We build business websites for as little as $500 and as much as $25,000. How much should YOU spend on your business website? The answer depends upon what you want the site to do for you and what kind of business you have.
What do you need from your website?
Some businesses are looking for their website to get outside traffic, while others mainly use their site for clients to get information, and interact with them. This depends upon whether or not your audience is local or national, and the kind of business you have. A business looking for high traffic should have a bigger budget, as a general rule.
- A business to business (B2B) website usually doesn’t get a lot of traffic, and exists largely to show clients that they are professional enough to have a great site, to show changes to products and services, and to make it easier for clients to communicate with them. As far as how much to spend on a B2B website, it depends upon the kind of business you have, but in general, we don‘t see B2B sites as high budget sites.
- If you are using your site to show your products and services to existing clients, you don’t need a lot of search engine optimization (SEO). If you have high quality images, documents and can develop your own text content (we always help make the content better) your costs can be comparatively low.
- We are brutally honest about e-commerce websites. Some succeed and some fail, and I hate to say it, but the more expensive ones have a much better chance at success. If you want a budget e-commerce site, you will have to do a lot of self-promotion. Also, selling something unique can help. See Dining With Dignity for a great example of a niche product that has had success.
What kind of business do you have?
- A restaurant site has specific goals, and we have a lot of experience and success in this field. Costs can vary greatly, depending upon what you want the site to do. If you only want to post your menu, specials and directions to your restaurant, a budget site can be effective. Compare this budget site to this more expensive site. Both of these websites do well, but the expensive one has almost ten times the amount of traffic. But the budget site still works well.
- We find that businesses that sell large appliances, HVAC systems and the like don’t tend to get a lot of traffic. They exist mainly for clients to contact them, to demonstrate that the business is professional, and to list their products and services, along with testimonials from previous clients. This kind of website can be well served by a lower budget.
- A services oriented business generally needs a larger budget. They need SEO to draw visitors, but since they tend to attract only those with an interest in the specific service, they don’t tend to be high traffic sites. In addition, they need to have VERY high quality content and media, since they want to convey the high quality of their services.
- Organizations often don’t need an elaborate website, although some do. Issues here are whether the site exists only to provide information and interactivity to their members, or whether the site needs to attract new members and have an online presence for their offerings. For example, a local business organization likely doesn’t need a large site, but an advocacy group really needs a top quality site to advocate for their cause.
To sum up, your website budget depends upon many things. You can get a good idea what kind of site you need by looking at what you need the site to do for you, what kind of business you have, and what kind of audience you wish to attract.