was not what they wanted.
So, in all these situations all that I can see is just a waste of effort, time as well as money. If you are a blogger then you must focus only on bogging particularly of this is the only thing from which you are earning your living. There’s no embarrassment in outsourcing the things that are not a good use of your time.
WHAT SHOULD YOU SPEND
Somewhere from a hundred to a few thousand dollars, according to the value that you will get from a better design. I would not ask you to spend more than $5000 on blog design except if you have special needs to have a very big audience.
For Business Websites
If you are thinking that how important a website is for your business then let me tell you that over more than 65% of users’ today research about the services and products before buying them online. If you don’t have a website then you are totally missing out and then it doesn’t matter how many employees you have. An outdated and ugly website is also not going to help you a lot in the department of reputation. It’s very simple to tell yourself that some web presence is better than none and this is true but if the customers perceive your brand as out of touch or cheap then you will definitely lose your potential clients.
Now you must be thinking that what my website will actually do for my business? Do people use the website to find your phone number? Buy products? Make appointments? Learn about what you offer? Then here are two important points about this-
(1) If your website is not able to increase your business more that’s a big issue and it is not because your website doesn’t work it’s actually because your site doesn’t work.
(2) If your website is able to increase your business then you must ask yourself what you can do in order to make things simple for customers and clients or improve conversion rates.
What does my business actually need?
I’ve talked to a lot of businessmen who are possessed with things that just don’t matter at all. They are just busy in adding details to their menu that pops out in a specific way, making their logo to look bigger but the most important thing on which they never focus is that more than half of their visitors never go beyond their homepage. Doesn’t matter what you have written on other pages of your website of how many pages you have on your website they will just see your homepage and will never go beyond that. If you don’t know that what your business requires then you must immediately consult with someone who knows about all this.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SPEND
It is very difficult to price website designs that are for business as there are a lot of factors involved in that. I would just say that you must expect at least a few thousand dollars. Don’t like my answer? Just think about your website as an employee and I think you’ll see why you’re getting a bargain regardless of what you spend.
