Small Business Website Design Costs

How Much Will It Cost To Design a Website?

For most small businesses, expect to pay between $1200 to $3000 if created by a professional website designer. There are many elements that affect the cost of a website including the website platform, size of the website and the functionality. In reality, building a website is similar to building a house.

What you can expect to pay for a small business website

Service	Cost
Domain Name	$45 – $140 per year
Webhosting	$10 – $150 per month
SSL Certificate	$50 – $300 per year
Website Design and Development	$1200 – $3000
Memberships / Plugins	$0 – $300 per month
Copywriting	From $500
Marketing	$0 – $10,000+
Tech Support / Maintenance	From $100 per month

What determines the price of a website

There are 4 decisions you will need to make which will impact the cost of the website:

1. The website builder / software / platform

This is an important decision as it will have impact not only on the cost, but the functionality.

You have many choices when it comes to website builders. The main players include:

Wordpress
Shopify
Wix
Weebly
Squarespace

My recommendation is self-hosted Wordpress, as it gives your business the flexibility to grow. It is the most popular website platform currently being used with over 450 million websites.

Learn more about each website builder including their pros and cons.

2. Hire a professional website designer or do it myself

This will also have a big impact on the cost of the website. Here are options for you to consider.

Hire a local website designer

Pros

Knowledge of local market
Understands website design trends and security
Able to design more advanced websites including shopping carts
Can help with website marketing and search engine optimisation
Troubleshoot and fix up problems
Fluent English so no language barriers

Cons

Costs more than offshore developer

Get it done offshore

Pros

Save money

Cons

Cultural and work ethic differences
Difficult to manage from afar
Language barriers
Time differences
Lack of local market knowledge
Limited technical support

Ask your nephew / friend to build it

Pros

Save money

Cons

Little design experience
Need to heavily supervise design and set up
Limited technical knowledge
Limited security knowledge
No marketing experience
Limited search engine experience

Do It Yourself

Pros

Save money
Have creative control
Sense of accomplishment

Cons

Need to learn how to use the software
Figure out what to include on the website
Manage all related technology including installation and set up Integrations
Ensure the website is secure
Create and source all images and graphics
Troubleshoot any problems

3. Number of pages it includes

There are many pages that you can potentially include on your website. However, the most important pages include:

Home
Products (one page per product)
Services (one page per service)
FAQs
Testimonials
Case Studies
Blog / News
About
Contact Us
Terms & Conditions

For additional pages you might want to consider including on your website, check out The Most Important 25 Pages You Need to Include On Your Website.

4. The functionality it has

Many business owners use their website as an online brochure only, but there are so many other things your website can be used for including:

Selling products – digital and physical via an online store
Selling affiliate products and services
Collecting email addresses to build a mailing list
Booking appointments in different time zones
Running online courses
Providing automated quotes
Running a competition
Accepting registrations for classes / workshops / seminars
Collecting details from a survey
Displaying information from your social networks
Chatting with customers in real time
Giving customers opportunity to provide feedback
Selling other people’s products and services via affiliate programs
Getting paid for displaying ads from other businesses as well as Google ads
Running membership programs
Storing important reports / whitepapers / marketing assets
Accepting payments from customers
Acting as landing pages for marketing campaigns

Since Wordpress is the most popular website design platform, we will focus on pricing for a Wordpress website.

Costs you may need to pay

1. Domain Name

Domain name will depend on the type of domain name – some domain names are more expensive than others, but generally speaking you are looking anywhere between $45 – $140 per year.

2. Webhosting

There are great variations on hosting prices. Just with anything else, you get what you pay for. If you find a company that offers webhosting for less than $150 per year, chances are your website will be on a server with thousands of other websites and will most likely very slow to load.

Also tech support is generally minimal or via email only.

For the majority of small businesses, you can get decent shared hosting from $25 per month.

3. SSL Certificate

An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts information sent to the server using SSL technology. Encryption is the process of scrambling data into an undecipherable format that can only be returned to a readable format with the proper decryption key.

The cost of SSL Certificates varies between $50 – $300 per year

4. Website Design & Development

How much your website design will cost will greatly depend on the size and functionality.

A 5-10 page informational website will generally cost between $1000 – $2500.

An ecommerce website (one that sells products) generally costs between $2,500 – $10,000, depending on how many products you have and the complexity of the set up.

If you require additional functionality such as:

integrating an online course,
setting up a membership portal,
email automation and nurturing,
livechat set up etc

can add several hundred to several thousand dollars to the cost.

You may save a few hundred if you get the website done offshore, but more often than not saving a few hundred dollars initially will cost you a lot more in lost time and revenue.

5. Memberships / Plugins

Even if you get a professional website designer to create your website, you may also need to pay membership or plugin costs, which can be one off or recurring charges.

Although many companies offer free versions, these are generally very limited. So depending on the membership level and service provided – you can be paying between $10 – $300 per month.

Here are some examples of plugins / memberships you may wish to consider:

Online Course

- LearnDash – From $199
- LearnPress – Offers free version

Membership Platforms

- MemberPress – From $129 per year
- MemberMouse – From $29 per month

E-Commerce

- WooCommerce – Offers free version
- BigCommerce – From $29 per month

Email Automation

- GetResponse – From $15 per month
- Mailchimp – Offers free version

Appointment Booking

- vCita – From $19 per month
- Calendly – Offers free version

Online Chat

- LiveChat – From $16 per month
- ChatBot – From $42 per month

Event Booking

- Event Manager – Offers free version
- WP Event Manager – Offers free version

6. Copywriting

If you don’t feel confident in writing the copy for your website, you may want to consider hiring a professional copywriter. Cost will depend on how many pages you will need. A good copywriter will cost from $1000+.

7. Marketing

Once your website is built you will need to set a budget for promoting it and that can run from several dollars per day if you are running Facebook or Google ads – to several hundred per month for search engine optimisation and content building.

However, there are many free ways to promote your website. Check out 22 Proven Ways You Can Easily Promote Your Business for Free.

8. Tech Support / Maintenance

Many designers and developers offer tech support / maintenance packages, which means you are paying for x hours each month of their time to help you update your website, upgrade it or to recover it if your website stops working or gets hacked.

Cost is generally from $100 per month.

How do I create a website for free?

This is something that gets searched by thousands of people every month and if you are looking to build a personal blog or family website, then check out:

Wordpress.com (find out difference between Wordpress.com vs Wordpress.org)
Wix
Weebly

However if you are looking to build a business website, I highly recommend you use Wordpress and get a professional website designer to do it for you.

We are at over 1.8 billion websites and thousands of new sites are being created every month.

What that means for your business is that you have a lot of competition and people’s standards in what they expect to see are a lot higher than what they once were.

If you don’t have website design skills and decide to build the website yourself or get your 16 year old nephew to do it for you, it will end up costing you in the long term.

People will judge your business by your web design skills and if your site doesn’t look professional, your visitors will assume your products and services are inferior.

If you would like to discuss your business, book a free website strategy session.

Small Business Website Design Packages

To make it easier for you, we have put together a number of website design packages.

Starter Package

Cost: $1440

Choice of 2 custom designs
Wordpress installation and set up
Slideshow/video on homepage
Addition of 5 pages (extra pages can be added)
Content management via Enfold theme
Contact form
Security plugin
Website backup upon completion
Submission to 20 Search Engines

Webhosting for 12 months
5 Email addresses
Ultimate Website Design Secrets Blackbook
Access to private Facebook Group for support

Starter Website Examples

https://www.syneradesign.com/
https://www.2freshcarpetcleaning.com.au/

Business Package

Cost: $1990

Choice of 3 custom designs
Wordpress installation and set up
Slideshow/video on homepage
Addition of 10 pages (extra pages can be added)
Blog set up including 3 blog posts
Content management via Enfold themeContact form
Photo or portfolio gallery
Security plugin
Website backup upon completion
Submission to search engines

Webhosting for 12 months
10 Email addresses
Ultimate Website Design Secrets Blackbook
Access to private Facebook Group for support

Business Website Examples

https://www.inhouseconveyancing.com.au/
https://www.ourgardenpath.com.au/
https://www.stepupconstructions.com.au/
https://www.pangalloestate.com.au/
https://www.inspirationcafe.com.au/

Premium Package

Cost: $2520

Choice of 4 custom designs
Wordpress installation and set up
Slideshow/video on homepage
Enfold theme for content management
Addition of 15 pages (extra pages can be added)
Blog set up including 5 blog posts
Content management via Enfold theme
Photo or portfolio gallery
Contact form
Google Map
Social media sharing plugin
One click call plugin

Security plugin
Website backup upon completion
Submission to search engines
Webhosting for 12 months
Ultimate Website Design Secrets Blackbook
Access to private Facebook Group for support

Premium Websites

https://www.elitefi.com.au/
https://www.artesianpools.com.au/
https://mobiletrainingtechnologies.com.au/

Additional Services

Website Audits

If your current website is not working, we can provide you with a website review report, which addresses issues such as:

How visitor friendly your website is
How professional does it look
What calls to actiondoes it have
Is there design consistency
Credibilityand trust icons
Is there sufficient content
How search engine friendlyit is
Are there any security issues

Find out more about website audits.

Website Design Coaching

If you want to create your own website, we offer web coaching. These can potentially save you weeks even months of trial and error.

Some of the things we cover include

Registering the right domain name
Choosing a reliable webhosting company
Selecting colours and fonts for your band
Getting a logo created
Gathering information for your website
Installing Wordpress
Choosing a theme and installing it
Adding text, images, slideshows, videos, photo galleries and maps
Installing and configuring plugins for additional functionality
Adding Google analytics

And more

Pricing for web design coaching are as follows:

1 hour session – $110
3 x 1 hour sessions – $297
5 x 1 hour sessions – $495
10 x 1 hour sessions – $890

Find out more about website design coaching including what you can expect to achieve in 1 hour session, 3 hour sessions, 5 hour sessions and 10 hour sessions

Other things we can help with

Domain name registration
Webhosting
Logo Design
PDF Report Design
Landing Page Design
Ecommerce Set Up
Locate Stockists / Store Locator
Online Course Set Up
Membership with Online Payments Set Up
Email Integrations
Clickfunnels Integration
Wordpress, Plugin and Theme Upgrades
Website Backups
Wordpress and website update training
Addition of plugins such as Media Sharing and One Click Call
Appointment set up
Improving website load speed
Integrating Instagram feed

Learn more about pricing for other digital services.

Today’s online visitor is savvy and will judge your business by what he or she sees in the first 3-5 seconds, so it’s important you make the first impression count! Hire a professional website designer to ensure your business has the best possible start.

Don’t look at what you spend on getting a professional website designed as an expense, but rather an investment in your business. If done and marketed correctly, your website can generate thousands of dollars in sales every day.

*****

by Ivana Katz
Websites 4 Small Business – www.web4business.com.au; Learn to Design – www.learntodesign.com.au/
Ivana makes it easy for you to get your business online very quickly. If you’re looking for a professional and affordable website designer, CLICK HERE and download your FREE copy of “Ultimate Website Design Secrets Blackbook – 10 Bulletproof Strategies for Designing an Outrageously Successful Website”