What a website really costs a small business

"How much does a website cost?" is the first question nearly everyone asks me, and it's a fair one. The trouble is that the honest answer, "it depends", isn't much use when you're trying to plan a budget.

So here's what it actually depends on. I'll go through the typical price ranges in the UK, what you're paying for, what pushes the price up, and the costs that carry on after your site goes live. By the end you should be able to look at any quote, mine included, and know whether it makes sense.

The short answer: typical UK price ranges

Prices vary a lot, but most small business websites fall into one of three groups.

Those are wide ranges, and that's because "a website" can mean anything from a single page with your opening hours to a full online shop. The rest of this guide is about where your project sits within them.

What you're actually paying for

When you pay a designer, you're not paying for pages. You're paying for the thinking and the work that goes into making those pages useful. For a typical project that includes:

• Planning. Working out who the site is for, what they need to find, and what you want them to do next: call, book, buy or get in touch.
• Words. Clear copy that answers your customers' questions. This is often the part that takes longest, especially if you're starting from scratch.
• Design. A look that fits your brand and makes the important things easy to see.
• Build. Turning the design into a fast, accessible site that works properly on phones, which is how most people will see it.
• Photography. Real photos of you, your place and your work. Good photos do more for a small business site than almost anything else.
• Search basics. Page titles, descriptions, sensible structure and a Google Business Profile, so local people can find you.
• Handover. Showing you how to make simple updates yourself, so you're not stuck waiting on someone else.

A very cheap quote usually means some of these steps are missing. It's worth asking which ones.

What pushes the price up

It's rarely the number of pages that makes a site expensive. It's what the site has to do. These are the things that make the biggest difference:

• Selling online. An online shop needs product pages, payments, delivery options, stock and order emails. It's a bigger job than a brochure site.
• Bookings and forms. Appointment booking, enquiry forms that feed into other systems, or members' areas all add work.
• Content you don't have yet. If the words and photos need creating, that's real time. It's well worth it, but it should be in the quote.
• Welsh and English. A bilingual site means translation and two versions of every page. For many Welsh businesses it's the right choice, so plan for it from the start.
• Connecting to other tools. Linking your site to booking software, a CRM, stock systems or a mailing list takes extra setup and testing.
• Moving an old site. Bringing across old pages, posts or products, and making sure Google doesn't lose track of them, takes careful work.

The running costs after launch

This is the part people don't always budget for. Once your site is live, there are some regular costs to keep it online and working well.

None of these are huge on their own, but together they add up over a year. A good quote should tell you what these will be, rather than leaving you to discover them later.

Where it's worth spending, and where to save

If your budget is tight, here's where I'd put the money first:

• Spend on your words and photos. They're what persuade people to pick you. A beautiful design with vague copy and stock photos won't do the job.
• Spend on speed and mobile. A slow site loses visitors before they've seen anything, especially on rural broadband or patchy phone signal.
• Save on features you might need "one day". Start with what you need now. A well-built site can grow when you're ready.
• Save on page count. Five clear, useful pages beat twenty thin ones, for your customers and for search.

Questions to ask before you sign anything

Whoever you work with, these questions will tell you a lot about what you're getting:

1. What exactly is included, and what would cost extra?
2. Who writes the words, and who supplies the photos?
3. Will I be able to update the site myself?
4. Who owns the website and the domain once it's paid for?
5. What will it cost each year to keep running?
6. What happens if something breaks after launch?

If the answers are clear and in writing, you're in good hands. If they're vague, keep asking.

The honest bottom line

A website is one of the few things that works for your business every hour of every day, so it's worth getting right. That doesn't mean spending as much as possible. It means paying for the parts that help your customers, and not for the parts that don't.

If you'd like a clear, itemised idea of what your website would cost, I'm always happy to have a chat. No pressure and no jargon, just an honest answer.