Your website has a big job to do. You’re going to need a platform that can handle it all and grow your business at the same time. This is a tool we’ve put together to help you determine the best website redesign for your business.
Though you may be tempted to go for the bare minimum, every year we have clients that do and later realize it just can’t meet their needs. This costs them wasted time and thousands of dollars more. By accurately assessing your business website needs, you can hit the ground running and bring in more business to boot.
Who’s on Your Website Team
Using an agency to build your website comes with many advantages, but, just like sports, it all boils down to who is on your team. Working with an agency to build your website grants you access to experts in each field your website needs:
An Account Manager
A dedicated point person will takes the time to understand your business’ needs and advocate for them every step of the way. They’ll also serve as a project manager and keep you informed of progress without a check-in email.
A Brand Strategist
Our brand strategist will analyze your strengths, industry marketplace, and competitors to create a more concentrated brand identity and that connects with your target customers.
A Content Writer
You’ll get custom written text by our copywriters for every page of your site grounded in the latest principles of SEO to connect your future clients with the answers they’re already looking for.
A Web Designer
Bespoke layouts, color theory schemes, and images created by our design team work together to build a visual experience that subconsciously communicates your unique value proposition while looking great.
A Web Developer
This is the person who takes all the other pieces and uses code to put them together. They build out functionality in the design, test across all major browsers, and format for devices of all shapes and sizes.
The Bare Basics
These are the things every website needs and the costs associated with it.
Planning & Design
This process starts at the very beginning – the initial meeting. During this, we’ll determine how many pages need to be designed out. The more pages there are, the longer the turnaround time and higher the cost will be, but many pages can use the same design and instead customize images and content.
Once a brand strategy has been reached, designers will mock up your site concept in highly specialized software, which will then be presented for revisions until a final design has been agreed upon.
Initial Tech Fees
Just like an LLC application fee, these are some costs of doing business online that are unavoidable, and they can add up.
Domain Names
This is what makes the URL for your website www.yourbusinessname.com rather than a bunch of redirects from your hosting platform. $17–$25 annually
SSL Certificates
These beef up security with SSL encryption and take your URL from HTTP to HTTPS, and along with it comes peace of mind for all your visitors. It’s worth the price. $100–$200 annually
Hosting Fees
Hosting providers hold all of the files that comprise a website (code, images, etc.) and make them available for use. It’s the difference between something everyone can access online and something you put in a folder on your desktop to look at.
$150–$500 annually
Search Engine Optimized Content
We want your input on the messaging for your site, but content written by our SEO-trained copywriting team can reach a broader audience and help you move prospective clients along the buyer’s journey. We can also offer an idea of additional information you hadn’t initially considered. We aren’t experts in your field, so we need your insights, but our impartiality helps us see what extra information newbies looking at your site for the first time need to make the decision to purchase.
Custom Imagery
There are sites that subsist on stock images alone, but visitors can always tell. There’s something too familiar and thin about their blank-slate nature. We will build upon your existing collection of custom graphics for a one-of-a-kind visual story that inspires trust and action from prospective clients and makes your website memorable.
The more custom icons and process graphics that are needed, the higher the cost will be, but these files will also be available for you to use again and again for future marketing endeavors down the line with little maintenance.
Revisions
You may think it’s a small tweak, but many small changes take a fair bit of time. The more revisions, photo changes, reshoots, tweaks, and reboots a website needs, the more it’s going to cost. For many clients, this is the #1 thing they have control over to keep costs low. Ask how you can make changes to your site once it’s live to save costs after the fact, and tell us about things you feel strongly from the beginning of the planning process to make sure you get something you’ll love without paying more.
Web Development
Our expert web developer will write custom code to build out the functionality in sync with your website. But there’s a lot more they do to ensure a consistent user experience like thorough testing for bugs and glitches across Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. For this reason, late-stage changes to the programming of the site can add up quickly especially considering their need to be made and tested for mobile, desktop and tablet.
The Bells and Whistles
Although these features aren’t totally necessary to have a successful business website, you may want one or two to make your business stand out or simplify an onboarding process.
Photography
Stock photography is a useful, low-cost option to build your website, but it isn’t always on brand because it is a lowest common denominator product. Headshots of your leadership team are a great way for customers to put faces to names, and other custom photos of your location and team will capture the culture and brand experience in a way that deeply connects with site visitors.
Video
A video is a great way to increase visitor engagement. Even without sound, the moving visuals seize attention and have the capability of communicating more information in a short timeframe. They do require specialized shoots, editing, custom graphics, unique coding, and large file storage. All in all, one video can quickly add $5K–$10K to your baseline website costs.
Specialized Functionality
Do you have any special goals for your business website beyond being informational? Our websites come standard with calls to action and internal lead generation built-in, but you may want to include an eCommerce platform, paid subscription service, third-party contact forms, payment system, warehouse management system or something else entirely. These things take extra time and money, but knowing in advance that it is a priority will help our team find ways to integrate them in a cost-effective way.
Continued Care
Who will be handling maintenance and website updates after your site is launched? If you have a member of your team capable of it, it can save a lot of dough. But an agency will typically offer annual maintenance packages for these kinds of alterations. Other, more robust, updates may be charged at an hourly rate.
Okay, But What’s This Going to Cost Me?
Yep. We get it. We’ve given you a lot of information to consider, but here’s a general breakdown for what you can expect:
Minimal Tier
- Good for Startups & Non-Profits
- 5-7 Unique Page Designs
- Limited Content Writing
- No Bells & Whistles
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$5,500 – $15,000
Small Business Tier
- Good for Established Business with Multiple Service Offerings
- 10+ Unique Page Designs
- Full-Site Content & SEO Strategy
- A Few Bells & Whistles
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$10,000 – $35,000
eCommerce Tier
- Good for Established Business with Internal eCommerce Site
- 15+ Unique Page Designs
- Full-Site Content & SEO Strategy
- A Good Mix of Bells & Whistles
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$18,000 – $75,000
Conglomerate Tier
- Good for Corporations with Several Locations or High Traffic
- 20+ Unique Page Designs
- Full-Site Content & SEO Strategy
- Lots of Bells & Whistles
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$35,000 – $150,000
Building a website is an investment in your business. By choosing a team that can take on both form and function, you can create a central location for all of your business objectives and frees up your team to focus on the things that make your business great.