One of the questions we often get asked when it comes to website design is what the price is. It is understandable that business owners want to know how much they should reasonably expect to pay for a new website. In this article we are going to break down how much web design costs for small businesses in Niagara Falls and the Buffalo region.
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It Depends On Your Requirements
What features you need will affect the pricing. Most small businesses just need a standard 5 page website. (Home, About, Services, Blog, Contact.) A standard small business website typically runs around $600 here at E-Man Ink. Like most website design agencies, we bill hourly. Our hourly cost is $26. Your website may cost less or more than $600 depending on how long it takes to complete the design.
Other businesses may need advanced features such as live chat, an online store, the ability to upload files when submitting an order, etc. Any additional features can affect the cost as they will take more time to implement.
Avoid This Mistake: Using Site Builders
Many business owners get tempted by website builders like Wix or Squarespace, due to the low cost. It’s important to remember you get what you pay for. Sites made with these site builders lack features and functionality that may be important to your business. The biggest issue with site builder websites is that they perform poorly when it comes to ranking in search engines. You are very limited with what you can do with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with site builders.
What Your Website Should Be
It is important to remember that your website is an investment in your business. You should have a clear goal of what you want your website to do for your business. Most businesses use their website as a tool to bring customers in from Google, and get them to buy or ring their phone.
If you set up your website right, it can build authority and trust for you. Your site can do all the selling so customers call you with their credit card in hand.
E-Commerce Versus A Standard Website
E-Commerce websites are online stores like Amazon. Some businesses need to have the ability to sell their products or services online and to be able to take payments. E-Commerce websites start at around $1,200 here at E-Man Ink. Most website design companies charge over $2,000 for e-commerce website design.
There are many advantages to having your own store versus using websites like eBay or Amazon. For one, you have complete control over your online shop. Additionally, websites like eBay and Amazon charge you fees that can drain the total profit you would otherwise be able to keep.
Hosting & A Domain
One of the cost factors you need to take into consideration is your web hosting. Just because you have a website built, doesn’t mean you are fully online. Your website needs somewhere to be stored and hosted, and this is where hosting comes into play.
Many business owners don’t understand what website hosting is fully, so here is an easy breakdown to simplify it.
Your domain name is your website address, for example www.emanink.com is a domain name. You have to pay to register this name with a company called a registar (a.k.a. your hosting provider.)
Hosting is the service of hosting your website on a server, a specialized computer built to be on 24/7 in a data center somewhere. When your website is hosted, that means it is up 24/7 where anyone can go and visit it.
Hosting typically costs around $10 a month and a domain costs around $10 a year. While we do not offer hosting at this time at E-Man Ink, we will help set you up with the host of your choice.
The E-Man Ink Advantage
Many website designers unfortunately hold your website hostage. After they are finished designing it, if you want updates you have to pay them additional fees. At E-Man Ink, we set up your website so you can do easy edits yourself after designing it. Additionally, we show you how to log in and make these changes easily without any coding experience required.
We also build websites that are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ready. The sites we build are Google compliant and are designed to rank well right out of the box. Every website we build is mobile optimized and responsive, meaning it will resize to fit the screen of all devices.
Website Updates
After the core website is complete, sometimes additional changes or content needs to be added. While we do show our clients how to do this themselves, we can also do edits for you. We understand that not everyone has the time to go in and do edits properly. We charge $26 per hour for any additional edits that you would like to have made to your website.
Search Engine Optimization
Most consumers go to Google when looking for a business near them. For example, you yourself have probably typed in “pizza near me” before. When people use Siri or the Google Assistant on their phones, it is pulling data from the Google search results. It is super important that your business is optimized to show up in the Google search results.
While we do build websites that are SEO friendly, proper Search Engine Optimization takes time and is an ongoing process. We charge monthly for SEO, and the price depends on what your needs are. For example, e-commerce SEO is going to cost more than small business SEO.
Get Started With A Brand New Website
Ready to get a stunning website that achieves your business goals…? Feel free to stop in today or give us a call at: (716) 297-5073. We build websites that work.
Gabriel Miller
Gabriel is our website designer and search engine optimizer here at E-Man Ink. He takes great pride in his work and puts our clients first. He is passionate about technology and the internet of things (IOT).
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