This past week I was asked “why does one website cost more than another? Aren’t they all the same?” I wish there was a simple answer to this one but there really isn’t a magic formula. We are always honest and give our customers the best price for what they’re asking.
I guess you can think of a website as a car. You have your high-end sports cars that are customized and are truly one of a kind, and you have those that you’d be scared to get behind the wheel of…but technically they’re still a car. We do not have any lemons on our lot or sell cars that would be considered death traps. Our vehicles are top of the line and always have room to upgrade.
Things that change the price of a website (no matter where you get it):
1.) How much money are you going to invest into your site? Translation: What’s your bottom line / budget? We will always advise a potential customer on what their options are to get the most out of their budget. We’ve even sent them to free website resources, but like anything in life…you really do get what you pay for.
2.) Options. “Do you want a leather interior or cloth?” The more features your site will need the more time it’s going to take to get it online. Time is money so the price does go up. We’ve always prided ourselves in trying to save a customer money, and I think we are one of the few design agencies that leave money on the table for another day.
3.) Speed Speed Speed. “How fast was I going officer?” If you’re going to need your website sooner, the price will reflect it as most designers have other projects in the pipeline. If you’re not in a rush, most of our sites are off and running in thirty days but we need your help on this one. We’ll need all your photos, text, email boxes, forms, etc all together so that we can get cracking on your new project. Finally we’ll need to make sure that you’re around to look at the project. We’ve developed a method to allow you to look at your site going up (similar to a house being built) but you’ll need to be involved in the process. If you show up on the closing date without ever looking at the project, it’s going to set you back on your launch date. Make sure you have a reasonable time frame for your web project and enough time to stop on by and let us know what you think of the progress.
Abel’s Final Thought
If you’ve ever heard me speak or lecture somewhere you’ll usually hear me close with this. YOUR WEBSITE IS THE ONLY TEAM MEMBER THAT DOESN’T CALL IN SICK (or drunk) AND WORKS 24 HOURS A DAY AND 7 DAYS A WEEK (at least it should if it’s built right). So make sure it’s an accurate reflection of your company and it’s goals. If you’re a lawn care company, you’re not going to want to go with a techno theme just because it’s a free template you found on someone’s page. Treat your website as a satellite office that will be seen more often than your real office. With the price of gas still high (at least in my opinion it is) the decision-makers will look at a website before they drive down the road looking for your office.
Sometimes a custom-designed site is out of your budget, but ask if they can work with you. (We always do).