How much does a website cost?

Much more than a communication tool, a website is also a lever of notoriety essential to your activity which must be thought on the long term from its creation. This will ensure you a perennial presence on the web and to reach your objectives.

But this project represents an important investment in time and money for any company. It is therefore important to understand the stages of realization, the resources to be mobilized and the tools that can allow the web development agency to move forward efficiently. We give you all the tools you need to get started.

Let's do an exercise together, look at these two websites:

These two companies have a relatively identical service offering and their website offers the same functionality.

Let's say you are looking for a notary, which company would deserve your call after a first look?

I would assume that most of you would lean towards the former.

Yet they offer the same thing.

This is because a fully customized website, made by an agency, often offers a much better first impression.

Did you know that the average user forms an opinion of your website in 0.5 seconds? And that 75% of users admit to judging the credibility of a company with their website?

The features to be incorporated in your website are indeed very important to determine the cost of your website, but a web agency can offer you much more. A custom website like the first one requires a lot of support, much more programming for animations (the wow effect), design and maintenance.

A $5000 website can easily have the same functionality as a $15,000 website. The difference is the work and therefore the time that the agency puts on the website.

A low cost website contains a lot more automation to save in billable time.

This means at the website level:

• The general design is taken from a template
• The added features will be non-custom plugins.

And in terms of support:

• Much less time searching for competitive keywords in your industry.
• Some steps are not taken into account at all (storyboarding, wireframes, stress testing...)

For some, using a theme with photos from image banks does the trick.

In addition, customers who are ready to invest in their website, will benefit from services with great added value such as :

• Keyword optimization
• Creation of a persona
• Wireframe and prototype
• Internal link creation strategy
• CRM integration
• Geographic targeting
• Online store with hundreds or thousands of products

These are the additions that add the most value and allow the client to see a real increase in their traffic and sales. So we go far beyond just designing a website. We build a complete web marketing strategy.

The cost of a website will therefore be influenced by its functionality, but it is in the support that we see the difference. The approach to take and the price always depends on the needs of the client. Some only want a landing page while others need a complex online store. The important thing is to know what the purpose of the website is to be able to determine the support and customization that will be necessary.

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Before starting the creation of your website, it is important to ask yourself about the features you want to develop in priority. This will allow you to establish with the web agency a structured creation process where the validation steps will be easy to follow for you and for the team that accompanies you. To help you, categorize the future features of your site into three stages of development: essential, important and optional features. It's important to think them through because "every feature that goes beyond simply displaying content when the page loads will need to be coded".

For example, if you are an e-commerce company, paying online (and therefore securing personal data) is essential, online chat with the user is important, while for some, a blog space is optional.

If you are a large company, installing an ERP for managing customers, suppliers, staff, inventory and transactions is essential, providing for the translation of the site into several languages is important, offering a calendar of events may be optional.

Don't forget the sections that are commonly found on every website such as the contact form, the recruitment area or the press area.

Nowadays, a website is inseparable from the user experience (or UX for User Experience). It is the way the customer approaches the site, navigates on it and chooses to stay or not. It means thinking about the path they will take and making it as fluid as possible. The architecture and the distribution of the pages of your future website must therefore propose an adequate tree structure. The price of a website must include this important aspect. The research in this field is more and more advanced, not only in ergonomics, but also in the way to make the contact with the customer more interesting and comfortable.

Working on the content of your site is essential: it is what constitutes the identity of the company in the eyes of the Internet user, the visible part of the iceberg. The writing and the visuals must be neat and structured so that the customer can quickly find the information he needs and enjoy browsing your website (this is often the assurance to see him come back!).

The "content" part of the creation of a site is also the one that pushes you to think about the after delivery: your website has a life span of several years during which you will have to update it, feed it, make it live. Think about it. For example, don't create a "blog" tab if you don't have the means or resources to feed it regularly: it's better to focus on the essentials to offer a relevant website. It is better to focus on the essentials to offer a relevant website. Especially since multiplying the number of pages will unnecessarily increase the cost of your invoice.

Finally, working on your content is also (and above all) being strategic to ensure a good referencing on the web (SEO for Search Engine Optimization). You will make a bet on the long term: be constantly rigorous in your writing, the choice of keywords, the name of your files ... and you will be assured of a long-term visibility and therefore, the growth of your audience. For this, do not hesitate to surround yourself with experts in writing and SEO, and take into account this resource when establishing the budget. It's a winning bet: the better your SEO is, the more you will attract Internet users and therefore potential customers. The performance of your company depends on it!

Establishing the most precise specifications possible is essential for good communication with the web agency that accompanies you. It will be a starting tool that will allow you to lay a good foundation and ensure a finished product that meets your expectations. It also allows the agency to determine the relevant resources for the project and the team that will accompany you in the development of your web project (copywriter, photographer, graphic designer, translator, web strategist, editor, SEO or SEM specialist). To help you, here are some points to develop.

Identifying your needs will allow to channel the realization of your future website. The essential functionalities will have to pursue the objective to reach:

• Selling products online
• Generate contacts
• Generate appointments
• Generate questions from potential customers
• Inform the customer about the services offered
• Inform the customer about the products on sale
• Gather information on potential customers (email address, phone number, customer profile)

This will allow you to identify the features, universes, designs, arguments that you like or not, but also what differentiates you in order to focus on it in the next step:

• Identify your 3 main competitors and their website address
• Identify 3 websites in the same industry that you like
• Identify 3 websites from other sectors that you like

This allows you to focus on your target and how you meet their expectations:

• Describe your market
• Present your offer in French and English if applicable
• Determine what sets you apart from the competition
• What will you show on your site

Don't forget! Categorize essential, important and optional features:

• Photo gallery/image gallery
• Subscribe to our newsletter
• Online chat with customer service
• Online store
• Comments
• Social networks
• Blog
• Forum
• Make an appointment
• Calendar of events
• Members' area
• Simple form
• Customized form
• Sends an automated response when form is completed to potential customers
• Thank you page when the form is completed
• Presentation of the team, description of each manager or employee with photo
• Create a Google Analytics account
• Installation of a Google Analytics account
• Installation of tracking code

It is a question of identifying the resources that you already have for the realization of your site and what you wish to display on it:

• Do you already have a logo?
• Have you already reserved your domain name?
• Do you already have your host?
• Do you have a high definition image bank?
• Would you like to introduce your team?
• Do you have any products you would like to highlight?
• Do you have any PDFs available for download?
• Do you want to highlight your achievements and references?

Ready to start designing your website? Contact us now!