Your business needs a website.
In 2020, that’s not an opinion. It’s a fact.
There are over 1.9 billion websites across the internet, and more than 64% of small businesses already have one.
Websites are the new storefront, and having a good-looking and optimized site that appeals to your target demographic is essential to your business’ success.
But how much will such a website cost?
That’s a huge question with no simple answer.
Website development and design can range in price from $1,000 to more than $100,000.
It all depends on what you’re looking for.
The cost of a website is determined through value-based pricing, where the more you need, the more you pay. Something built on WordPress using templates will be priced differently than a fully custom site.
Because every website project is unique, there is no one size fits all approach.
However, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to learn.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at the factors that go into web design services and their pricing.
We’ll break it all down to show you exactly how much you should be paying for the website of your dreams.
The Main Factors That Determine The Cost of a Custom Website
We’ve identified six key elements that contribute to the final cost of a website, highlighting each of them for you below.
Style of the Site
The style of your company’s website is going to impact the design cost.
Different styles work better for various brands.
For example, a fancy French restaurant would want a high-end site style to show off the class and elegance of the establishment.
Meanwhile, someone like a plumber or a landscaper would want a more subdued design with a sense of professionalism and expertise behind every page.
The cost of a style is dependent on the labor involved, much like getting a car repaired.
Website styles can cost between $2,000 and $15,000 depending on the features you’re looking for.
Using a pre-made website template style will be less expensive than building one from scratch.
However, you should always request quotes from various agencies to see how style pricing differs. Every agency brings something different to the table, and there is no universal pricing guide for websites.
Do your homework and find the agency that can create the style of your dreams and offers you the best possible price point.
Advanced Features
This design cost factor is pretty broad. Advanced features can help a site stand out, but depending on what you’re looking for, it can be costly.
The most common advanced feature is ecommerce.
Your website needs to be able to sell items and process orders. The overall cost depends on the size of your company.
Ecommerce typically costs between $2,000 and $25,000. It is infinitely cheaper upfront to use a third-party system like Shopify, but it’s important to remember that many of these take a percentage of every sale.
Another example of an advanced feature is a Content Management System.
The design and implementation of a CMS platform can cost between $2,000 and $25,000. This feature is essential for managing your content marketing strategy.
A good CMS will allow you to gauge the effectiveness of your posts through easy to interpret charts and graphs. Once you know where you’re succeeding or failing, it makes your next steps easier to identify.
Database Integration is a common advanced feature for sites selling products.
This is typical for ecommerce websites because it pulls product information from a central database. This also costs between $2,000 and $25,000 on average.
Size of The Site
The most obvious factor that determines the overall cost of your website is size. After all, more significant sites require more money.
The more pages your site has, the more labor and writing has to go into it. More work for the design team equates to more money spent by you.
But what determines the size of a website?
Size is ultimately determined by a web designer using the number of pages that you’re going to need.
Something like a major ecommerce site with individual product pages would cost more than a simple plumbing website with four or five pages.
So, how does size impact your price?
Websites between one and ten pages usually add $1,000 to $2,000 to the final price.
Anything from 10-15 pages adds $2,000 to $3,000.
A site with 50 to 150 pages costs an additional $3,000 to $6,500.
Finally, a site with up to 250 Pages can include $6,500 to $10,000 added on.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is one of the most important elements of a modern business website and can have an impact on your design cost.
Through SEO, you make it easier for customers to find you using a popular search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
How important is SEO?
It’s pretty darn important.
Optimizing for Google is far and away the most effective method of SEO. That’s because 75% of searches go through Google daily.
On top of that, the first five results on the first search engine results page account for over 67% of clicks for that topic.
The easiest way to start your SEO campaign is to have optimization built into your site while it is being made. That’s much easier than going through a website redesign on an already established site.
SEO can cost anywhere between $2,000 and $10,000. Services should be bundled with web design so the site can be optimized as it is being built.
What goes into SEO?
- Content tweaks to include keywords
- Image optimization, adding alt tags, custom titles, and optimized URLs to all photos
- Optimization of title tags/meta description for every page on your site
- Cross-linking between the pages of your site
- Backlinking, wherein other established sites link back to yours
It’s important to remember that SEO is a continuous process. It doesn’t stop once the website is built.
On-Page Copywriting
A lot of people don’t think about copywriting, but it’s one of the most significant factors in determining the cost of your website.
That’s because copywriting is one of the most labor-intensive parts of the web design process.
This is typically going to add between $60 and $300 per page to the final price.
The money you spend on professional copywriting is well worth it for a few key reasons.
- Copywriters are skilled at creating content designed to pull a prospect down the page.
- Copywriters can create compelling calls to action that drive conversions.
- Copywriters can target specific keywords that have a high search volume with your audience, increasing your visibility.
Don’t trust a lone freelance web designer to do the copywriting. One person shouldn’t be handling everything. Remember, a jack of all trades is a master of none.
That’s why full-service web design agencies are the best bet for your money. Typically, they have in house writers who can create optimized copy with your brand specifically in mind.
Copywriting typically costs $300 per page or $60 per product page for an ecommerce store. That’s because ecommerce product pages have less copy.
Implementing a Responsive Design
When you’re creating a new website, responsive design is needed to appeal to a modern audience.
That’s because websites need to be able to respond regardless of the platform being used to view them.
A responsive design differentiates the site version based on the device used. For example, desktop sites will load for desktop use, while mobile-optimized versions of a website will load when using a mobile device.
Simply put, responsive design allows a website to adapt.
This kind of functionality typically costs somewhere around $3,000.
The cost of a second mobile-friendly design would run you between $3,000 and $25,000. That makes responsive design a much cheaper alternative and a great way to save some money on your website.
But why is responsive design so important?
Mobile internet use accounts for more than 70% of the world’s online traffic.
Determine Your Budget Based on Needs
There is no magical number that determines what your custom website should cost. There are so many factors that go into pricing a website, including the six components discussed above.
It all starts with what specific kind of website you’re looking to create. The more work goes into the site, the more expensive it’s going to be.
When determining your website budget, you have to look into how much money you can feasibly make through the features of your site. Compare that to the amount of money you’re putting out to build it and determine if it makes sense.
We’ve broken some common price points down into three main categories.
- A Basic Website
- Intermediate Website Design
- An Advanced Website
Let’s start with the most affordable option.
Basic Website Design
A basic website design typically costs around $10,000.
That’s a pretty wide gap from the high to low end, and it’s all determined by the number of features you’re looking to add. The number of pages and the amount of copy that you need written can all determine the overall cost.
A basic website features a more simplistic design with a lot of included information and maybe some social media integration.
There are no advanced web features in a basic site design. Picture it like a typical WordPress site — The site is mostly intended for informational purposes only. You might have some image galleries interspersed with a lot of copy that accurately describes the scope of your business.
A basic website looks to convince prospective customers that they should make a purchase either in-store or via another platform.
The site is fully customized, however, and made to coincide with your branding. That means your logo, color scheme, images, and more are all uniform and go with your brand identity.
A basic website is best for startup businesses or smaller companies. This is the most cost-effective option, but it offers the least amount of features.
What can you do with a basic website design?
It’s useful for educating your customers and handling simple interactions such as receiving quote requests, phone calls, and customer service emails.
Intermediate Website Design
Intermediate website design is typically going to cost you somewhere in the range of $10,000 to $50,000.
This is a website that is built for performance. It usually includes original copywriting and advanced features like a content management system and social media integration.
An intermediate website is ideal for a small to midsize business. When you want your website to not only impress prospective customers but also provide some functionality to get them started with your company, this is the option that you should choose.
Original copywriting is a massive bonus of this tier. Rather than just supplying your designer with copy that you’ve written yourself, you can get a professional copywriter to create content for you that is professional and optimized.
This option is perfect for companies that are starting to implement advanced digital marketing strategies and SEO into their site.
It’s something you’ll need to do anyway to keep up with your competitors. Leads generated by SEO have a conversion rate of 14.6% on average. To compare, leads that come from more tried and true marketing methods like direct mailers will only convert at 1.7%. So, why not take care of it early on?
Advanced Website Design
An advanced website is going to feature high-end pricing between $50,000 and $100,000.
This is the top tier option, featuring cutting edge tech like an ecommerce system and database integration.
Advanced websites are suitable for large enterprise corporations. Mostly, you want your site to be a one-stop-shop for your customers.
They can discover you, learn about your services, make a purchase, and follow up with customer service all from one centralized location.
This option is typically used for businesses that conduct transactions online.
While it’s a simple matter to connect a third-party ecommerce platform like Shopify to your existing site, larger companies want to have an ecommerce platform designed and built from the ground up to be specific to their company and needs.
Advanced website design is meant to maximize conversion rates and get a return on investment quickly.
In Conclusion
Your website is an integral part of the puzzle that is your business. How much you spend on that website is entirely up to you. You know your business better than anyone, so play around with the figures you see here and decide what it is you need.
That will give you a better idea of what you need and how much your website design cost will be when you set out to get price quotes from a website designer or design agency.
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