How Much Should a Web Site Cost?
The cost of a website is based on several factors:
- Domain Name Registration
- Web Hosting
- Graphic Design
- Custom Programming
- Website Maintenance
Domain Name Registration
Domain name registration is a yearly fee associated with your website. Many low cost providers such as GoDaddy, or 1 & 1 will offer domain name registration for around $7.99/year. If a domain name you want is not available, there are several sites that focus on selling you premium domain names at an increased price. For these sites you can be paying anywhere from hundreds of dollars to millions depending on the name. After the initial purchase you then only have to pay the normal yearly registration fees.
Web Hosting
Web Hosting relates to the computer that your domain name is pointing too. Hosting is also a yearly fee that can cost you anywhere from $5/month to hundreds per month depending on the processing power of the computer, the memory, disk space and bandwidth your website uses. Video sites would expect to pay more for hosting because of the large amount of bandwidth used by visitors to the site.
Graphic Design
The look of the site. Many people offer free templates, or customized templates to their customers. Others offer completely custom web design built just for you. With cost ranging anywhere from free to thousands of dollars.
Graphics design is a fixed fee based on the number of hours it would take a designer to create the look and feel of your website. You can usually save money here if you know what you want your site to look like. Custom logo design, or intricate art work can increase the costs associated with graphic design.
Custom Programming
Maybe you want your website to do something completely different, something specific to your niche. Maybe you want it to make you breakfast in the morning. Silliness aside, those tasks if you're not a programmer yourself are going to take time and so will have some cost associated with it.
There are many freelance websites around where you can find cheap programmers. Many times those cheap programmers can cost you a lot more in the long run. It's usually best to find experienced trained programmers that now what they're doing. They can quickly get things done, and save you time and money in the long run. They will also help you avoid the headache of dealing with an inexperienced programmer that over promises and under delivers.
Website Maintenance
Many people tend to think that as soon their site is up and running that is the end. Unfortunately that isn't so. A website should be thought as fluid part of your business that grows and changes over time.
Associated with this are maintenace fees. Whether it's upgrading the software on the server, or making minor fixes to the website, those types of things would be covered by ongoing maintenance. Sometimes you can get a cheaper hourly rate by agreeing to a fixed monthly maintenance fee.
What to watch out for?
Low upfront fees, Nickle and Dimed afterwards. Many companies will try and sell you on a low up front fee, and then charge a higher monthly fee. That can be good and bad. Good if you don't have the cash on hand to pay for a large up front fee. But bad if down the road you become disgruntled and do not like the web design company you chose. In that situation could end up being trapped in an arrangement that you do not like because of the fixed contract.
Cheap Hosting Fees, Terrible Server Response Times. Many hosting companies try to squeeze as many businesses on their servers as possible. This can lead to extremely long page download times, and in turn lost revenue and traffic because people don't like to wait for things to download. It's better to find a reasonably priced hosting company with a proven track record of not cramming so many people on a server.
The Relative Never Gets it Done Syndrome. Often, when businesses rely on an individual like a cousin, nephew, neighbor, niece to design a site they end up with a poor quality website that takes months to build, and never reaches it's true potential. This is often true when the individual only specializes in one aspect of website, such as graphics. There are countless numbers of friend designed sites out there that consist of a single image with words on it that the search engines can't even read to place in their index and bring you traffic.
Pretty Doesn't Equal ROI. Many people get sold on a Flashy site with shinny buttons, that makes noises and twinkles in the dark. Thousands of dollars later, with no return on their investment in site they become frustrated with things and write off the idea of a website altogether. Building a website is a business decision that needs to be handled like an investment. Understanding how it will profit you and at what rate of return are very important.
