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Web Design Pricing Explained

Every web site is different, which makes it impossible to give a flat price for any particular site. This being the case, all web developers use different methods to determine the cost for web design. We will describe some of the most common methods for web site pricing below. If you already have a requirements list for your website, fill our Online Quote form to receive a quote for your website. There are four common types of web design pricing used in the industry today.

• Hourly Rate
• Project Price
• Package Rates
• Per Page Cost

Common Web Site Pricing

Corporate Web Site

Corporate or commercial site goes beyond the basic on-line brochure. More complex sites feature a greater level of interactivity and database integration. You may need a private intranet for employee communication and document sharing, or an extranet to share information and track vendors and/or customers. Corporate web sites usually start around $5,000 and can go as high as $100,000 depending on the complexity.

Standard Corporate Web Design Pricing:

• Outsourced Offshore: $500 ~ $15,000
• US Designer: $3000 ~ $20,000
• US Web Design Firm: $5000 ~ $50,000

Interactive Database Site

A complex interactive site has a large amount of back-end programming. More complex sites feature a greater level of interactivity and database integration. Most complex corporate sites consist of data driven content and dynamically generated pages. The amount of pages is not as relevant as the amount of programming involved. The most important aspect to an interactive site is that its easy to navigate, fast, and scalable. These web sites usually start around $15,000 and can go as high as $250,000 depending on the complexity.

Back end programming can be done in a variety of different languages, some of the more popular server-side languages are PHP and ASP. Web Interfaces are normally written in CSS and HTML. If you don't know what these languages are, don't worry, let your designer or programmer make a recommendation.

Corporate Brochure

A "brochure" site simply means a website that serves as an on-line brochure that gives general information about your company products and services. A brochure site does not have complex database programming, e-commerce, or lots of interactivity. It basically serves as an on-line advertisement that features graphic design.

This kind of site is a great start for a company and can be expanded in the future as your company grows. In this day and age, it is essential for a company to have an on-line presence as well as a basic corporate brochure site. These web sites can start for as little as $2,000.

E-Commerce Site

E-commerce websites can range from very simple to very complex. There are quite a few things to consider when preparing to budget an ecommerce site. These web sites usually start around $5,000 and can go as high as $250,000 depending on the complexity.

Source: howmuchdoesawebsitecost.com

I had a really big surprise the other day when I noticed that the web design that I done for Squba Holidays was feature right on the home page of Adobe Business Catalyst website. It's the first thing that pop in your face when you open the website, I'm happy that they gave us visibility like that! Those of you that don't know already about Business Catalyst it's a hosted application for building and managing online businesses. Using a unified platform and without back-end coding, you can build everything from amazing websites to powerful online stores, beautiful brochure-ware sites to lead generation mini-sites.





Since Adobe bought the company in 2009, there is significant improvements to the platform and still many amazing new features coming in 2010. We are certified partner since 2009 and we are proud to provide you with the best 5+ systems hosted application on the web! Contact us for more info about Business Catalyst.

Technology is always changing, and it's well known that when it comes to tech, something you've bought one day can technically be obsolete the next week. This is usually just one of those things you need to accept as part of business - but what if you could avoid that issue all together?

#5. Future-proof your business

Future-proofing your business is about being ready to take advantage of new technology. It's about forging ahead in the direction you want to go, not in the direction that your out-of-date software pushes you. It's protecting your investment so that you don't become consumed with the costs and effort of upgrading all the time.

Imagine that you could buy a new computer that doesn't get obsolete. A computer that, every night when you go to sleep, the latest parts and software are installed and updated for you. A computer that is the best out there - automatically, every day.

That's what our online business system is. It's a system, built from the ground up for business owners like you, that has incorporated all the major tools a small business needs - not just the ones you need now, but the ones you will need in 3 months, and the ones you'll need next year. We constantly upgrade and add new features while you're asleep, so that you've always got the latest and greatest.

And all for a reasonable price, comparable to what others would charge for simple web hosting alone. So get in touch with us today to learn more about how you can future proof your business, with us.

I hope you've found our free tips useful - and best of luck in your business endeavours.

Want to start putting these tips to action today? Try Business Catalyst free for 30 days!

Every day, millions upon millions of people are using search engines like Google to find news, information, products or services. No matter what your product or service is, the chances are that at this very moment there is someone looking for you.

Be Search Engine Friendly

So, what are you doing to make sure you get found? Being search engine friendly is about helping the search engines find and read your site, which in turn helps your prospective customers find and read about your business.

Being search engine friendly is a matter of many things and many factors, and there are experts out there who can spend days discussing them with you. That said, there are some general "rules" to follow that can help tremendously.

• Use Google's Webmaster tools, and their equivalents.
  In particular, Google allows you to submit a "sitemap" to them, which essentially lists your site's web pages and tells the search engine where to find them. This sitemap is a file in your website, and is usually named Sitemaps.xml - you should definitely have it.


• Put yourself in your customers' shoes
  - what would you type in to Google if you were looking for a business like yours? Write down the top 5 or 10 "keywords" that you would think people are using to look for you. Now when you're writing content for your site, use those keywords as often as possible in your writing. This increases the chance that you will appear near the top of the results when people type in those keywords.


• Focus on quality and usefulness.
  If your website has high quality, focused and useful content on it, people will link to your site. Links are like "votes" - search engines treat them as an acknowledgement to the usefulness of your site. But not all links are treated equal. Links from high quality sources are given more weight than unknown or "spammy" sites. This is one of the big reasons that buying links isn't always a good idea.


• Engage other sites in your industry.
  Find blogs, forums and other sites that are related to your business, and comment or participate. Get to know the owners of the other site if possible. If your site truly is high quality, they will happily link to your site - often for free.

Want to start putting these tips to action today? Try Business Catalyst free for 30 days!

In our previous tip we discussed how and why you should be building your customer database - because your current customers are a fertile source for recurring revenues and for spreading the word about your products.

#3. Keep in Contact with Your Customers

One of the most effective ways to drive customers back to your website and keep them in the loop with your latest news is email marketing. Email marketing involves sending an email to your customer database, or a group of customers in your database. Remember this isn't like spam in the slightest - you only send to customers who have given you permission, and you're sending them useful information they actually want to receive!

But... What Do I Write?

Figuring out what to write in your emails to everyone is the hardest part. It needs to follow the golden rules of content: Be relevant, Be useful. Here's 4 tips to help you work out what to write.

• A Newsletter? Every business can write a newsletter. It doesn't have to be a monthly newsletter, it can be bi-monthly or quarterly, but every business has news and information, promotions and announcements that can fill up a newsletter. And keep your customers in the loop.


• Tips and Advice are very well received and happily read by your customers. If you are a service based business, such as an accountancy or lawyer this is probably the most suitable newsletter to run. That said, nearly every business has advice they can impart!


• Promotions and Special Offers are another type of email well received by your customers. These don't need to be scheduled or regular, so you can send them whenever you have a special offer or promotion running. They suit online stores incredibly well.


• Special announcements are another cause for an email campaign. Do you have some news that your customers would be interested in? If your announcements or interesting news aren't regular enough for a newsletter, there's no reason you can't send once off campaigns when they come up.

Want to start putting these tips to action today? Try Business Catalyst free for 30 days!

Garnering awareness and acquiring customers is one of the great challenges or building a business. It is so essential that there is an entire business discipline dedicated to this - which we know as marketing. It's fair to say that any customer that finds your business or website is highly valuable to you, and you want to hold on to them as long as possible.

#2. Build a Customer Database

That's where the idea of a database comes in. A customer database is simply your list of contact information of the customers that you have dealt with in the past. So why keep a list of them? Because they are your best source for future revenue and word of mouth. Who better to announce your newest product line to than the people who loved your last product line? Who better to spread the word about your new service than those who've used it previously?

That's all well and good, but how can you get your customers' contact information?

Here's 4 simple strategies.

• Give something away. Give every customer who fills in an online form something valuable in exchange for their email address. It could be a discount voucher, or an ebook that you have written, or exclusive VIP content.


• A simple "Contact Us" web form. This is a form you can put on your site so that your customers can ask questions and submit their comments. You'll be suprized by how many of your visitors will take the time to ask a question, and in the form, you can ask for their email address.


• Run an online discussion forum. People love to chat with other customers and share their knowledge and opinions. You can empower your customers to do the same, and as part of the process, ask them to give their email address to use as a username.


• Sell something! When people buy from your online shop, ask them for an email address to send the receipt/confirmation to.

Want to start putting these tips to action today? Try Business Catalyst free for 30 days!

Did you know that the vast majority of websites fail? There's many reasons for it, but there's also some simple things you can do to protect yours from the same fate.

If you have any questions, please let us know - I'm sure we can be of assistance. Without further ado, let's get into the first of the five things you should be doing to be successful online!

#1. Update your site regularly

Can you update your site yourself? We're not talking about big design changes or anything, just news and announcements, maybe some articles you've written, or a monthly blog post or two.

If you can't, or you don't - you need to and you should! The fact is that search engines like Google absolutely adore fresh, valuable content on websites - so the more content you add and the fresher your site is, the higher the chance that you'll rank highly in search results - meaning more customers and more profits.

Now, the next question is - what to write? This is the hardest bit, so we've prepared three strategies to help you figure out what to write about.

• Think about what's been happening in the last month in your business. Did you make any milestones in terms of customers, profit numbers, product releases or new staff hires? Write about them! Customers love to read positive things about your business - it shows you're authentic and successful, which are good signs for any business.


• Did something special or interesting happen to you that taught you a positive lesson you could share? Maybe you went to the coffee shop and were really "wowed" by their customer service. Perhaps they even inspired you to improve your own service. Share these stories with your customers on a blog post! They're fun, interesting and they say a lot about the things your business values.


• Think about what's going to happen in the next month - is there anything interesting? Are you going to receive your 1000th order? Are you about to receive a huge shipment or discount frisbees? Tell your customers and build up some excitement!

There's always something to write, just remember the golden rules of content and you'll be fine:

• Is the content relevant to your customers or your business?
• Does the content add value to your customers?
  
  

Want to start putting these tips to action today? Try Business Catalyst free for 30 days!