Website Design Cost
When it comes to setting up the price of a
new website,
there are several components that need to be taken into consideration. Aside
from the overhead, we will look at some of these components and how they affect
the cost of building a new website. Please note that every website design
company have their own way of estimating cost and the process outlined here
might be different from other design companies.
Website Type
The first component that we look at is the website type. A
website type may fall into one or more categories. Following are some of the
categories that we use to classify a website:
- Brochure type website
- e-Commerce website
- Educational website
- Information website
- Landing Page
- Personal website
- Social Media website
- Content Management Systems (CMS)
A short explanation of these types of websites can be found
in our website at
sbnai.net. Each website type has its own features, advantages
and disadvantages. In addition, each website type may be further classified.
For example, a client might want to have an e-Commerce website but would also
like to have a brochure website. The final type of website is usually
determined after interviewing the client.
Theme
The look and feel of a website are important but not as
important as functionality. Flashy websites tend to be slow to load and not
easy to maintain. It is important to pick a theme based on the website content
and functionality rather than how pretty it should be. The cost of the theme
will depend on whether is built from scratch or customized from a template.
Website Content
Another component that we look at is the content of the
website. This in itself falls into a one of several areas such customer
supplied content, designer developed, or third party provided. The cost of
developing content can be high depending on the approach. It is highly
recommended that the client provide the content since that he/she want to disseminate.
When providing content to a website developer it is very
important to provide original content (as opposed to duplicate information from
another site). It is also very important to ensure that the content is accurate
and it includes good links to/from reputable sites. Good, original, and accurate
content is the first step towards good search engine optimization (SEO).
The website content should also include a good number of images
with proper descriptions. Loading too many images on a website is not
recommended due to performance issues. Images with no descriptions server no
purpose on a website.
Features
Features such as online forms, blogs, data capture,
animation, etc. will add to the cost of building a website. Some features are necessary,
while other are nice to have. Work with your website designer to determine what
features are necessary. Your website designer should be able to provide a good
list of features based on past experience.
Products / Services
If building an e-Commerce site most likely there will be a
need to have a shopping cart, an online catalog with products, and the ability
to pay online. Each product and/or services require a description, a price,
shipping information, and attributes such as size, color, material, etc. The
more products and or services, the higher the cost of building your website.
Some clients are willing to take on loading their own products which will help
in maintaining the cost of building a website low.
Website Publishing
Before a website can be published, it needs to be reviewed
and approved by the client. The review process can be an extensive one with
change requests and communications back and forth. That review can also add to
the cost of building the website. It is important to have good and clear
communication with the website designer from the beginning of the process.
Please note that involving a third party after the website design is approved
will greatly affect the final cost of building a website.
As explained at the beginning of this article, every website
design company might have their own process, but for the most the above
components hold true for every design company. W
ebsite Hosting,
Domain Registration, and Miscellaneous costs are not included in this article.
