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How Much Will A Website Cost Me at Flashlight Marketing

How Much Will A Website Cost Me?

/ Small Business / By

The cost of building and maintaining a website varies widely. It all depends on how you approach it and whether you decide to go the DIY route or hire a professional. We often get the question “How Much Will A Website Cost Me?” so we decided to try and answer that for you.

 

Building your own website for your business can be a tempting option. After all, there are plenty of free or inexpensive ‘create your own website’ tools to choose from, such as Wix or Squarespace. And you can have a basic website up and running fairly quickly.

How Much Will A Website Cost Me?

But is the DIY route the right move for your small business? Will your new website do everything you need it to do? Or is it better to hire a professional web developer and invest a little more in your new website? Let’s take a look at both options:

 

Consider Your Goals

 

A business website is much more than just a placeholder on the internet that describes what your business does. It is a powerful tool that can help your business grow by clearly showing customers the benefits of doing business with you, illustrating your expertise, providing customers with valuable information, and cementing your unique brand.

Here is a very surprising stat:

How much will a website cost me?
source: https://fitsmallbusiness.com/website-statistics/

 

This is surprising in the fact that we are now using our phones and desktops to search for information, especially since the onset of Covid-19 and all the lockdowns.

Some specific examples of the goals you may have for your website include:

 

  • Find new leads and grow your customer base.
  • Establish authority in the industry by sharing my expertise.
  • Provide an easy-to-use online shopping experience for my products.
  • Explain the benefits of your services.
  • Help customers find your brick and mortar location.
  • Solidify your brand image.
  • Help shape your customer’s experience with your business.

 

The Pitfalls of the Do It Yourself Website

 

Many small business owners decide to jump in headfirst and build their own website. After all, the costs are generally minimal, and it might seem like a quick and easy solution.

For instance, to buy a domain name will cost you around $10-$15 for a standard domain, but if it’s a short word or a popular keyword, you could pay in the thousands of dollars.

But there are drawbacks to consider:

  • Lack of flexibility.
  • Limited customization options.
  • Inability to scale as your business grows.
  • Limited functionality.

The Pitfalls of the Do It Yourself Website

You may also run into serious issues such as:

  • Your website is not optimized for search engines and is difficult for people to find.
  • You end up with a cluttered website, and existing/potential customers have difficulty finding the information they need.
  • Your website is not optimized for various screens, especially mobile devices.
  • Essential or critical details get missed.
  • Slow loading times or content that takes up the resources that it needs to operate it properly.

Slow loading times

Also, consider the learning curve, which may be challenging if you are not particularly savvy when it comes to websites. And even if you are, there is a lot you will need to know.

You will need to learn things like how to add an image, how to create a new landing page, how to build a form to collect emails, how to create a navigation menu, what image size you will need for your website header, how to update the footer, and so much more.

It has taken me the best part of 10 years to master this and I continually need to learn every day.

 

You will also need to learn a few advanced skills or have a working knowledge of them. That may include SEO (Search Engine Optimization), working with HTML, installing and activating plugins, adjusting design elements, or customizing a theme.

 

And what if you want to update your website, such as changing a page layout? Or what if you want to add e-commerce functionality so customers can buy directly from your website? Get ready to go down a rabbit hole.

Consider the time it will take to build and manage your business website.

Should you build your own website?

Sure, nearly anyone can slap a website together quickly, but it is a lot of work to get one off the ground that will effectively serve your business needs and then manage it going forward. When you ‘do it yourself,’ you will be spending hours upon hours on your website before you know it. You will also be the go-to person if anything goes wrong with the website and needs to be fixed.

Do you have time for all of that? Is that really where your focus should be?

Keep in mind that your website is more than just a home page. It will likely include these types of pages as well, which adds to the workload:

  • About
  • Products & Services
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • FAQ
  • Testimonials/Reviews
  • Press/Latest News
  • Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

 

Creating and managing your business website all on your own can eat away at your valuable time – time that may be better spent focusing on your business as a whole.

There are additional costs associated with a website that you will need to consider. That will include:

  • The cost of website hosting (the service you need to make your website visible on the internet) will depend on the type of hosting you sign up for (i.e., shared, cloud, virtual private server, or a dedicated server). Generally, you can expect to pay anywhere from $5 to $1,000 per month. HostGator provides detailed information about the different types of hosting and the associated costs.

Flashlight Marketing offers a fully hosted service for $30/month for WordPress websites, where we include full updates weekly, daily offsite backups, and a secure environment for all your hosting needs. Contact us to find out more

  • A domain name will cost between $10 to $20 per year, according to DreamHost.
  • Premium features (i.e., plugins or upgrading to a professional version of the tool you are using) can add up. Prices will vary depending on the plugins and the functionality that you need.
  • Ongoing maintenance and emergency assistance if your website has an issue. According to a search on the premiere freelance platform Upwork, a website developer will generally charge between $25 to $100 per hour, or more if their work is high level.

 

The Benefits of Hiring a Professional Website Designer

 

Your business website is often the first place people learn about your company and decide whether they want to do business with you. A professional website developer will present your business in the best light and help you convert visitors to customers.

They have the expertise and know the best practices such as displaying your website correctly on desktop vs. mobile, ensuring the search engines find your website, and using consistent branding throughout. You get the benefit of their industry knowledge.

A professional web developer will also have expert technical knowledge such as:

  • The proper way to incorporate white space
  • How to compress images to ensure fast load times
  • How to use color and contrast, the best placement for a call to action button
  • How to use the proper layouts to create smart user interfaces
  • How to optimize for mobile devices
  • How to optimize for conversions
  • And so much more!

The Benefits of Hiring a Professional Website Designer

Perhaps most importantly, a professional website developer will be able to help expand your website as your business grows. A good website developer will anticipate what your business needs may be down the road and build your website accordingly to allow flexibility.

Other perks include:

  • A professional website developer can provide you with ongoing support. If you want to add something new, make a change, or if something goes wrong with your website, they can help.
  • They can handle your website hosting and domain, which can get technical.
  • They can work with you to build your business website to suit your unique brand.
  • You can take advantage of bundled pricing that includes everything you need.
  • You dream it; they can likely do it. Professional website developers can help you bring your innovative ideas to life.

How Much Will A Website Cost Me?

One of the best platforms that web developers, like our team of experts at Flashlight Marketing, use to create websites is WordPress because it is secure and stable, robust, and entirely scalable. WordPress leads the industry and includes an extensive library of plugins that provide useful features such as built-in SEO tools and e-commerce solutions.

While the initial cost of hiring a professional team to build your website may be of concern for you, the benefits can translate to real growth and increased earnings for your business.

When we quote website prices, we obviously need to take into account the amount of content that needs to go into the site, the functionality of the site like e-commerce, membership aspects, etc.

A website will cost you  $2000 for a 10-page website, which is usually enough to cover most small businesses’ needs.

Here’s what you get in our 10 Page WordPress Website Package:

High Converting Designs

All of our designs are responsive to display beautifully on desktop, tablet, and mobile screens. After we add in your content we will test your site across all the most recent browsers (Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome).

A Design to Match Your Brand

We will use your logo then update the colors of the design you choose to match your company colors and format the content you provide to match.

Set Up Credibility Modules

Add in your testimonials, awards, and media recognition to prove to your potential buyer why your product or service is right for them.

Creation of Your Opt-in Forms

Design and coding of your opt-in form in up to 4 places (top, home page, about, and under blog posts). We will also hook up your form to your opt-in list for you in Mailchimp or Constant Contact (or other mail services you use)

Set up Your Blog
Set up your blog with 1 blog post (you must provide content). We can also provide content as an extra service.

Insert and Style Your Content
Set up 10 pages on your website (you must provide content and images).

Set up SEO Optimisation
Put the keywords you provide in your title, description, and content.

Set up Social Sharing
Add in social sharing buttons so people can share your site and it’s pages on their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social accounts.

A Thank You “Money Page”
We will create a thank you page using our “thank you page upsell” formula to get your new clients to take another step with you once they opt-in from one of your opt-in forms.

Set up Analytics for Tracking Stats
We will link your page to Google Analytics so you can see what your visitors are doing.

Optimize Your Images
Set up image optimization so your site loads fast.

Set up Your Contact Page
Add in a contact form to email you the message left on your contact page. Add in a Google Map that shows the location of your office.

Training on How to Update Your Site
You will receive a training pack so you know how to add content yourself once done and more importantly write your future content so it is optimized for SEO

At Flashlight Marketing, we want to set you on the right path to help you succeed. If you are on a tight budget and concerned about cost, we can help with special payment options.

 

To get started, call us at (760) 469-9995 to discuss your needs with our team, or request a free quote online.

 

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