How much does a website cost?
This is the first question we hear from most prospective clients, yet each and every time, our answer is the same; ‘It depends’. The price is based on the complexity of the site and hours spent creating it, so it’s hard to have a set price that accommodates what most people want. However, we’ve prepared a rough guideline of what you can expect to pay for a website depending on the size of your business.
Industry Background
Many studies of the costs of a website in Ireland have been carried out, most notably by the SFA and ISME. The general consensus is that the price of a website in Ireland should range between €5k to €20k.
Elsewhere, these same bodies often recommend spending 5% of your turnover on marketing to see a standstill, or 10% if you’re trying to grow. That’s relatively little considering the ecommerce industry in Ireland will be worth €14 billion by 2021 (Virgin Media Digital Insights Report 2016).
Startup
Naturally, a startup will have the lowest marketing budget, and thus will have the simplest of websites. This may contain 10 pages, some information on the company, a few pictures social media integration, a contact form and a basic form of ecommerce. We recommend using a DIY website builder for the website, getting a domain name from a trusted source and setting up a professional email.
Micro Business
A micro business, with 2-3 staff, will have a slightly higher budget for website design and, more specifically, maintenance. An allowance of €1,500 to €3,000 should suffice for the design, hosting and maintenance of the website. If possible, micro businesses should try to have a Content Management System (CMS) to simplify the whole sales side of the website. Furthermore, they should consider Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tactics, optimising the website to mobile devices.
Small Business
A company with 5 to 10 employees should allocate roughly €5,000 to €8,000 towards their website. This will be primarily used for creating a more robust, reliable site capable of handling larger amounts of traffic than the two previous companies are aiming for. However, a portion should also be set aside for marketing the website, through channels such as social media and Google AdWords to further grow the customer base and awareness of the company.
Medium Business
Medium businesses begin to fall in a category where everything need to look extremely professional; the whole user experience of the website could be the deciding factor for a large customer that’s going to bring in lots of revenue. We’d suggest setting aside a minimum of €8,000 for updating and improving the website, assuming one is already made. The focus should be on having high quality images and videos made for the company, interactive comments section, frequent blog posts, a comprehensive social media strategy and highly thought-out SEO.
Next Steps
Know exactly what it is you want from your website. Design a brief including your budget, content requirements, level of support needed and technological requirements.
Choose a local digital agency if possible; if there’s an issue, it’s much easier to contact them or visit them directly if needs be, and chances are they’ll know the local market inside out.
Look into the possibility of delegating some of the website maintenance to the digital agency. If you haven’t the time or skills to be checking the website on a weekly basis for faults, a small fee to the digital agency will ensure you get a team of professionals maintaining your website to it’s optimal state.
Conclusion
This guide should hopefully have established a basic idea of how much a website costs, along with justifying the rough price brackets that are commonly accepted in the market.
Still have a few questions? Or simply like what you’ve seen and want to contact us to start building your perfect website? Contact Aspire Digital today, we’d be happy to chat!