WHAT does a website cost?
This is a very difficult question to answer. The costs can depend on what part of the world you are in, the country you are in, the state, the city. The costs can fluctuate based on how many pages your final website consists of, how many photos/graphics are on your website, if you have videos, an online store, and most of all, who builds your website for you!
Basically, what all of that means is, there is no set price for a website.
Instead, what I do is break a website down into its cost generating components, and then try and give you a reasonable ballpark cost for those components, or at least try and explain why a cost cannot be accurately defined.
WEBSITE COST GENERATING COMPONENTS
Using a very basic website as an example, there are three components that will generate a cost to you. They are –
- Domain Name, Initial Purchase or Renewal
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The Domain Name, or URL, is the “address” people us to get to your website. An example of a Domain Name would be –
http://www.YourCompanyNameHere.com
I always recommend GoDaddy for Domain Name registration, and their cost is $14.99 (approximately) per year. This is a fixed cost that you know will be $14.99 every year. You can lower this cost by paying for multiple years at a time.
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- Web Hosting Space, Initial Purchase or Renewal
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Just like your laptop or PC has an internal hard drive to provide you with space to store your documents, pictures, music, and files in general, you will need storage space for your websites files, pictures, and videos to exist as well.
This storage space will have the Domain Name pointing to it, so when somebody types your URL in their browser, they will be directed to your storage space and your website.
I always recommend GoDaddy for Web Hosting Space, and their cost is $6.99 (approximately) per month. This is a fixed cost that you know will be $6.99 every month. You can lower this cost by paying for a year, or multiple years at a time.
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- Initial Web Page Build or Future Additional Changes
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This is NOT a fixed cost! This is why this page started off with me saying that “What does a website cost?” is a very difficult question to answer.
Some Website Designers will charge a flat rate for the project, usually quoted in advance, and some bill by the hour. In either case, your website is going to cost more based on how complex it is.
The nice thing about this component is that it has a beginning, a middle, and an end to it. Although not fixed, these costs do not continue after the site is initially built and put out there for the world to see and use. Later on you may decide to put some new photos on your site, or add some new information, and you may incur additional costs at that time, but the costs will be in line with the scope of the changes being made.
The best advice I can offer here is, work with somebody who is forthcoming with information, someone who is knowledgeable regarding “Work for Hire”, and someone who understands that the finished product, your website, is YOUR property.
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