How much should a WordPress website cost?

With so many options out there when it comes to website design, it’s very easy to get confused about which is the best solution for your business, with prices varying massively from one solution to the next. The rise in popularity for ‘do it yourself’ website builders such as Squarespace & Wix means that the entry-point for creating a website can be as little as £10 per month, compared to spending thousands with a web design agency. So what exactly are you getting for your money?

The most important thing to keep in mind when commissioning a new website is that you get what you put in to it. In most cases, your website is the main marketing tool for your business and is responsible for generating a return – whether that is online sales, enquiries or improving brand awareness. Because of that, you shouldn’t look at your website purely as a cost, but instead as an investment.

In a way, websites are very similar to cars. Sounds crazy, right? Well actually no, and here’s why:

Quality

• Top-of-the-range websites are like sports cars – they’re fast, reliable, all-singing all dancing, and engage visitors.
• Mid-range websites can be compared to runaround cars – they chug along doing their job ok, providing the essential features.
• Cheap/free websites can be viewed as second-hand cars – they’re unreliable, unlikely to perform very well and can be easily broken in to.

Leave it to the experts

Most of us know how to replace a tyre or change the oil, but we wouldn’t dream of building our own car. Websites are no different and leaving it to the professionals will mean your website returns the best results for your business.

Maintenance is key

I could buy a brand new car today and be confident that it will last a long time, but without ongoing maintenance it will eventually break. Websites – no matter how good they are, require maintenance to ensure they continue to function correctly. The internet & technology are continuously evolving, so ensuring your website tech follows suit will mean your site can continue motoring on.

What impacts the cost of a website?

There are many factors that we take into account when putting together a website proposal for clients. We’ve included a few of the key considerations below:

The goals of the website

Ensuring we have a clear understanding of what your goals are, will allow us to focus more on specific areas of the website. For example, if your aim is to improve the customer journey or conversion rate for your eCommerce website, we might propose more in-depth analysis of your current shopping flow, comprehensive UX design work or even some consumer research.

The functionality requirements

By functionality, we mean any features that you’re looking to include on the site. This could be something as simple as enquiry forms & maps, or something more complex like booking systems and integrations with third-party software.

The size of the website

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but the size of the website will obviously also have an impact on costs. The higher the number of the pages included on the website, the more work will likely be involved.

Your audience

Your website target audience may also have an impact on your website requirements. If for example you need to cater for customers around the world, you may need multi-lingual support to provide translated content for other countries. Alternatively if you knew that accessibility was a critical factor for your website visitors, you may need to include some accessibility settings to allow users to adjust text size, colours etc.