UNDERSTANDING WEBSITE COSTS

Most people starting out on the Internet have no idea what a professionally designed website will cost. If you are expecting to have a site designed for $200, you may go into "sticker shock." If you are expecting to pay $20,000 to $30,000, you are going to be greatly relieved. Websites vary in complexity. Depending on the features you need, you could pay anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

WEBSITE COST DRIVERS

It is impossible to tell you exactly what your site will cost because there are so many factors that drive the final cost of a website.

The following items are the most common cost drivers in any website...

1. Registering a domain name
2. Hosting your site
3. Designing your site
4. Maintaining your site
5. Paying search engine registration fees

Choosing and Registering a Domain Name

Registering a domain name (www.yourname.com) is the easiest and cheapest part of getting a website. You can register a domain name for about $15 per year. The registration needs to be renewed every year, or you can just register the name for several years. For most businesses, the .com version of the domain is the only one you'll need. If you can't get the .com domain name you want, either create an alternative name or consider the .net, .org, .us (or other country suffix), or .biz versions - but it's best to have the .com.

Hosting Your Site

To get your website on the Internet, you have to rent space on a computer that has high speed Internet access. This is called hosting. Hosting prices typically run from $20 to $30 per month for full service hosting. There may also be an initial set up fee. Some firms require yearly payments in advance and others require monthly payments. If you shop around, you can find cheaper hosting, but you may give up important features.

Selection of a host can be a tough decision. You have to carefully compare costs and features, and if you aren't familiar with computers and the Internet, it is hard to make informed decisions. One of the advantages of hiring a design firm is that these decisions are taken care of for you. Many designers provide hosting as part of their services. Those designers who do not offer hosting usually have a working relationship with someone who does.

Designing Your Site

Designing your site is where the bulk of the expense comes in, and it is impossible to define a generic cost. Prices are driven by

• What you want and need in your site
• The designer's hourly rate
• The size of your site
• Software development (e.g., JavaScripts, CGI, etc.)
• Custom artwork
• Copywriting

Prices for a four or five page site will vary from $600 to $800 for "package deals" to thousands of dollars for a custom design. Some package deals are a good value for the money because the designers will be focused on developing a good marketing tool for your business. Other designers will put your submissions into a pre-made format and put it online, whether or not this design is right for you. Fortunately, you can tell the difference between these two very quickly by talking to them on the phone.

If you want a custom designed website to display your products and services with nice features like online forms and custom artwork, then $1,500 to $4,500 is a reasonable price.

Maintaining Your Site

Once your site is on the Internet, keeping it there can be fairly cheap. To keep your site online, you have to pay your monthly hosting fee and annual domain name renewal. You can keep a site on the Internet for less than $30 per month. If you maintain your site yourself, or if your website needs no updating, there are no site maintenance charges. If you decide to have someone else maintain, update, and track the performance of your site, you can expect to pay for an hour or two per month at $50 to $100 per hour.

Paying Search Engine Registration Fees

Some search engines charge to list your site. Others charge just to review them and do not guarantee to list them after the review. Still others list your site and rank it by how much you pay.

It is not realistic to define search engine fees here. Rates are constantly changing and the search engine that is free today may charge tomorrow. Furthermore, the relationships between search engines change frequently as well (they form partnerships and share listings.) But to give you an estimate, you should expect to pay about $500 in search engine registration fees.

When you talk to your designer, be sure that search engine fees are discussed. There is little point in getting a beautiful site and then not listing it with the most popular search engines.

THE BOTTOM LINE

So what does this mean to you? What does it really cost to get a website?

The answer is - "It depends."

It depends on what you need in your site and on how much work your designer has to do. The only way to get a good estimate for your site is to define what you need as carefully as possible and contact some designers for cost estimates.