Well, let me give you the short answer that I know you’re going to hate… it depends.

No two web solutions are exactly the same mainly because no two businesses are exactly the same.  So, rather than give you a range that is mere opinion and based on our own experience (which… I might give you at the end,) let me help you understand what we see are the four main components that help determine the cost of a web project.  With that, I’ll also tell you at least one way you can help lower the cost.  Listen and listen well and you should be able to find the right firm that can deliver the results you want at the price you’re willing to pay.

So, let’s get started…

Design

Good design costs money and a great looking website helps communicate professionalism, stability (surprising but true,) and a certain level of trust. Think of your website as where you will likely make your first impression with your prospects. Do you want to be found wearing a nicely trimmed suit or a raggedy set of jeans and a t-shirt?  A good designer will know how to build the suit, but will be more costly than the person who just delivers the jeans and t-shirt.

One way to lower cost?

Be prepared before starting the project by having a list of example websites that you like in terms of the style, layout, and overall structure. Also, be sure to have a good idea or an already solidified color palette for your designer to use.  This can help firms cut back on hours allotted for research and the design process included in their quotes, saving you some cash.

Functionality

There are two major components of a website that make up the “heart” of the website: your content and the functionality.  Functionality can be anything from content management systems, web contact forms and user accounts to social media integration, blogging capabilities and photo galleries.  However, just like buying a car, the more features you want the higher the price.

One way to lower cost?

Know what you really need before you approach a web development firm.  Oftentimes prospects begin naming their wish-list for inclusion in a quote because they have not thought in detail about what they really need.  Then sticker shock hits them when they see the cost.

By knowing what the minimum capabilities that you need are, you can start small and build big later, thus starting the project with a much lower quoted price.  Again like buying a car, if cost is a concern, know what features are your chassis, engine, wheels, and controls and start with those first.

Timeline

Building a website takes time and most firms have developing time lines down to a science.  We also know that for some of our clients, it’s just not fast enough. When you need something faster than a standard project, you can be sure that you’re going to have to pay for it.  An expedited project typically requires a higher rate applied to the pricing and that can quickly increase the price of your project.

One way to lower cost?

Plan ahead for the time required to develop your project.  In our experience, a typical web project can take a minimum of 30 business days.  To avoid your project requiring an expedited time line, plan to have that much time available before your desired launch date.  If this isn’t possible, then be prepared to potentially pay the extra cost.

Experience

I’ll be as direct as I can here. If you want the best, you will have to pay for the best.  The key to determining who the “best” is, in my opinion, is centered around what your definition of “experience” is.

Typically, we think of experience as the number of years you have been performing the service in question.  In the world of web design and development this should not be your only criteria for determining who is good and who is bad.  Focus instead on the results their completed projects generated for the served businesses.  Be sure to ask each web firm you are looking to contract with if they can give you a few examples of work they have completed and the end results it provided for the business.  Then make your judgment about their level of experience by what they have consistently delivered.

One way to lower cost?

When price becomes the primary concern, remember you can always contract with the “next best” firms.  They may not be considered “the best” to you, but they certainly good at what they do and sometimes can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

Wrapping It All Up in a Price

So at this point you’re probably thinking, “He still hasn’t told me how much a good website should cost.”  Well, that’s true, but hopefully I’ve helped you understand some of the core elements that are taken into consideration when pricing your project.  You will be forced to make some decisions about what you want, what you expect, and what you’re willing to pay that will ultimately have a great bearing on the overall success of your website.  So be sure that you are giving yourself a large enough budget to reach the success that you desire and expect to gain from your website.

Are you ready to make the investment?

P.S. – Okay, for those of you that need a price range, let me give you a quick idea of what we’ve charged for web projects.  We’ve built websites from $1,500 up to $30,000 and they’ve all helped businesses grow (some A LOT faster than others and in more ways than just bringing in new business.)

In my opinion, be prepared to pay between $3,000 – $5,000 for a good website that generates positive results for your business.  If right now you are all excited about how you got yours for less, good for you… as long as you’re actually getting some sort of return from it!  Otherwise, you might just have a glorified digital brochure and that rarely does anything for your business.

That’s not the case anymore.

The new web is all about content, but not just any content… fresh content.  In the new web, the websites that get the most traffic are those where the content is constantly changing, being added to, and improved.  Users want and expect to see or learn something new each time they visit your website and they view those websites that do so as more valuable.  Think about it, you actually give them a reason to return!

With that in mind, let me give you just 3 quick reasons why you should consistently update your website:

1. Search engines reward websites that update often by moving them up the rankings

The value in search engines is that you can find just about anything you are looking for on the web.  But, we don’t want to just find anything, we want to find the “right thing.”  So in order to remain a valuable tool to users, search engines needed a way to identify what listings are considered “good stuff” and what is not.  One identifier, a term called “frequency,” is used to determine how often your website is updated.  If a website is updated often, then search engines consider it a consistent source of new information and awards it some points that can help move its listing up in the search results.  This is very beneficial as it can bring more traffic to your website.

Think about it.  If your local newspaper delivered this Sunday’s edition, then next Sunday they delivered exactly the same thing, then again the next Sunday and so on and so forth, eventually you’d just cancel your subscription. Why? Because there is no longer anything of value. The content is exactly the same so why would you want to keep receiving it?  Its the same with your website in that if it never changes, why would someone who has already read it want to come back? Search engines know this and could penalize you by moving you down in the rankings.

Benefit #1: You have the ability to make updates instantly

This absolutely is the #1 reason for using content management systems.  I don’t know how many times I have heard our clients and prospects tell us, “We want to be able to make updates ourselves, without having to call you.”  Well guess what, with a CMS system you can make all the updates you want, and most systems have an interface that looks similar to your favorite word processor so you can add formatting like bold, italics, bulleted lists and so on.  The best part? You don’t need to know HTML code.  The good news for us?  You often still need someone to set it up for you and train you on how to use it, but it can cut the costs of a developing a website in half!

Benefit #2: It’s easy to add new pages making your website easily scalable

The main purpose of a CMS tool is that you use it to manage all of the content on your website. That alone is already fantastic, but what’s even more fantastic is that most CMS systems allow you to add brand new content pages with just the click of a few buttons.  So when you need to grow the amount of content on your website, you just use the system to add the new pages. There is no longer a need for a skilled web programmer to create the pages, link them into your website, then send you a bill. You simply add the new pages using the system itself and pass on receiving that extra bill.

Benefit #3: You can add additional functionality quickly

Behind almost every CMS system is a framework for adding new functionality, which can be anything from a photo gallery, to a message board, to integrating social media tools.  This allows you to expand what your website is capable of and thus offer visitors and users new tools that may provide additional value or aid in persuading them to engage your business. What makes this a great benefit is that for most CMS systems, all it takes to add these new capabilities is to upload a few files and flip the “on” switch.

Benefit #4: Redesigning your website is a piece of cake

It seems like every year businesses feel that it is time to completely redo their website (and to a point, we agree.)  Most of the time all they really want is to “freshen up” the look and they’ll reuse most of the content.  While we believe that the content is MORE important, it’s worth to note that most CMS systems use what’s known as “web templates” to control the structure and design of an entire website. So when you want a new design, you simply create a new web template, install it into the system, and activate it. Voilà! Your old site gets a face lift in mere seconds! The best part?  No need to start building the whole website from scratch!

Where can I get one of those?

Hopefully by now you can see why we’re so passionate about using content management systems to build our websites.  It’s easier for you, it’s easier for us, and… well… we like to make the web easy!  Now if you’d like to get your hands on one, we’ve listed a few of our favorites below with links to learn about them. If you need help with actually building your site using a CMS system or simply want us to train you on how to use one, give us a shout! We’d love to help!

A few CMS systems we like:

1. Joomla!
2. Drupal
3. Wordpress
4. Typo3

Are there any you would like to list?  Post them in the comments below!

Would you like us to test and review one? Send us a Contact Request and we’ll give ‘er a go!

1. Coming across a “corporate” web site that looked like $5 was spent on it, said nothing about what the organization did, and just hurt to look at
2. Having a prospect or new client give me the answer, “Well, you know, we just had to get one up there,” to our question: “How did you go about building your current web site?”

Your Web Site is Your First Impression

Okay, listen, if you answered the question above the same way or you paid less than $500 for your web site, we need to talk. That’s like saying you have an important meeting tomorrow and your plan is to rush to your nearest clothing store and buy the first suit off the rack without ever checking to see how it fits, whether the color compliments your skin tone, or if you just look like an absolute fool in Scottish plaid. Get this, your web site represents your FIRST impression to your potential customers!

Think, before you act! Do you need a web site, yes, absolutely! Does that mean you should use some cheap, “build-it-yourself-overnight” tool? Unless you have a pretty decent understanding of user interface design, layout theory, copywriting techniques, and process engineering… NO!

If you need a web site, there are some simple steps you can take to pave the way for creating a successful presence, but they need you to understand what you should do and what you shouldn’t do when building your new web site.

The Do’s of Building a Web Site

Here are some simple “do’s” that you should focus on when planning and developing the web site you will use to represent your business in the digital world. Following these may not guarantee you riches and fame, but they will certainly guarantee you that there is a much greater chance of your site’s visitors turning into customers, which could lead to riches and fame.

1. Write out your story

We so quickly want to get right to saying who we are, what we do, and how to contact us that we forget that our web site visitors are people, meaning they’re social. They want to know more about who you are and what you’re about before they want to learn what you can do for them. You need to capture the story of who you are (the owner/founders), where you came from, and how you got started and why you did start your business.

What made you start your business?
How do you plan to change the world, even if it is just the world of a particular individual, group of people, or organization?

This will be the foundation for your entire web strategy.

2. Determine your value proposition

Listen, I know we were all told that we need to develop that perfect “sales pitch.” The idea is that anytime you see an opportunity, you’ll be immediately ready to pounce on the unsuspecting person with an 10 reasons they should buy your product now! Truth is, people are more skeptical than ever. They are constantly being “sold” everywhere they go, therefore, they’ve learned to filter out these pitches. Instead, develop your “value pitch.” People react to things they view as valuable. If you can state what makes you valuable, and they can see how that would benefit them, they’ll engage you.

What is it that you bring to an engagement that someone else – your competition – simply can’t provide?
What truly makes you different and more impactful to your customer?

This turns into the main theme of your web site, both content-wise, but also supported graphically with visuals that communicate the value.

3. Create a conversion process

The goal of any business web site should be to convert a visitor to a transaction. You want sales, you want leads, you want someone to call you up and say “I’ll pay you a billion dollar for your awesomely developed product!” Here’s the main question: How do they do that?

You need to have a plan and a process for how a person will engage your organization. Sure, there’s the “Contact Us” page, but what am I contacting you for? And why would I? If you leave it up to your visitors to figure out how to engage your organization, you’ll likely lose a lot of opportunities!

How do I as a web site visitor go about engaging your organization?
What is the “next step” now that I have learned about what you offer? Even more, what is the next step if I had just called or emailed you?

This process will become the strategy for how to drive internal activities when a new prospect engages your business.

4. Finally, Meet with a Professional Web Design Firm

Ok, YES, you COULD build your own web site using cheap or free tools that are available on the web, but after doing all the work mentioned above wouldn’t you want it to be the best it can be? If you answered “yes”, then let a professional build it for you! Will it cost money, YES! More than these tools, DEFINITELY, but it is an investment in your business that you cannot afford to short-change on. A professional firm will be able to either help you develop all the pieces already mentioned, or can take this information and build what will become your most powerful solution for attracting, acquiring, and managing your new customers! Let’s be honest, unless you have some skill and experience in building web sites, the web site YOU would build, would likely chase customers away!

The Don’t Do’s of Building a Web Site

Now, based upon my years of experience, I could probably list a million different things not to do when building a web site. Honestly, it would be overkill. Why? Because there are only three main “don’ts” that if you listen, and do not do, you will likely prevent the majority of the rest I could mention.

1. DO NOT rush to build your web site or use a build-it-yourself-overnight tool

Basically, you’re highly likely to produce a piece of crap site, that would translate into your visitors thinking your business is crap, and therefore thinking all you could offer is crap. Unless you are a web development professional who is now starting your own company, just don’t do this, no matter how attractive the extremely cheap $21.95 price tag is!

Get your story together, determine your value proposition, develop your conversion process, and find a professional who can take all that and knock it out of the ballpark with a winning web site!

2. DO NOT load your web site with a lot of unnecessary information, tools, or bells & whistles

This whole idea of being a “mini-Yahoo!,” forget it! People don’t want to get stock prices, the weather, local news, and other irelevant information from your web site. So don’t try to be the “single place people would go for all their information.” That’s what search engines are for. Not to mention, all of those things are absolute annoyances and distractions that will likely turn your visitors off to your organization!

3. DO NO build your web site using nothing but Flash (don’t even overuse it!)

For those of you that do not know, Flash is a technology that allows you to create stunning animations on web sites (or a fully animated web site.) Flash looks cool. It can do cool things, but it is absolutely the worst platform to build a web site on. This is because: 1) search engines cannot index them so no one knows how to find your web site, and 2) they are the most difficult web sites to manage when you need to make changes! So just don’t do it, Okay?

There, that’s it! Nice and simple! Follow these simple “Do’s” and avoid the “Don’ts” and you’re on your way to building a fantastic new web site!

End Thoughts and Questions

I’m wondering if any of you have any “horror stories” of having a web site built (or building one yourself) where your end result ended up hurting your business. Would anyone care to share?