Whatever your business does. Whoever your target audience may be. Wherever you call home. Every business needs a website. Whether you make your money through eCommerce or not, your website is your calling card. For many prospective customers, it will be their first exposure to your brand. As such, you need to make sure that it creates an impression that’s befitting of the business you’re so proud to run.
Still, every business is conscious of overhead costs. While you may be prepared to invest in excellence, you don’t want to lose a single red cent to wasteful spending. As such, you might well wonder how much it costs to design a website before investing in an outsourced website design company. The simple truth is that you can expect to pay anywhere between $1,000 and over $100,000 for a professionally designed website. But there are many factors that determine your overall spend.
Here we’ll give a complete breakdown and a look at how much you should expect to pay for a well-designed website, and where that money goes…
Can’t I just design my own website?
In an age where services like Wix and Squarespace offer you the chance to create professional looking websites at appealingly low prices. These managed platforms may be fine for amateur bloggers and the smallest of small business owners. Nonetheless, their “drag & drop” approach to design and reliance on ready-made themes marks them out as highly amateurish to those who understand web design. This can give the wrong first impression, and potentially diminish the impact of your brand and messaging.
Web design is like anything else. You get what you pay for.
Whether you’re designing your new website from scratch or redeveloping an old website, it behooves you to invest in a quality product which will say all the right things about your business and your brand.
It’s all relative
The $1,000-$100,000 price range is, admittedly, a pretty huge margin. Still, it’s all relative. Your website spending will depend on the size of your business and its web design / web development needs. Let’s have a look at some of the features and capabilities that your website will need relative to your business size;
Small businesses
A small business will have relatively basic needs which a competent web designer will be able to meet fairly easily. They’ll need a website that looks great but also handles well with intuitive User Experience (UX) to help guide users to the pages they need. If you need a vehicle that will drive sales queries, facilitate quote requests and allow smartphone users to call you directly, all while making your brand look great, a basic web design package will be suitable for you.
You can expect to pay between $1,000 and $10,000 for a well designed small business website.
Medium sized businesses
Small to Medium sized businesses (SMBs) may require a little more from their website, whether they make sales through eCommerce or not. They will likely have more pages and content to manage, and will therefore have more complex UX requirements. They’ll need a high performing web page that responds quickly on desktop and mobile devices to minimize bounce rates.
They’ll likely also want a website that has Search Engine Optimization and Mobile First built into its architecture.
Content marketing is also an important consideration for businesses of this size. They want to be able to build trust and value in their brand with blog posts, videos, infographics and other resources which are of use to their target audience. As such, they may need a Content Management System (CMS) as well as outsourced copywriting to strategically plan their content and keep up with the constant demand for fresh material.
Intermediate web design packages will usually cost anywhere between $10,000 and $50,000.
Enterprise level companies
Enterprise level companies will have far more advanced web design needs. On top of all the features mentioned above, they’ll likely need robust eCommerce capabilities as well as measures to subtly influence user / buyer behaviors. They’ll need to leverage design and UX to improve Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). They may also need database integration as well as an architecture that offers high performance, even when experiencing high levels of traffic.
As such, an enterprise level company will likely spend between $50,000 and $100,000 on its web design.
Where the money goes
Whether they’re spending $1 or $100,000, business owners (rightly) expect to be able to justify every penny of spending. They need to be able to see how website spending has the propensity to generate a significant ROI. So, what do clients get for their money when they invest in web design services? Let’s take a look at the factors that influence pricing…
Size
The bigger your website, the more you can expect to pay for it. It takes time to build, develop, test and launch each page, especially if each page has advanced capabilities such as supporting eCommerce operations or software integrations.
Most web design companies charge in proportion to how many pages are needed;
- 1-10 pages will usually cost between $1,000 and $3,000
- 20-50 pages will usually cost $3,000-$5,000
- 50-150 pages will cost around $5,000-$8,500
- 150-250 pages will typically cost between $8,500 and $13,000
Appearance and UX
Your website doesn’t just need to look beautiful. It needs to encapsulate the qualities you want users to associate with your brand. This requires an approach that is equal parts art and science. It needs to combine creative flair with a strategic understanding of what influences and motivates user behaviors.
Whether you want a website that accurately depicts the sleek and prestigious feel of your luxury car dealership or captures the warm and friendly yet professional feel you want people to associate with your counselling service it’s important to match the design to your brand.
But even a great looking site can create friction if it operates poorly and is difficult to navigate, which is why UX considerations are designed to integrate with your chosen aesthetic for a package that looks and feels just right for your business.
This can account for anywhere between $2,000 and $15,000 of your website spend.
Content
From your home page, product and landing pages to your blog posts and other content marketing endeavors… content is king!
Good web design needs great copywriting. The kind that engages and subtly persuades users through language that is as bold and vivid as the color scheme and choice of images on your website. Website copy doesn’t just need to be engaging for users, it also needs to make your content easier for search engines to detect.
As such, copywriting services will try to walk the fine line between keyword optimizing your copy and ensuring that it still flows well for the reader. Nothing is more jarring than when copy uses keyword spamming to integrate as many keywords as possible at the expense of narrative flow. Even product pages need to maintain some sense of narrative.
Copywriting can cost anywhere between $60 and $350 per page depending on the quality of the writer, the profession itself and technical details of the content and the number of words in the page.
Mobile friendly design
As of 2016 mobile devices have been our preferred means of accessing the internet. This means you need to invest in responsive web design– meaning that your website will look great on a mobile device as well as a desktop computer. If your website doesn’t look great and function well on a mobile device, users will likely bounce away faster than you can say “404 redirect”! What’s more, Google and other search engines value mobile-first architecture and responsive web design. They will give mobile-friendly sites higher rankings on Search Engine Results Pages than their poorly optimized counterparts. Almost all websites built today are mobile friendly and responsive or offer what’s referred to as AMP, Accelerated Mobile Pages to improve page speed and improve mobile usage.
This may account for anything between $3,000 and $25,000 of your overall spend.
SEO
There’s always something you can do to improve your website’s SEO. Still, a good web design service will weave good SEO into the fabric of your website. They will manage the technical and creative factors which influence search engine rankings and ensure that product and landing pages get in front of the people who need to see them.
SEO is a highly multifaceted discipline and a subtly different approach is required for each individual client. As such, costs can range from anywhere between $1,000 to $10,000 or more monthly.
Additional features
- eCommerce Functionality
- Content Management System (CMS)
- Database Integration
- Software Integration
- SSL Certificate
- Purchase of Website Domain
- Website Hosting
On top of the above, your website may require additional features mentioned previously such as eCommerce functionality, database integration to ensure product data is always accurate and up to date and Content Management Systems (CMS) to facilitate a steady stream of content. Each of these might add between $2,000 and $25,000 to your overall spend. Make an impression with our web design solutions
Of course, these are all ballpark figures. Every business’ web design needs are different. Which is why we offer high performing web design solutions that are proven to help your business make the right impression online.
You can trust WSI to design and develop a responsive, high-performing website that’s matched to your operational goals as well as your budget.
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