Budget is one of the top priorities when creating a website. How much are you willing to spend to have a website? Websites connect you with your customers online. It is also integral in getting them acquainted with your products. The deeper the engagement with your customers through your site, the higher the chances of converting them into sales.
You must also take into consideration whether you are doing all things by yourself, getting some freelancers, or just hiring a marketing agency to do all of it.
Ways to create a website
Getting a website developer
You can get a website developer if you want someone professional to work on your website. Pricing depends on what you want to be included on the site. It may have multiple-page requirements or immersive multimedia. Some freelancers charge around $50-$70 per hour to work on the project.
In an article published by Forbers, you may spend between $100-$5,000 or more for the service rendered by a website developer. This involves design, development, and content creation.
Hire a web design agency
This is more costly as compared to getting a freelance web developer, but you will likely have access to more resources like designers and copywriters. You may spend $1000, $15,000, or more. This will depend on the package inclusion such as front-end work needed, back-end work needed, and other custom technical assistance.
Do things on your own
This route is the most affordable way of having a website. The drawback is that you have to learn things on your own. It could take time to learn the ropes around website development and maintenance. But, if you decide on this route, you’ll be spending around $15-$300. According to Website Builder, you can start building a site for $6 per month. If you are going to use Wordpress, you’ll have to spend starting $11 going up.
Factors to consider in making a website:
- Website Domain - This refers to the name people will type on search engines or look up when searching for your business. Your domain name should be a reflection of your business name.
- Hosting - This is the server where your website is going to be housed. Some of the hosting sites you can choose are BlueHost or HostGator.
- Blogs, Images, and Videos - For your website to have visitors, you must have engaging content. The text content, images, and videos should be captivating to get the attention of your target market. If you are going to do it yourself, you can save a lot of money. But if not, you need to hire a writer, videographer, and other content creators.
- SEO specialist, Social Media Managers - Once your website has its content, make sure it is optimized to get the search engine’s attention. Hire a professional if you don’t have the skills for social media management or SEO. This will be an additional cost on your side.
- Fixing bugs and other technical issues. Creating and launching your website is just the start. You have to make sure that people visit your site. The website traffic should increase over time. Website maintenance and update is essential to make sure your data remains secure and protected from any data breach. These maintenance and updates are also important to protect your site from hackers or unwanted data loss.
The cost for a website varies depending on the features you want within the website. A simple-looking site with few pages and content is cheaper compared to comprehensive ones. Some of the factors which could make a difference in the costings are:
- Type of website
- Customization level
- Features to be included
- Functionality
- Themes and Plug-ins
In some articles, a simple website can cost from $12 to more than $5000 for complex ones. If you want to understand further the breakdown of costing, read below.
Website Design and Development
If you are a web designer, good for you! You are saving a lot of money by doing the design and development by yourself. If you are going to hire a professional. This can cost you anywhere between $500 - $5000. This will depend on the complexity of the job, the skills of the person you are hiring, and how personalized you want things to be.
Bloggers/ Writers
Hire some contractors if you don’t have the time to write. You can get freelancers from Upwork or Fiverr to make things easier for you. This can cost you anywhere from $0.01 per word to $0.05, depending on the skills and experience of the writer you will be getting.
Editors/Proofreaders
If you need to hire a person to do a quality check on the articles and blogs, this can be an additional cost between $0.02-$0.10 per word for basic editing. For more advanced and experienced professionals, you can pay between $0.10-$0.50.
Photo Selection
If you will be using your photos, that can save you some money. You may also check websites such as Pexels, and Pixabay to download free images. You may have to pay anywhere between $1-$50 per image for paid photos.
Domain Name
The cost for a domain varies depending on the name that you want. For budget-conscious website owners, you can get a domain for $10 to $20 annually.
Hosting
The amount you will need to pay varies depending on the amount of storage and bandwidth needed. In a blog published by Hostinger, the average cost for web hosting is around $2-$80 per month.
Bug fixes and enhancement
Sometimes things go wrong. You’ll want to plan for a cost to fix any bugs that prevent users from using your website the intended way. There is no absolute figure for this. It will depend on things such as software you’ve purchased, the kind of backups you did, and your experience level with websites. This could be around $50-$200 per month if you were to hire a freelancer to help fix bugs. In terms of updates, this depends on what updates you are doing on the site. If you are going to change the designs or add more features to your site, the expense will add up.
The website cost that is presented here is not set in stone. These are rough estimates of how much one would be spending if you are going to have a website. Remember, before jumping into website creation make sure you have determined your budget first, then pick the option that is best for you!
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