28 Jan How much does a website cost in Australia?

Over the past few years I have seen a huge spike in the amount of website projects I’ve taken on. The question of “how much does it cost to build a website” is one of the most popular questions I get asked. And the answer you don’t want to read is…. It depends.

But in the interest of quick wins, here’s the quick answer.

Design and build it yourself

If you want a normal website, you can build it yourself using some kind of online builder like Weebly, Wix or Squarespace.

Using these services is as easy as building a Powerpoint presentation. But remember you”l need to add the cost of your own time – someone needs to source all the images and write the content!

If you want an ecommerce website then Shopify is probably your best choice. As above, Shopify is easy to use and set up and shouldn’t take much time to get a site up and working.

Each of these option will cost you about $15 – $50 per month plus the cost of your time set it up. And you’ll need to add the cost of any additional customisations you may need beyond what their basic plans offer.

Get a designer to build your site (eg. Me)

You’ll get the benefit of having a designer approach it with your brand in mind. With that comes the value-add of thoughtful image choices, consideration for your brand values and consideration for your market position.

This would be built with WordPress – 26% of the websites in the world are built with WordPress. You’ll get the benefit of a secure, powerful and robust platform and this option comes with more strategic benefits also.

The additional expense comes when you start to add:

• Customer strategy
• Conversion strategy (customer journey and user experience strategy)
• Content strategy (persuasive writing, premium imagery)
• Smart design and development
• Additional marketing tools (such as email marketing)
• SEO tools, Analytics

This direction gives you a better looking and performing site and will range from $2500- $15,000

It’s not a cost. It’s an investment.

As with most things, with websites you get what you pay for. A more premium site with improved customer strategy makes more money and gets more traffic.

You you want to take your site to the next level then you’d be talking about a custom built site from the ground up.

This premium level gives you improved speed, customisations and often a more in depth customer and content strategy.

You’ll have a team of developers creating a lean and nimble website to fit your business needs perfectly.

This option is the $25,000 plus category. Costs can keep going about into the hundres of thousands.

Maybe you want a customised customer platform or quoting system, the more complex functionality you need means you need complex solutions.

So which one is right for you?

What do you want your website to do and how your customers will interact with it? Knowing this will help you understand which direction to take. I have a short questionnaire you can download to help you work this out.

“Questionnaire: Important questions to ask yourself before creating a new website.

Example 1

You’re a new bar. Most of your marketing will be word of mouth or PR in digital media. Your website needs to only do three things.

1. Exist (because facebook pages are so amateur)
2. Have your contact details and location
3. Briefly show customers what you have to offer (private events, food, etc)

You can achieve all this in one page. You can have your instagram feeding into it which shows the latest news and images. This should be a small site and most of your budget should go to ensuring your Google Business profile is set up and PR to get your bar featured on all the cool news websites.

Example 2

You’re a new ecommerce business. You need to get your product online and make it available for purchase. You want to create a brand site that gets across the lifestyle benefits also. You’ll need:

1. Customer strategy
2. Conversion strategy
3. Brand strategy
4. SEO tools and analytics
5. And a robust ecommerce system to handle purchases

You should look at building a WordPress site with woocommerce or a Shopify site. But you should engage a designer to better create a sales funnel that converts your visitors into customers. You should hold budget aside for Facebook marketing to create buzz and traffic.

Then you should plan for success and have a two year plan to take this “proof of concept website” and convert it into something more customised and powerful that will grow as your business grows into the future.

If you’re not sure what you need in a website then let’s have a chat. I’ve  worked on sites such as Foodbank , online butchers Kingsmore, cyber security firm Sense of Security and even dog day care company Doggy Daycare Farm Trips.