Home > Articles > The Cost of Having a Website

The Costs Involved with Having a Website,
What to Expect

There are many misconceptions about how much it costs to build and maintain a website. Most small business owners have the impression that having a professionally designed website is beyond their means, and in most cases it’s not.

There are basic costs that as a business owner you need to budget for. Sometimes you can find a web professional who can look after all of these expenses for you, but it is still wise to know where your money is going. There are four main areas for a basic website that you will need to budget for:

Your domain name
Hosting of your site
The design of your site
Maintaining your site

Plus if you are planning on doing business solely on the Internet, then there are some “extras” that I would urge you to pursue:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
Ecommerce Solutions

Domain Name:

A domain name is the address used by computers to find your website, like www.yourcompanyname.com. For most domains, you can register for one year up to ten years at a time. Prices vary, but it is not uncommon to find .com domains for as little as $10 US per year. Also, some hosts will offer a free domain as long as you purchase a year of hosting from them. These deals see like a good idea, but if you want to switch hosts because you are unhappy with the service you are receiving they can then charge you for the domain registration. If you decide to use one of these deals, make sure to read the fine print and ensure that you are listed as the administrative contact for the domain.

Hosting:

A host is the computer where your website “lives”, that is always connected to the Internet. It’s only purpose is to fulfill requests to view the websites that it contains. The cost of a host can vary greatly depending on the size and needs of the website you create. For most small businesses who are just starting their website, they can find a reliable host for $5-10 US a month. See my article on how to choose a web host for more information on finding a good host.

Website Design:

This is by far the most costly aspect of creating a website. Have you ever heard the phrase, “You have to spend money to make money”? This idea is very applicable to websites. Think of a website as an investment. Just as you make investments in a computer, or advertising in the yellow pages or your local paper, you must invest in your website. The upfront costs may seem costly, but the return on your investment will more than make up for the initial costs.

Some small business try to save money here by getting their friend’s cousin’s brother’s son to create the website for them because he’s “good with computers”. The problem with this is that the site will look like someone who is not a web professional did it and it will cost you more down the road to fix it. Remember, your website reflects your business. If your website looks professional, then your business will look professional. You never get a second chance to make a first impression!

Prices for web designers will vary depending on where you live, and what you want on your site. Make sure that you budget a minimum of $1000 for design fees for a basic site. If you need an ecommerce site where people can purchase items directly from your site, expect to pay more. Most web designers are willing to arrange for a payment plan. Some will even work for a percentage of the sales and advertising profit from the site. Make sure you ask around and get a web designer who is willing to work with you on price and design. A good designer will listen to your ideas, and offer suggestions to improve on them while maintaining good standards of web design.

Maintenance:

This is an expense that most people neglect. You’ve spent all this money to create a wonderful website, and you are paying to maintain the domain name and hosting services, but the information on the site is out of date!

One of the many advantages of having a website is that you can update the information on a regular basis! Use this to your advantage!!! Hire someone to not only update the content with sales, new articles and other information that you provide them; but, also have them check your links to make sure everything is working and suggest ways to improve your site. There is nothing worse than going to a company’s website and finding that the information is no longer applicable and that the links don’t work!

Most professionals who do maintain websites will work with you as a strategic partner analyzing your visitors and making suggestions on how to improve sales and traffic to the site.

Extras:

Now that you have a wonderful website that reflects your company and is updated regularly with the most current information. But, none of that will turn into sales unless you bring people to your site.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

There are people who you can hire who specialize in this field. Make sure that you check references and do a Google search on their company to see what kind of reputation they have. These companies keep track of all of the changes in the search engines and have a really good idea of how each search engine ranks websites. What they do is take your site and improve on it for your targeted keywords so that you rank higher in the search engines.

Most web designers use basic elements in SEO on their sites, but if you are in a competitive area then, hiring a specialist is worth the extra money.

Hiring a search engine optimization company is an ongoing cost as it takes constant upkeep to maintain a high ranking in the search engines because the search engines are constantly changing how they rank websites.

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)

In conjunction with optimizing your website for the search engines, you should also consider paying for advertising on the Internet. The most popular form of this is called “pay per click” advertising. The most popular venues for this is Google Adwords and Overture. What happens, is that you bid on keywords, so that when someone does a search on that keyword (or phrase), your ad appears on the search results. Your ad may also appear on your competitors websites if they use Google’s Adsense.

The beauty of this type of advertising is that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. You can decide how much you are willing to spend by setting limits on what you are willing to pay each day.

The cost of these extras are well worth it if your business is entirely virtual.

Ecommerce Solutions

The cost of your ecommerce solutions depends greatly on what you would like your site to do for you, and how automated you would like the site to be.

There are many pre-packaged solutions available or you can have one customed made for your site. Be aware that both can be costly and some pre-packaged solutions involve monthly fees.

In addition to the actual technology to process the orders, you will require a way to accept payments over the Internet. You can either approach your bank for an online merchant account which will allow you to accept credit card payments over the Internet; or you can use a third party processor.

The cost for a merchant account can be high depending on what you can negotiate with your bank. If you go this route, you will also require SSL (secure socket layer) technology on your site which will encrypt credit card information which hosts charge extra for, as well as taking the responsiblity for storing the information collected.

The advantage of a third party processor is that your business is not responsible for the security of sensitive credit card information and they provide the secure connection to collect the information online. There are some low cost services like Paypal which allow customers to pay with all the major credit cards and directly from their bank accounts, and there are other ones which get more expensive, like Multicards and Verisign but they add more reporting and features to their service.

Remember, you are not obligated to accept payments online, at least not when you are first starting out. But, if you are expecting most of your business to come from the Internet, then you must seriously plan for implementing ecommerce solutions in the near future.

See? Having a website is not as expensive as you thought! Just keep in mind, that the set up costs are an investment; and the ongoing costs will pay for themselves by the number of sales you make from your site!!

If you wish to contribute an article to our site, please contact us at info@infoclear.ca. If you want to use our articles on your site, please do. All we ask is that you provide a link back to InfoClear.ca

InfoClear Internet Consulting
(519) 925-3977
1-866-517-INFO (4636)
info@infoclear.ca

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Home > Articles > The Cost of Having a Website
	The Costs Involved with Having a Website, What to Expect
Custom Designs Website Redesign Website Maintenance About Us Testimonials FAQ Articles	There are many misconceptions about how much it costs to build and maintain a website. Most small business owners have the impression that having a professionally designed website is beyond their means, and in most cases it’s not. There are basic costs that as a business owner you need to budget for. Sometimes you can find a web professional who can look after all of these expenses for you, but it is still wise to know where your money is going. There are four main areas for a basic website that you will need to budget for: Your domain name Hosting of your site The design of your site Maintaining your site Plus if you are planning on doing business solely on the Internet, then there are some “extras” that I would urge you to pursue: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) Ecommerce Solutions Domain Name: A domain name is the address used by computers to find your website, like www.yourcompanyname.com. For most domains, you can register for one year up to ten years at a time. Prices vary, but it is not uncommon to find .com domains for as little as $10 US per year. Also, some hosts will offer a free domain as long as you purchase a year of hosting from them. These deals see like a good idea, but if you want to switch hosts because you are unhappy with the service you are receiving they can then charge you for the domain registration. If you decide to use one of these deals, make sure to read the fine print and ensure that you are listed as the administrative contact for the domain. Hosting: A host is the computer where your website “lives”, that is always connected to the Internet. It’s only purpose is to fulfill requests to view the websites that it contains. The cost of a host can vary greatly depending on the size and needs of the website you create. For most small businesses who are just starting their website, they can find a reliable host for $5-10 US a month. See my article on how to choose a web host for more information on finding a good host. Website Design: This is by far the most costly aspect of creating a website. Have you ever heard the phrase, “You have to spend money to make money”? This idea is very applicable to websites. Think of a website as an investment. Just as you make investments in a computer, or advertising in the yellow pages or your local paper, you must invest in your website. The upfront costs may seem costly, but the return on your investment will more than make up for the initial costs. Some small business try to save money here by getting their friend’s cousin’s brother’s son to create the website for them because he’s “good with computers”. The problem with this is that the site will look like someone who is not a web professional did it and it will cost you more down the road to fix it. Remember, your website reflects your business. If your website looks professional, then your business will look professional. You never get a second chance to make a first impression! Prices for web designers will vary depending on where you live, and what you want on your site. Make sure that you budget a minimum of $1000 for design fees for a basic site. If you need an ecommerce site where people can purchase items directly from your site, expect to pay more. Most web designers are willing to arrange for a payment plan. Some will even work for a percentage of the sales and advertising profit from the site. Make sure you ask around and get a web designer who is willing to work with you on price and design. A good designer will listen to your ideas, and offer suggestions to improve on them while maintaining good standards of web design. Maintenance: This is an expense that most people neglect. You’ve spent all this money to create a wonderful website, and you are paying to maintain the domain name and hosting services, but the information on the site is out of date! One of the many advantages of having a website is that you can update the information on a regular basis! Use this to your advantage!!! Hire someone to not only update the content with sales, new articles and other information that you provide them; but, also have them check your links to make sure everything is working and suggest ways to improve your site. There is nothing worse than going to a company’s website and finding that the information is no longer applicable and that the links don’t work! Most professionals who do maintain websites will work with you as a strategic partner analyzing your visitors and making suggestions on how to improve sales and traffic to the site. Extras: Now that you have a wonderful website that reflects your company and is updated regularly with the most current information. But, none of that will turn into sales unless you bring people to your site. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) There are people who you can hire who specialize in this field. Make sure that you check references and do a Google search on their company to see what kind of reputation they have. These companies keep track of all of the changes in the search engines and have a really good idea of how each search engine ranks websites. What they do is take your site and improve on it for your targeted keywords so that you rank higher in the search engines. Most web designers use basic elements in SEO on their sites, but if you are in a competitive area then, hiring a specialist is worth the extra money. Hiring a search engine optimization company is an ongoing cost as it takes constant upkeep to maintain a high ranking in the search engines because the search engines are constantly changing how they rank websites. Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) In conjunction with optimizing your website for the search engines, you should also consider paying for advertising on the Internet. The most popular form of this is called “pay per click” advertising. The most popular venues for this is Google Adwords and Overture. What happens, is that you bid on keywords, so that when someone does a search on that keyword (or phrase), your ad appears on the search results. Your ad may also appear on your competitors websites if they use Google’s Adsense. The beauty of this type of advertising is that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. You can decide how much you are willing to spend by setting limits on what you are willing to pay each day. The cost of these extras are well worth it if your business is entirely virtual. Ecommerce Solutions The cost of your ecommerce solutions depends greatly on what you would like your site to do for you, and how automated you would like the site to be. There are many pre-packaged solutions available or you can have one customed made for your site. Be aware that both can be costly and some pre-packaged solutions involve monthly fees. In addition to the actual technology to process the orders, you will require a way to accept payments over the Internet. You can either approach your bank for an online merchant account which will allow you to accept credit card payments over the Internet; or you can use a third party processor. The cost for a merchant account can be high depending on what you can negotiate with your bank. If you go this route, you will also require SSL (secure socket layer) technology on your site which will encrypt credit card information which hosts charge extra for, as well as taking the responsiblity for storing the information collected. The advantage of a third party processor is that your business is not responsible for the security of sensitive credit card information and they provide the secure connection to collect the information online. There are some low cost services like Paypal which allow customers to pay with all the major credit cards and directly from their bank accounts, and there are other ones which get more expensive, like Multicards and Verisign but they add more reporting and features to their service. Remember, you are not obligated to accept payments online, at least not when you are first starting out. But, if you are expecting most of your business to come from the Internet, then you must seriously plan for implementing ecommerce solutions in the near future. See? Having a website is not as expensive as you thought! Just keep in mind, that the set up costs are an investment; and the ongoing costs will pay for themselves by the number of sales you make from your site!! If you wish to contribute an article to our site, please contact us at info@infoclear.ca. If you want to use our articles on your site, please do. All we ask is that you provide a link back to InfoClear.ca
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The Costs Involved with Having a Website, What to Expect