How much does a website cost?

How much does a website cost in 2023?

Among the many IT queries we get we are always being asked "How much does a website cost for my business?" The truth is, there's no simple answer for that. Creating a website involves several processes that will determine the price.

As with many things, it is not a 'one size fits all' solution. The cost of a website depends on the type of site you want, the features you include and the hosting platform. You can expect to pay £100 per year for a simple website or up to £10,000 and beyond for a more complex ecommerce site.

Let’s take a closer look

How much does a website really cost?

Sometimes business owners think that developing a website is simple, but it is not a three-click-away process. There are a number of things to consider when creating your site. To start with, you must register your domain name and choose a web hosting service. Then start designing a logo, planning the layout and preparing the content.

Next, decide whether you are going to use a ready made template or create a custom website. This will depend on the structure, size and type of website, you are planning to have.

You can hire a designer yourself or opt for a professional web design agency to help you manage the build and also maintain your website once it's completed.

Web Domain Services

Choosing you domain name and purchasing it, is the first thing to do. Depending on your business decide whether you need a .com or a .co.uk domain.

When buying a new domain name the price can vary. Generally speaking most domains cost between £1 to £20. This may vary depending on the registrar used and also the tld extension.

When you register your domain name, you can choose to purchase it for 1 year at a time or for as long as 10 years.

Hosting Services

Choosing the right hosting service will save you from chaotic situations like downtime. Usually you have to make an annual payment to avoid overpaying on a monthly fee.

There are literally hundreds of options for hosting services in the UK, so keep in mind that you need 24/7 support and tailored services specific for your needs, so you pay only for what you really need.

Depending on the requirements of your website, you can choose between shared hosting or dedicated hosting. If you are not sure which is right for you, read our Web Hosting Guide here.

Hiring a web designer

While you can do it yourself, hiring a web designer is the most common way to create a website for most businesses. Even if you are planning to have a relatively small or simple site, hiring experienced web design specialist can be the right option.

You will need to have a clear vision and be able to give instructions on how you want your website to look and prepare the job specs for them.

On average you can expect to pay around £50 an hour for a professional web designer or from £250 to £350 a day.

Once the site is live you can continue to manage it yourself or outsource for maintenance.

Web Development

For more complex sites using one of the readily available CMS systems will save a lot of time. Don't fall into a trap of building things from scratch so it's easier and faster, as you will end up paying the price down the line when the custom backend can't be easily updated or maintained once the original developer has moved on to the next project.

At HelpDesk Heroes we support all major open-source CMS systems, such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, WooCoommerce, OpenCart and others. If the budget allows it, we set up the CMS as backoffice Admin panel for your convenience and we rebuild the front-end using either Nuxt or Gatsby for lightning speed loading times. Coupled with global CDN for optimised content delivery and cloud image storage such as Cloudinary we are able to achieve website loading speeds that the standard CMS package simply can't do, due its overly versatile and open structure.

Additionally, security of your site is greatly improved when you don't use standard out of the box package - these are the main reasons to use a professional developer.

Having a professional developer build your website will of course cost you more than if you tried to do it by yourself using one of the readily available web page builders. That being said, the time you save is invaluable and you can focus on content and form, while someone else makes sure that there are no bugs and security issues. Standard rates for a developer are again around £50 per hour or £250 to £350 per day. It's always better to agree on a project fee up front so the budget doesn't overrun the initial assessment.

 SSL certificates

SSL certificates will bring security to your website, but also several benefits as improving your reputation among your clients and improve your ranking factors. You can get free SSL certificates, but we would recommend a paid version. If you need to know more about SSL certificates you can read our complete guide here

Content, Writers and SEO

In most cases you will need writers to add content to your website for the first time. This can include your main pages, services and blog.

If you plan to have a blog, it can be time consuming and having a content writer can help keep things published regularly.

Content marketing strategy

Most businesses benefit from having a strong focus on content strategy. You can choose to undertake this task yourself or outsource to a professional content marketing strategy service. Prices can average between £2,000 and £3,000 to produce a strategy and content.

Dedicate some time to plan your strategy, and then you can carry it out with more ease. It will help to identify and convert your target audience into high-quality leads, boosting your ROI.

Ongoing Website Maintenance

Once your website is up and running you are ready to start promoting it. Keeping up with the content can be a challenge. Whether you need help writing consistent blog posts or are adding new products.

In addition to new content, general maintenance, regarding plugins and security must be managed.

Now that the you have a live site, making sure you show up in the search results is the next job. In some case you may want to hire an SEO expert to make sure that your content is optimised and focus on your backlink strategy.

In addition, promoting your business and website further by having a well thought out social media strategy. This is a task that is often outsourced as it is time consuming and needs to be consistent.

Types of websites and estimated costs

As we mentioned the type of site that you need will determine the price.

Here are some examples that will give you a rough price guide.

1. Business services website

This type of site is for businesses who are selling services rather than products. Typically this will include from 5 - 15 pages, although there is no hard and fast rule.

For example an accountant, estate agent electrician and plummers are all businesses who will need to provide information about the services offered.

Build the website on WordPress CMS headless architecture using the latest NuxtJS framework. This platform offers a number of technological advantages:

• WordPress CMS provides only the backend API making the site more secure and update management more straightforward.
• Loading speed of the website is dramatically increased both on desktop and mobile due to the super-fast Vue.js frontend layer.
• Content, documents, media can be published on multiple channels at the same time, be it a mobile app, desktop app, external resources (e.g. Amazon)
• Integration with 3rd party platforms is much more customizable (e.g. Podcast feed, Warehouse & Shipping, Instagram feed, YouTube feed, etc.)

There may be an additional blog options and contact forms for booking the services.

2. E-commerce website

Businesses selling products online need a website that allows customers to purchase products, and offer chat or instant messaging if they need customer service.

Whether you are a small business selling handmade items or a large brand with hundreds of products, your site will need to be able handle safe and secure online payments. Choosing and setting up a payment gateway is one of the first tasks.

Clean navigation and a user friendly layout is key to a successful ecommerce website.

With an e-commerce site, data collection is important, so you can establish personalisation. Customised content for a specific user improves their user experience and means more conversions and sales.

The cost of your website will depend on the complexity of personalisation and data collection and storage you include. With data collection also comes cloud storage and security costs. Compliance to data regulations require security certificates and guarantees.

The cost of a custom e-commerce website could start from £1,500 up to £6,000 for an average-sized eCommerce business.

3. Portfolio, Brochure and Catalogue website

Artists, Architects or creative individuals will need a Portfolio website. A place to display work so potential clients can easily browse their talents online.

A brochure and catalogue website present your visitors the product or service you offer, with detailed description, including images and even prices. It’s like a digital version of the printed brochure.

First impressions count and you will want to have a visually impressive layout.

Think of high-end stores posting their seasonal collections here but selling nothing. For example, Chanel posts their collections on their website but doesn’t sell from it. They have a tool to “Find a store.”

4. Blog

If you are starting your own blog, or are having one to support your business services or products, it will need to be consistent. Writing regular blogs and also making sure they rank well is a full time in itself. A top tip would be to prepare a content calendar and prepare some posts ahead of time so you always have something ready to go. Even if you post an article avery few weeks you will still need 20 to 30 post for the year.

Many businesses hire writers to help produce the content they need. Content writing is meant to inform or entertain, but not necessarily to sell. (e.g. a blog post about how to change a tire).

To rank higher in search results and write for sales rather than entertaining content, this is where the copywriters come in. Copywriting is designed to sell something or get people to take an action (e.g. click, subscribe, call, etc).

Both are valuable to a business, but since a copywriter directly influences sales, they can demand higher prices.

Talk to us about your website

Hopefully this article has given you a good idea about the things to consider when you are starting your website. When you build your website, you ensure that your needs and your client’s needs are met and that your overall design supports your business goals and objectives.

Here at HelpDesk Heroes we help clients across a range of industries with website services. From basic hosting to full web development. If you need advice or want to outsource any part of you web development process, call our team for a chat.

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