subject: How Much Does A Website Cost? [print this page] As the principal of a web design agency that focuses on small business, I receive numerous calls with the immediate question, How much is a website? This is like asking the question, How much does a house cost? You cant answer a question like that without more information and discussion. In order to determine a price for house, you would need to know what the client is looking forthe desired number of bedrooms and baths, location and square footage.
Once the key questions are addressed, a price range can be determined. This is the same idea with a website. Many people think I can answer the website question immediately. Unfortunately I cannot. Two major issues come up when discussing website costmarketing objective and functionality.
Marketing Objective
What is the purpose of the website? The answer cant be I need one because every other business has one. Here are some questions to address-
* Who is your ideal customer? How is the website going to communicate to your customer segments?
* What is your unique value proposition? Within 3-5 seconds a website visitor needs to know what you do and what makes you different.
* Do you want your website to be a lead generator, an online store or just a credibility piece? Many businesses do not want the masses to find them online because they target a very specific client.
* What is the call to action? What do you want website visitors to do once they visit your website? Are they making a purchase, downloading a whitepaper, contributing content?
Functionality
Once there is consensus on the marketing objective, you can start determining the website tools needed to help reach your objective. Theses questions include-
* What do you want your website to do?
* What tools will your ideal customer value?
* How do you want to engage and inform your audience?
* Do you want your website to have a clients only portal?
* Who will be managing the content
When engaging the services of web design agency, the marketing objective should always be discussed first. This will establish the foundation for the tools/functionality needed to meet the overall website objective. Normally, with the information gathered from a single exploratory discussion, an estimate can be determined.
