Business website cost for a small business
Discussion
My partner is starting up a part time business and wants a website.
Anyone experience of cost or what she can expect.
She needs something to promote her business, but doesn’t need any ecommerce options or similar.
She has tried the people by hour website and was offered a ‘professional’ website for £150 via Wordpress. I thought this platform was mainly used by bloggers?
Anyone experience of cost or what she can expect.
She needs something to promote her business, but doesn’t need any ecommerce options or similar.
She has tried the people by hour website and was offered a ‘professional’ website for £150 via Wordpress. I thought this platform was mainly used by bloggers?
I *think* that wordpress is pretty standard for most websites other than larger corporates etc.
Certainly was when I have had mine done over the last 8 years, and just recently when I looked again to have it redone.
I have had websites from £500 to £2500, and I was happier with the cheaper one. Looked to have the £2500 amended recently, and was told it won't be possible, and they wanted another £2500. I find that extremely expensive, given I have to write 90% of the content, supply all images and logos etc...
Be good to hear if anyone here can recommend anyone for you.
Certainly was when I have had mine done over the last 8 years, and just recently when I looked again to have it redone.
I have had websites from £500 to £2500, and I was happier with the cheaper one. Looked to have the £2500 amended recently, and was told it won't be possible, and they wanted another £2500. I find that extremely expensive, given I have to write 90% of the content, supply all images and logos etc...
Be good to hear if anyone here can recommend anyone for you.
Unless she/you are very clued up don’t go down PPH at 150 route
Wordpress perfect for what she needs, professional responsive template will do the trick
Does she have domain ? Hosting ?
I’d say 350 to 500 for something decent with a bit of handholding.
PM me if you’d like, August is our slowest month and my colleague may be able to help with some pointers depending on what her line of work is
Wordpress perfect for what she needs, professional responsive template will do the trick
Does she have domain ? Hosting ?
I’d say 350 to 500 for something decent with a bit of handholding.
PM me if you’d like, August is our slowest month and my colleague may be able to help with some pointers depending on what her line of work is
rufmeister said:
I have had websites from £500 to £2500, and I was happier with the cheaper one. Looked to have the £2500 amended recently, and was told it won't be possible, and they wanted another £2500. I find that extremely expensive, given I have to write 90% of the content, supply all images and logos etc...
Be good to hear if anyone here can recommend anyone for you.
Rufmeister I’d be very interested in seeing a 2.5k site that cannot be updated !! What’s the URL and what is it coded in?? Anything can be updated, sometimes devs just don’t want to...Be good to hear if anyone here can recommend anyone for you.
https://themeforest.net/category/wordpress?sort=sa...
Buy a popular theme off that
Hosting from siteground.
And you're done. DIY it imo.
Buy a popular theme off that
Hosting from siteground.
And you're done. DIY it imo.
jonamv8 said:
Rufmeister I’d be very interested in seeing a 2.5k site that cannot be updated !! What’s the URL and what is it coded in?? Anything can be updated, sometimes devs just don’t want to...
Updated as in, tweaking to make look a bit better, I find it hard to believe also, that’s why I didn’t go with their total redo at £2500. Will pm you the url.Wordpress is the number 1 Content Management System in the market and powers 25% - 31% (depending on whose figures you believe) of all websites on the internet. It's a pretty powerful tool these days, with widgets and plugins to do almost anything you can imagine.
Assuming the site is a very simple brochure type site she will be able to get something going for easily less than £1000, possibly even less than £500 all in - the biggest variable being the branding and whether she goes totally off the shelf with a ready made template and brand or has a bespoke design with associated design cycles/amendments with a professional graphic designer and whether she originates her own images/photos or buys stock images. Some off the shelf themes charge a one off fee, some charge a yearly subscription so make sure you know exactly what you are buying. The biggest amount of work will be creating the actual content.
In terms of running costs - a domain and wordpress hosting will be under £15 a month depending on package and what support you have. I'd recommend going down the fully hosted solution rather than have to manage Wordpress yourself. There's a few key plugins you should have installed, such as WordFence to try and protect the site. You can go to town on SEO and ad campaigns and social media marketing etc these all add to your costs but you don't need all the bells and whistles from day one.
Happy to advise further on here or via PM. There's a few other Wordpress/web guys on PH too so you won't be short of help and advice.
Assuming the site is a very simple brochure type site she will be able to get something going for easily less than £1000, possibly even less than £500 all in - the biggest variable being the branding and whether she goes totally off the shelf with a ready made template and brand or has a bespoke design with associated design cycles/amendments with a professional graphic designer and whether she originates her own images/photos or buys stock images. Some off the shelf themes charge a one off fee, some charge a yearly subscription so make sure you know exactly what you are buying. The biggest amount of work will be creating the actual content.
In terms of running costs - a domain and wordpress hosting will be under £15 a month depending on package and what support you have. I'd recommend going down the fully hosted solution rather than have to manage Wordpress yourself. There's a few key plugins you should have installed, such as WordFence to try and protect the site. You can go to town on SEO and ad campaigns and social media marketing etc these all add to your costs but you don't need all the bells and whistles from day one.
Happy to advise further on here or via PM. There's a few other Wordpress/web guys on PH too so you won't be short of help and advice.
Start with understanding why she wants a website...
As a simple presence online for credibility / an electronic business card... then spend as little as possible, wordpress / squarespace / etc will all do the job, price is key..,
If the website is going to drive the business / be used for business processes / be business critical- then invest in the website, find a company who will build the website to help build the business, it will be more expensive but it will pay back... (eg one of our clients has just spent £12k with us on automating 2 processes which will save them 1/2 a person per year or c. £15k per year)
Wordpress
- advantage is a lot of functionality for very little money
- disadvantage is a lot of compromise (clashing plugins / complex to modify for non-coders / vulnerable to attack if not kept up to date / modifications can be overwritten with updates etc.) - we wrote our own CMS because Wordpress is not simple to use beyond the basics..,
We have had more issues with customer Wordpress sites than anything else, fine for blogging, fine for simple sites which need little customisation - not good for complex business process based sites... The fact that so high a % of websites use Wordpress is testimony to ease of installation, not necessarily a reflection on suitability... if you were to look at company websites being used to grow the business, proportionally very few will be Wordpress- most will be custom sites...
So, back to the original point... work out what the business needs to do and invest appropriately- if not important, then save money... if business critical, spend money to make money..,
As a simple presence online for credibility / an electronic business card... then spend as little as possible, wordpress / squarespace / etc will all do the job, price is key..,
If the website is going to drive the business / be used for business processes / be business critical- then invest in the website, find a company who will build the website to help build the business, it will be more expensive but it will pay back... (eg one of our clients has just spent £12k with us on automating 2 processes which will save them 1/2 a person per year or c. £15k per year)
Wordpress
- advantage is a lot of functionality for very little money
- disadvantage is a lot of compromise (clashing plugins / complex to modify for non-coders / vulnerable to attack if not kept up to date / modifications can be overwritten with updates etc.) - we wrote our own CMS because Wordpress is not simple to use beyond the basics..,
We have had more issues with customer Wordpress sites than anything else, fine for blogging, fine for simple sites which need little customisation - not good for complex business process based sites... The fact that so high a % of websites use Wordpress is testimony to ease of installation, not necessarily a reflection on suitability... if you were to look at company websites being used to grow the business, proportionally very few will be Wordpress- most will be custom sites...
So, back to the original point... work out what the business needs to do and invest appropriately- if not important, then save money... if business critical, spend money to make money..,
akirk said:
So, back to the original point... work out what the business needs to do and invest appropriately- if not important, then save money... if business critical, spend money to make money..,
Absolutely this. I don't think I've ever come across a site that was put together by the business owner that didn't look like it had been put together by the business owner rather than a web designer!Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff