6th March 2013
Or should that be: how much should I invest in my website?
Costs vary widely depending on what you want to do and whom you talk to. With such a wide range of offerings available, how do you judge value for money?
The cost of building a website relates directly to the time required for design and build. There may also be costs relating to the systems and services implemented on the site, such as a payment gateway or content management system, plus a charge for hosting. It is vital to not only consider the up front investment required but also any on going maintenance and marketing costs.
To ensure real business value for your marketing money, you need to be clear about what you want your website to achieve now and how you think it will need to develop in the future. Consider what functionality will be relevant to your business such as social media, ecommerce, blog, news feed and so on. How much content will there be and how will it be updated? Will one person manage the site, or will there be a team of people who need access with various corresponding security levels and publishing rights?
However good your site looks it still needs to perform in search results, so consider how you might optimise the site for search engines and how you can use social media techniques to drive traffic. If your business is growing, think about building in flexibility for future developments.
In summary, to ensure real business value for your marketing money at any level of budget, you need to be clear about what you want your website to achieve.
We have worked with organisations of all types and sizes and we pride ourselves on our ability to listen to your needs, and our experience in understanding how to meet them. We'll work with you to come up with a website that fits with your budget, can deliver value for money now and will evolve for the future.