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How much does a website really cost?

Published by Marc
8 Mins

Contents

Factors that influence the price of a website
How to make a good first impression: the key elements of a website
The steps to follow: determine the cost of your website
So how much does it cost?
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Nowadays, anyone can create a website (yes). Just create an account on Wix, Go Daddy, Squarespace, Weebly... Name it! Finding a template is easy as pie.

But building a website that really attracts target users and gets them to take the desired action cannot simply be done from a pre-designed template.

But what is the real cost of a professional, efficient website that will help your business grow?

That's a tough question to answer in a blog post since it's really case-by-case. However, here we want to offer the same advice and recommendations we give to our clients. Kind of like a free online consultation.

A price is very difficult to find on the web when talking about a website made by an agency or a web developer. In most cases, we read that the features determine the price, that's it. And that's where we notice that clients are making mistakes in their project.

Factors that influence the price of a website

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

GDL

Paul Halle

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.

Passion World

VS

TW Voyages

How to make a good first impression: the key elements of a website:

Define your target

Offering the best possible first impression requires defining your persona. This may seem like an unnecessary step in building a website, but in reality it is essential to know who you are addressing. The architecture of the site and its design will be greatly influenced by your persona. For example, your website won't have a wow factor for 50+ year olds if it was designed for 20-35 year olds.

Defining your target also allows you to predict through which channels your customers will find you and how.

The "wow factor

An effective website will leave a lasting impression on your visitor. Leaving a strong impression will increase your engagement and conversion rate. The wow effect is often achieved through a surprising design. This is the reason for the animation of an elephant on a bicycle when you arrive on Walter's site.

The options of "wow factor" are infinite it can be as much a video

Only surprising colors

Or even the absence of colors

That a surprising animation (image that distorts)

Or an attention-grabbing illustration

SEO friendly

A good website generates the right kind of traffic.

By optimizing your website to perform well on search engines, all your design efforts will pay off as it will be your persona that will visit your website.

To understand your agency's SEO strategy, ask your potential vendor, what tools they use (there are dozens), what their approach to SEO web design is and what site structure they recommend for your industry. All this to create the best sales funnel for your web marketing campaigns.

The steps to follow: determine the cost of your website

The more time we have to spend on a client's project, the more the bill increases, it goes without saying. There are many time-consuming steps to perform for a successful website that helps your business grow. Nevertheless, many clients are not always aware of certain steps. It's normal, not all of us work in web design.

To give you an idea of the steps to take consider the list below. Not all of them are necessary to design your website. It depends a lot on your web and digital marketing needs.

The preparation phase

  • First website or not: Need for a logo, help for branding, graphic standards booklet
  • Marketing support: need for help with business plan, industry analysis, definition of target audience, analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats...
  • Scripting: flow, charts, user case
  • Information architecture and content plan advice: page architecture, number of pages, page length

The design phase

  • Level of digital creativity: animations and interactions in the site
  • Page length
  • Content creation: writing texts, photos, videos...
  • Custom design
  • Technical level required: features to be incorporated
  • Analytics capability: tagging the site, google analytics
  • Purchase of plug ins: ssl certificate, delivery module

The post-launch phase

  • Need for training: on how to use your website
  • Website maintenance: updates
  • Website promotion: seo, sem, newsletter, web campaign
  • Warranty purchase: 15 business days to fix bugs at no charge
  • Adjustments
  • Email automation
  • Seo continues (optimize after, constantly)

So how much does it cost?

Here are the highlights:

A starter site with a purchased theme

TEMPLATE

Cost: Starting at $3000

Features: A start-up website is usually the first one of a company. It serves a bit like a business card, its purpose is to briefly present the company in an aesthetic and striking format.

Example: visibilitycups.com

This includes:

  • Installing a WordPress theme
  • Home, About, Contact, Services (up to 5 pages)
  • SEO Optimization
  • Cover images for your social networks
  • Installation of Google Analytics
  • Installation of a newsletter manager with 1 email template
  • Mobile Compatibility
  • Training to update content
  • Content management tool

A corporate site with a theme

Cost: $3000 to $5000

Features: A corporate site is relatively similar to a startup site. However, there will be more pages, perhaps a blog, a portfolio ... It is not necessarily a sales tool yet, we are still talking about working the reputation of the company.

Example: pareassurances.com

This includes:

  • Installing a WordPress theme
  • Home page, About, Contact, Services, Blog (up to 10 pages)
  • SEO Optimization
  • Cover images for your social networks
  • Installation of Google Analytics
  • Installation of a newsletter manager with 1 email template
  • Creation of 2 personalized email lists
  • Mobile Compatibility
  • Training to update content
  • Content management tools

A custom corporate website

Cost: 6000$ and more

Features: A custom website allows the company to adjust the site to be 100% to its image. We can then go further in the design. A custom website can also offer functionality specific to the business and the needs of its customers (such as a subscription platform for example)

Example: gdln.ca/

This includes:

  • Custom design of the site (no template)
  • SEO Optimization
  • Content management tool
  • Cover images for your social networks
  • Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager
  • Newsletter manager and 2 email templates
  • Customized lists for newsletter management
  • Mobile accounting
  • Training to update content

An online store

Cost: 6000$ and more

Features: We are talking about websites that have transactional needs. The online store can be made from a template or not, can be connected to an inventory or even an accounting system.

Example: https://www.bijouterieitalienne.com
Example: https://www.dermablend.com

This includes:

  • Support in choosing a platform
  • Custom design for the site and the shopping cart
  • Connection to an inventory (if required)
  • Import of products
  • SEO Optimization
  • Content Manager
  • Training to update content
  • Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager
  • Newsletter manager and 3 email templates
  • Customized lists for newsletter management
  • Mobile Compatibility

For your website to help you acquire new customers, increase your revenue and above all position yourself as an expert, you can't turn corners.

If you haven't looked at your website in a while, go ahead. Evaluate if they give a true picture of your business today.

Your audience forms its opinion about you in milliseconds. Make sure you make a good impression

Sources:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223150
https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/how-much-should-a-website-cost/ https://www.executionists.com/much-effective-website-cost-2017/
https://www.methodandclass.com/articles/what-are-the-different-types-of-website
https://www.markbrinker.com/website-cost