Why Are Websites So Expensive?

Why are websites so expensive? In general, websites can be quite costly because of the benefit they give a business. Studies have shown that 50% of all potential customers will write a company off if it either doesn't have a site or has a poorly designed website. This means that having a quality website opens your company to a broader customer base.

In this article, we'll talk about how quality websites can help businesses. We'll talk about the normal cost of different types of websites. We even will go into how different businesses can get the most out of their websites.

Why Are Some Websites So Expensive?

The cost of a website typically depends significantly on the integrations and features. Some websites require extensive libraries of custom code to be written to accomplish specific tasks. Some websites need several hundred pages or advanced automation. The more complex a web design is in terms of its features, architecture, or its message, the more costly it will be.

When buying a website, most people think you're just paying for the design when this couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, the design is the most affordable part of the cost. If the designs are particularly complicated, however, they will be reflected in the price of the web design, but this is unique. In most cases, you're paying for the development side of things. Building and establishing all of the functionality and features a client wants while ensuring it's all search-friendly, user-friendly, and completely accessible to users with disabilities -- that's where the cost comes in.

What Is A Normal Price For A Website?

There isn't a "normal" price for a web design. Prices vary so much in web design that web design agencies hold "discovery" calls with each client. During this call, it's typical for the web designer to ask you a slew of questions to determine what you're looking for in terms of timeline, design, functionality, etc. The purpose of these calls is to decide what will be required to build your website so that they can give you an accurate estimate that benefits both the web design agency and the business owner.

Do Websites Cost Money To Keep Up?

There will always be a hosting cost, and there will always be a yearly cost to reserve your domain name. The hosting cost is typically a monthly fee (normally around $10-$150 a month), and the yearly cost of the domain is typically around $12-$20.

However, if you want monthly maintenance, there are various packages at all price ranges depending on your needs. The more often you need changes to your site, and the more complex the changes, the higher the cost.

How Much Is An Expensive Website?

Websites can range from $500 on the more affordable end to $100,000+ on the higher end. Typically the average cost for businesses like lawyers, chiropractors, dentists, etc., is anywhere from $10,000 - $50,000. That is generally considered a more expensive website. Where in this range the cost falls depends on the website's size and complexity of the design and development. But that is typically what is considered a more expensive web design.

The price of a website, in terms of it being "expensive," really is subjective. We've built websites for $10,000+, and the cost wasn't even considered expensive to those businesses. However, other businesses consider $1500 for a website insanely expensive, so it just depends on the business. In general, however, I would say anything over $15,000 is pretty expensive. 

To some businesses, however, it's more than worth it. Especially when you consider the contribution to clients and the business's overall image. Especially considering what the business will receive from the site.

How Many Hours Does It Take To Build A Website?

Websites are much faster to design than you might think. In general, you'll see agencies like ours quote a web design project at 2-3 months. However, agencies typically quote out the process at 2-3 months because it allows us time to work on more than one project at a time. In all reality, it takes more than 40-120 hours for a website to be completed. 

The main reason most agencies quote websites out at 2-3 months is due to a few reasons. For one, balancing multiple websites is easier when given more time. For two, websites are something you really should take your time with. Agencies like ours use massive checklists to ensure everything is noticed when building client websites. If something is missed, it could result in a client being not found on Google, getting penalized by search engines, etc. So to avoid this, quoting out more time and needed ensures that all bases will be covered when we hand our websites over to the client.

How Much Does A Basic 5-Page Website Cost?

A basic 5-page site will cost anywhere from $1500 - $10,000 (depending on the design and development complexity). Typically, however, a simple 5-page site is between $1500-$2500. The price can get higher when you add custom photography and videography into the mix. If you want a photographer/videographer to come out and film/shoot custom assets of your business/staff you would be spending more along the lines of $4500-$8500 for a simple website.

The jump in price might sound drastic, but in reality the amount of trust and credibility it adds to your website is astounding. People can spot stock photography from a mile away, so when you invest in custom photos and videos, your potential customers will see who they will be working with, and you can start to see your conversion rates go up. Meaning over the website's lifetime, you'll more than earn back the extra cost of the site. The personality a website gains from having your face on it cannot be overstated.

How Much Is A Website For A Small Business?

Most small businesses just stick with a simple 5-page website, and so you can refer to the section just above this one. However, if you want to get the most out of your website and branch out to take on markets of your surrounding cities, you must flesh out your website beyond the typical 5-page norm. 

What I mean by this is you want to create landing pages for the cities you are willing to serve. You want to make blog posts answering common industry-standard questions and correcting common misconceptions about your industry. If you can, you want to make youtube videos that you put up on your website for various parts of the website. Your homepage should have an introductory video on it. Your sales pages should have reassuring video content about what they'll experience after they press "checkout," etc. 

The architecture required for a quality website that is guaranteed to not only increase your conversion rates but also drive business from various cities through your doors is going to cost more than a simple 5-page website. So really, it depends on what you want out of your site. If you want a website that will generate a decent amount of income, then it will be reflected in the cost. However, if you just want something up, so you have a functioning site, then you are looking at spending around $1500 - $10,000, depending on the types of functionalities you need. 

Average Cost Of SEO For A Small Business Website?

In order to get the most out of your website however, you'll want to make sure that you have an SEO strategy in mind so you can take control of how and where your business shows up in search engines. You can read about how to do this with several of our articles showing you how to avoid common pitfalls in SEO. However, if you're like many other business owners, you can just have your SEO strategy handled by Spirra Digital.

The average cost of SEO for typical business websites however would be $1500 - $2500 a month. These services would typically include landing page creation, the optimization of the entire website, link building, content promotion, etc. Most SEO agencies will share monthly reports to display with actual data the results of their campaign, so you know whether or not it makes sense to continue in your campaign.

What Happens If You Don't Maintain A Website

If websites aren't maintained, meaning there aren't updates being made regularly, search engines will begin to push those pages down in the rankings. This happens mainly because search engines equate website trust and quality to the regularity of content creation. If you focus on consistently creating quality content (twice a month, once a month, etc.), search engines will inspect your website more often. 

In turn, the search engines will start noticing that new, quality, and relevant content is being found each time they inspect your website. Consistent, quality content is a huge signal that all search engines are looking for, because that is the type of content they want to promote. So business owners focused on creating that type of content for their websites are rewarded with better rankings, more traffic, and higher conversion rates. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum, business owners that neglect their websites and never update, maintain or edit their websites will start to see that they are getting less and less - and eventually zero - traffic month after month. One huge mistake many business owners make is they fail to create quality content, which in turn means search engines are reluctant to promote them to their target demographic. Check out our article to learn how you can ensure that your website is recognized for what it is - a representation of a quality business.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you found this article helpful! If you are a business owner and you want help creating a website for your business that will generate traffic but also revenue, book a free consultation with us to see how we can help, or even if you just want someone to bounce ideas off of! If you have any questions or feel we've left anything out, feel free to reach out to us.