What Does It Cost To Build Your Own Website?
In order to have a website you need 6 basic things, a domain name, a webhost, a design template, content, images and someone to put it altogether (website designer). Domain name costs approximately £15 per year although you can save money on the initial purchase price and discounts are often available if the domain is registered for a longer term, say 5 or 10 years.
Hosting costs start at around £30 per year and rise depending on your requirements. The £30 option is normally sufficient for most small businesses unless the site includes e-commerce facilities when it is likely a more robust solution will be required.
Designers can charge thousands of pounds for a custom web template because of the work involved, however, unless you are Walmart or some similar big name brand having your own custom designed template does not represent a sensible investment. There are many professional templates available these days and many are available for a very low cost. Our own service enables you to choose from a selection of templates that are available free of charge and will portray your business in a very professional light.
The most important aspect of your website is the content. You should invest sufficient time to determine the message you want to get across. What is the purpose of the site? Once this is understood you should write the content (or employ someone) to put the content together for you. The best way to get ideas is to look at your competitors websites. What do you like about them? What don’t you like at them? Content is free if you write it yourself and the price increases from there. We’d suggest a minimum of 5 pages of content (500 words per page). Content really is king and this will be covered in more detail in a future article.
To make your site look appealing you must use images. The absolute minimum is one image per page but you can add up to 3 to each 500 word page of text. Images can be acquired fairly cheaply from web stock photo specialists – allow between £1 and £3 per image.
Finally, to pull it all together you would be best placed to use the services of a website designer. The prices charged vary dramatically but we offer a basic starter package from just £149 which includes email and a years free hosting.
As you can probably see it is actually cheaper to use a web design service such as smallbusinesswebsitepro than to do it yourself. To find out how we can help you call us today on 01258 858466 or email your enquiry via our contact form.
