Website Costs
Want to budget for the development of your website?
The following will give you sample costs involved in creating and maintaining your website.
Domain name registration - A domain name or the address of your site (for example www.bluesailmarketing.com) must be purchased to have a site on the Internet. Typically, costs can range depending on the company in which you purchase the domain. We recommend using a reputable company and for ease of use, use the same company that is hosting your site.
A typical domain registration fee is approximately $20-$50 a year, but we recommend purchasing more than one year of service as discounts apply for longer terms and it is rare that you would not want to renew your website. A website designer can help you choose and purchase a domain name(s). Blue Sail Marketing will register your domain name free of charge when we design your website.
Web hosting - Your site must be held on a server through a website hosting company, which charges a monthly fee to host your site. Web hosting is usually billed monthly and can range from $5-$100/month depending on the size and specifications of your website. For example, hosting for an e-commerce site will be more expensive than a basic website. Designers typically will set up and purchase your web host company services for a relatively low charge. The coordination cost is free when you purchase website design services with Blue Sail Marketing.
Website design and development – You can get a website for your business at almost any cost. Cost will depend on amount of pages, if you want a template or custom design, or features such as databases, form pages, flash, calendars, chat rooms or e-commerce. Discuss your website plan with a designer for an appropriate estimate.
Photos – Photos are an important element in the design of your site. If you have photos that are appropriate for your site, you may only be charged a nominal scanning or touch-up fee. In most cases, Blue Sail Marketing recommends clients organize a photo shoot for personalized pictures of your building, staff or products. Price will depend on length of time.
Another option is for clients to purchase a monthly membership to a stock photo company. Currently, the stock photo company we recommend costs has photos for around $5 each.
Copywriting – Copywriting costs for you site will vary depending on the amount of pages. Average price per page is $50-$150. If you provide a draft of the text, bullet points or key ideas, and/or marketing materials, such as brochures or service sheets, you can keep copywriting costs down. You can also write the text for your site yourself, but we highly recommend that your site is then edited by a search engine optimizer for search engine viability.
E-commerce – If you are planning to sell products or services on the Internet, here are some tools you will need for your website:
Shopping cart - A shopping cart provides a product catalog, a virtual shopping cart, shipping, handling and tax rules, payment options, inventory tracking and order processing. Costs will vary depending on if you want a customized version for your business or can use a template version. A template version typically ranges from $200 to $500. A customized version is quoted based on your needs.
Merchant account – If you have a retail merchant account, a machine that processes credit cards, you can choose to manually enter in credit card information from your website. The only costs involved will be your regular transaction fees from your retail account. If you want to process credit cards automatically online, you will need an online merchant account. Typical fees for an online merchant account include a set up fee, processing fee for each transaction and gateway monthly fee. Merchant account fees vary depending on the agency you choose. Here is an example of one average merchant account’s fees: $200 one-time set up fee, 2.5% processing fee, $0.32 transaction fee and $40 monthly fees.
Security features – When you are accepting people’s personal information, such as addresses and credit card numbers, you will want to purchase security features. This is usually in the form of a SSL Certificate. Security features are oftentimes yearly fees around $100 to $1,000 depending on the size and needs of your site.
Maintenance – These are costs involved in maintaining your site after it’s been developed, including edits, additions and creation of new pages. Edits typically are charged at an hourly rate. Blue Sail Marketing also can provide you options where you can have access to certain or all areas of your site to keep maintenance costs down.
Logs and statistics software – Blue Sail Marketing recommends you purchase this software so we can analyze the amount of visitors to your site, what keywords they type in to find you and what search engines they are coming from. This will help you alter your marketing strategy if needed. Plus, it is just plain fun to see what people are typing in to find you!
Typically, statistics software either comes free with your web hosting package or you can purchase a basic program for around $50/year. Most times this is sufficient but if you are selling products online, you may want to upgrade to a software package. A website designer's fees to set up your software vary depending on the program.
Search engine optimization – Most website designers will offer initial optimization with the development of your site which includes the creation of meta tags (the information you see when you search for a site). If your designer is a search engine optimizer, like Blue Sail Marketing, your site will be designed with optimization in mind, including appropriate content, image tags, links and placement of those items.
Future search engine optimization involves modifying aspects of your site to increase your rankings on the search engines. Blue Sail Marketing suggests future search engine optimization when the initial optimization needs tweaking and to maintain rankings. Optimization is charged at an hourly rate. Blue Sail can work with you to determine the amount of hours that will be best for your site and your budget – weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc. For faster and more prominent rankings, you can consider paid listings on search engines, website directories and links or banner ads on other websites. Blue Sail Marketing can investigate the costs for these services for your industry as well as develop banner ads and linking relationships. See a list of our search engine optimization services.
*Costs listed are estimates only and are subject to change.
Start a website for your company
If you are interested in developing a website for your business, email or call Blue Sail Marketing at 262-567-5662. To learn more about how a website is set up, visit our website design process page.