What Affects the Cost of a Small Business Website

"How much does a website cost?" is the most common question we hear, and the honest answer is that it depends on a short list of choices you can see and control. This guide walks through those choices so that you can compare proposals sensibly, decide where to spend and avoid paying for things you do not need.

We have deliberately left out sample prices and market averages. Figures for a typical site vary so widely, and so many of them are marketing, that quoting one would only mislead you. What helps instead is knowing which factors move a project from small to large, and what to ask each person who sends you a quote.

Start with scope, not price

Every website quote is really an answer to a scope question: what is being made, by whom and for how long? Two proposals with very different numbers often describe very different projects, and the cheaper one may leave out copy, photography, search setup or testing.

Before collecting quotes, write a short brief covering what the business does, who the site is for, the area you serve, the pages you expect and the main action you want visitors to take. Our website design and local SEO page lists the pieces we normally plan around, and the same list works as a comparison sheet for any provider.

The more precisely you describe the scope, the more comparable the answers will be.

The number and type of pages

Pages are the most visible cost driver, but their type matters as much as their count. A simple page with text and one image is quick. A service page with a custom layout, a gallery, a form and supporting content takes longer. A page that must be written from scratch takes longer again.

Think in terms of page types:

• Home page, which usually takes the most planning
• Service pages, one per main service
• About and team pages
• Contact page with a form and map
• Proof pages such as testimonials or project examples
• Supporting pages such as frequently asked questions or an information section

If you offer five services, five good service pages are better than one long page, because each can be found and understood on its own. That is a decision about scope and about search, and it is worth discussing at the start.

Design: template, adapted or custom

Design effort ranges from adapting an existing layout to building something specific to your brand. A template-based approach can be quick and perfectly good for a simple business. A custom design takes more discussion, more review rounds and more time to build.

Ask what is included. How many layouts will you see before the build? How many rounds of revisions? Is the mobile design included or treated as an extra? Does the design include your logo and brand colors, or do those need to be made first? Our small business web design page describes how we handle planning and mobile layout, and the same questions apply when you talk to anyone else.

Copy: written, edited or supplied

Writing is the part of a website project that is most often underestimated. Words take time, and good ones take interviews, drafts and edits. A proposal that quotes only design and build but says nothing about copy may be assuming you will supply all of it.

There are three common arrangements:

• You write everything and the provider places it
• You supply notes and the provider writes and edits
• The provider interviews you and writes the whole site

The second and third cost more than the first, and often produce a better site, because a clear explanation of what you do is what visitors came to read. Decide which you want, and ask whether revisions to copy are included.

Photos, video and other content

Original images and video are a major variable. Stock photos are quick and inexpensive but look like stock. Original photography of your team and your work takes planning, a shoot and editing, and it depends on where you are and how many people are involved.

Content questions to ask:

• Are photos included, and if so, whose and how many?
• Is a shoot part of the project, and who handles travel?
• Is video included, and in what shapes?
• Who owns the finished files?
• What happens if you already have usable photos?

For a business outside Connecticut, we plan photo and video separately from the website itself, because they depend on location. You can supply existing assets, we can travel for a shoot or production can be arranged locally, subject to the agreed scope. Our page on website photo and video content describes each option.

Search setup and ongoing SEO

Search work comes in two kinds. The first is foundation: page titles and descriptions, clean addresses, a sitemap, redirects when a site is moved, and consistent business details. This is normally part of the build. The second is ongoing: new pages, updates, review of how people find the site and adjustments.

Ask which is included, and what the provider will and will not promise. Be cautious about anyone who promises a particular ranking. Results depend on competition, location and many things outside the provider's control. Our local SEO services page explains what we include and how we describe results.

Features and integrations

Features beyond pages and text add effort. Common ones include:

• Online booking or scheduling tools
• Quote request forms with several steps
• Payment or deposit collection through a provider you already use
• Email marketing signup
• Customer review displays
• Maps with multiple service locations
• Connections to customer records or other business software

Each feature involves a decision about which tool to use, how it looks inside the site, who maintains it and whether it carries its own monthly fee. List the ones you need now and the ones that can wait. A site can be launched without a feature and extended later.

Moving an existing site

A redesign of a site that already has pages, rankings and customers is not the same project as a first site. It needs an inventory, a plan for addresses, redirects and testing. These tasks protect what the old site has earned, and they add real work. If your current site has pages that bring calls, say so in the brief. Our small business website redesign checklist explains the audit that should happen before anything is rebuilt.

Hosting, domains and maintenance

The build is a one-time project; the site then has to live somewhere and stay current. Ask who handles each of these:

• Domain registration and renewal
• Hosting, and who pays for it
• Security updates and backups
• Small content changes after launch
• Fixes if something breaks
• Third-party tools and their subscriptions

These can be included, billed separately or left to you. None of the answers is wrong, but the answer should be written down. Ongoing hosting and maintenance are scoped separately from the build in our projects, and your proposal sets out ownership and responsibilities before work begins.

Build now versus ongoing work

It helps to separate two budgets. The first is the build: planning, design, copy, media and launch. The second is the life of the site: updates, new pages, new photos, search work and maintenance. Businesses that plan only for the first often find the site gets stale, while those that plan for both can keep improving it at a pace they choose.

You do not have to decide the second budget today. You do have to know it exists, and to ask any provider what they would recommend and how it would be scoped.

Content is the other half of that planning. Our guide to a website content plan for local businesses shows how pages, copy and photos add up, so you can see in advance which parts of the project you will supply and which you will ask a provider to handle. Knowing this early prevents the most common surprise, which is discovering midway that the site needs far more writing and photography than anyone budgeted time for.

Timeline and who is involved

Time is part of cost. A project moves at the speed of decisions: how quickly you answer questions, supply content and give feedback. Delays in approvals stretch a schedule more than anything the provider does. Ask what you will be asked to do, and when. We set out the schedule in the proposal rather than quoting a date in advance, because it depends on scope and on how quickly each stage is reviewed.

Questions to ask every provider

When proposals arrive, compare them with the same questions:

• What exactly is included, page by page?
• Who writes the copy, and how many revision rounds are included?
• Is mobile design included?
• Is photo or video included, and where does it come from?
• How are old addresses handled if I already have a site?
• What search work is part of the build, and what is ongoing?
• Who owns the site, the content and the media?
• What do hosting and maintenance involve, and who pays for them?
• What is the schedule, and what do you need from me to keep to it?

A provider who answers these plainly is easier to trust than one who leads with a number. If you would like to talk through your own scope, we work remotely with businesses across the U.S. from West Hartford, Connecticut.