Fancy Car or Broken Down Beater? Perhaps Somewhere In Between?

Calculating the cost of a website can be a detailed process, just as detailed as buying a car.  What model?  What make?  What color?  Do you want the extra options like chrome wheels and tinted glass, or just the basic package?  Much like buying a car, when asking “How much does a website cost?”, there isn’t a specific answer because there are so many options. 

While a website may seem simple on the surface, there are more parts to it than meet the eye.  Much like a car, it needs fuel, an engine, regular servicing and, (of course), style.  You wouldn’t buy a car to then push it down the road would you?

My first car was a bargain!  Problem was that so-called “bargain” ended up in the shop more than it was on the road.  Like most my age I couldn’t afford the shiny sports car I really wanted.  Too often the same problem exists when pricing a website.  To figure out what kind of website you can afford, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions.  You can then balance your wants with what you can actually afford.

Make:

Do you want a basic HTML website with a few pages of information or a CMS (content management system) based website?  There is a simple way to answer this question.  Ask yourself, “Will I need a blog and constantly be updating my content?”  If the answer is yes, you’ll want a CMS based website.

Model:

What kind of CMS?  Drupal, Wordpress, or one of the many other CMS models?  Your website company needs to know your end-goal to make the right choice here, just like picking the right car.  Have six kids?  A two-seater is likely out of the question.  Get my point?

Engine: 

To answer the power question, you’ll need to ask yourself what tasks your website needs to perform.  Will your website just serve information to your clients or are you selling products through a web-based storefront?  Much goes into the underpinnings of a website when it requires relational logic between different types of data.  In the end, it comes down to how much horsepower you’ll need.  The make and model of your website will definitely be a factor (including your hosting plan).

Fuel: 

Today’s web runs on content.  Pictures, blog articles, video and graphics are the fuel for today’s websites.  We call it fuel is because it’s content that is consumed by search engines like Google and Bing.  If you want your website to get anywhere on the information superhighway, you’ll have to have the right fuel (and a lot of it)!  When it comes to creating a solid framework for search engine optimization (SEO), content equates to selecting Premium at the pump. 

Don’t forget to add in the expense of content when budgeting your website build cost.  Content doesn’t just happen.  You can’t steal it.  There are some things you can borrow, as long as you provide attribution.  In the end however, pictures, copy and graphics carry a cost.  Think of it as fuel additive, a little STP if you will.  (We’re taking this car analogy all the way, baby.)

Service & Support:

Content can become stale; links may get broken; older websites, (just like cars), may break down when a new browser or CSS standard is released.  What happens if you don’t keep things tuned up?  You could end up with malware, hacks, or perhaps even a complete breakdown of your website.  Service and support costs will add up if you wait until the last minute.  Make sure you keep website maintenance and professional support in mind when calculating your site’s budget.  If you don’t, you may find your business website broken down on the side of the road.

Style: 

Graphics and clear branding are essential when you design a website.  This means more than just a colorful logo.  This refers to your entire branding color scheme.  Style also includes fonts, whitespace, icons and more.  Your web layout is a key part of your style. Today’s consumer wants mobile, tablet and widescreen formats that provide them a robust web experience from any device.  You want that custom paint, tinted windows and chrome package?  It will cost you more.

So... how much does a website cost?  As you drive down the road, look at all the different cars and trucks on the freeway one day.  Price each one in your head.  That’s how many possible answers you could get from a website professional.

While there are many website services (that shall remain nameless) that offer “discounted” websites, you may find that they fail to deliver on their low-cost claims, quality, or even worse, fail to offer any service or real support.  Ever bought a car from a corner no-name used car dealer?*  If so, how long did it last on that corner?  Did it have a service department?  How long did its sales person (that made all those promises to you) stick around?  Enough said.

Determining how much a website should cost relies on your needs and what you’re trying to accomplish as a business.  You can hire your cousin’s brother-in-law’s former girlfriend’s ex-roommate to build your website or you can hire a professional.  Make sure you hire a company that can not only build your website, but keep your website fueled with content, tuned-up and moving down the internet superhighway. 

*No used car dealers, on corner lots, without service departments, that went out of business in one year, were harmed in the writing of this blog.