Posted: March 13, 2015
What is the cost of a website — that’s the magic question, isn’t it? At Jumpem, that’s often the first question we hear from our clients, and it can lead to a pretty lengthy answer.
There’s no one answer to cover the question each time we’re asked. For our North Central Florida clients, there are so many factors that can change the price of a website. Fortunately, we can help you narrow it down and provide you with a quote so you’re able to see exactly where your money is going and even ways to lower the price.
Our website project price calculator can show you how each feature can affect the cost of a website. The number of pages you want added to your website will increase the final price, as will the design style of the site and how advanced you are willing to go with Flash or multimedia integration. There are varying levels of eCommerce functionality, content management system monitoring, and search engine optimization from which you can choose in order to build a better website.
The cost of services is on every consumer’s mind, and we know it’s on the mind of our Gainesville clients. You want to receive the best service at the lowest price, and we can help make that happen for you to some extent. As with many services, discount pricing can mean sacrificing some features and services, so depending on your website needs, it might not be in your company’s best interest to skimp on building, designing or improving your website.
An online presence is a must for businesses to succeed these days, and eCommerce companies are wholly dependant on their Internet marketing campaigns in order to increase site traffic and reach new potential consumers. So, asking how much a website costs is similar to asking how much your business and consumers are worth. If you’re willing to put time, effort and investment into your website, you’ll get back more benefits from the site, like increased traffic, brand loyalty and sales. Companies that are willing to ditch quality content or improving user interaction experience will not see the same results as businesses that are willing to provide excellent content and stellar user experiences.
Consider this: A website serves as your marketing, customer service, public relations and advertising departments all rolled into one. It’s also your store location on the web, the place where your consumers gather, and it’s where your consumers go when they want to know more information about your company, services and products. An effective website can succeed in mastering all of those departments’ responsibilities while providing exceedingly helpful customer service.
There are four components that affect the cost of a website built by Jumpem.
A domain name is essentially the name of your website. For Jumpem (www.Jumpem.com), our domain name is Jumpem.com. There are hundreds of domain name registrars from which your company can choose. You should expect to pay $8-$15 a year for a .com name, and the price can vary depending on what comes after the “dot.”
If the domain name that you want for your company is taken, it may be possible to purchase it, but it can cost a few thousand dollars or more. Brand recognition is easier when your company and domain names match, which means it’s easier for your consumers to find your website.
Domain names are generally rented on an annual basis, meaning you can wait for an existing site’s lease to expire and negotiate to purchase the domain name. On the other side, if you forget to pay your bill, someone else can snag your domain name.
A hosting website is where all of your web pages and information is housed on the Internet. A website host puts your information, such as web pages, files, media and images, on its servers. Hosts also provide webmaster tools to monitor site traffic, page views and user behavior. But, hosting isn’t free, and you should expect to pay between $50 and $200 a year. The reason the price ranges so much is that cheaper web hosting sites provide fewer features and resources for their clients. Also, websites that receive a high volume of traffic will have to pay more for the additional server use.
We can often skip this component in a website’s cost when our clients’ websites are high-end. This means they are fully functional, easy to use, developed by professionals using the right tools, include quality content and employ effective search engine optimization techniques.
If you need a new website design, or a website redesign, the price of your website services will increase.
Design pricing quotes can vary largely between web development firms. You’ll be paying for the planning, design and development hours that go into your website, so make sure the numbers all add up before agreeing to outrageous quotes. You’ll also want to explain exactly what you want your site to look like, and how you want it to function to help save some time on the development phase. The same website can cost $2,500 at one firm and cost $25,000 at another firm depending on what they charge per hour of planning, design and development. We provide a variety of web design features to ensure that each design or redesign will meet your company’s needs and help you reach your company’s goals.
There are ways to decrease website design costs without sacrificing quality. Businesses that are able to provide (write/create) their own content can lower the price of their website design. But, you must ensure that your writing is up to the level of the professionals, or your competition can easily pass you by on search engine rankings.
We hear the term “set it and forget it” thrown around online quite a bit. Some clients feel that their site content should remain consistent, while others want content that is updated regularly. We strongly recommend website maintenance packages to all of clients, no matter how frequently you plan to update. Maintenance tools are how we fix your site should something go wrong. We also check for malicious code attached to web pages of which you may be unaware (this happens frequently).
So, what goes into website maintenance?
At Jumpem, we know that website maintenance is important not only for your company, but for your consumers and search engines as well. Providing worthwhile content, again and again, will keep your audience coming back, again and again. Quality sites also are ranked higher by search engines. Websites that function properly, provided informative content and that are updating regularly are preferred by search engines and the algorithms used to crawl, index and rank sites.
We charge for website maintenance by the hour, so it will depend on how much work your site needs to become a high-end site and stay that way. Depending on the services needed, online marketing firms can charge rates that range anywhere from $50 to $200 an hour.
The best way to determine what you need for a better website is to figure out what you want your site to accomplish. By setting achievable goals, we can understand the direction you want your online company to take and help you get there through your website.
Creating a plan for your website is especially important for eCommerce businesses. Your website is everything you need your business to be, so you want to make sure you’re choosing a design and strategy that will be fit those needs in order to see your business grow.