How Much Does It REALLY Cost to Build a Website. The Hidden Costs of Website Building
The most popular question we get asked is
How much will it cost to create a website?
And every time we answer:
It depends on what type of site you want to have and the kind of functionality it needs!
After all, there are many factors influencing the hidden costs of website building. In order to tell you a specific cost, we must understand exactly what kind of site it should be.
Therefore, we decided to write a blog that we dedicated to explaining what exactly impacts the Hidden Cost of Website building. That way you can understand how we decide on the price for website creation. After all, the Wishdesk web development company stands for transparency with you, our clients.
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Website
Let's take a look at what influences the pricing of a new website building!Say that you already have an idea and vision for your future website.
Factors affecting the cost of website building
1. Domain Name
A domain name is the URL of your site, or more simply, it is the web address of your site.
Domain name registration is a hidden cost of website building. The cost will fluctuate depending on what domain name you want.
There are two options for obtaining a domain name:
1. The best option is to buy a domain name that will clearly indicate the specifics of your business, or who you are. Such a domain name will cost more.
2. The next possible option is to get a domain name that will be automatically generated. Such a name won’t show who you are and what you do. It will cost less, or even be free.
But there is one more way. If you are planning to become a really serious company with a large number of clients, then sooner or later you have to get a decent quality domain name.
You might be thinking, well, first I'll take a free domain name and then move my business to a newer and better one. We would not advise you to do this. Because when you transfer your business to a new domain name, the previous statistics of your activity will disappear, and you may also lose your place in search results.
Domain name costs +/- $10 per year.
2. Website Hosting
Hosting is where your site will be stored. It's like building land for a house. You cannot build a house in the air, and you can’t build a website there either. Your site must be hosted somewhere.
Again, hosting cost is part of the hidden cost of a website. The cost of web hosting will depend on which type of hosting you choose.
There are three main hosting options:
- Shared Hosting
Your website shares one hosting with many others. It's like renting a room in a house where other people live beside you. This is the cheapest hosting option, but less convenient. The more sites share one hosting, the slower your site speed will be.
- VPS Hosting
If your website uses this hosting, then its speed will be slightly higher than in shared hosting. VPS Hosting has fewer websites than the first type of hosting. It's like renting an entire apartment yourself, but not owning it yet. Its price is slightly higher than for shared hosting.
- Dedicated Hosting
This type of hosting is considered the best and most convenient, as it gives you the maximum benefits. It's like buying a house to live in. Accordingly, the speed of your site will be high and traffic jumps will not affect its work, but the cost of such a hosting will be higher than in the previous two.
The choice is yours. We would like to advise you to draw your attention to the latter because it gives a lot of freedom, opportunity, and security for business owners.
Website Hosting starts at $5 and rises from there, depending on your case.
3. SSL Certificate
Secure Socket Layer is a must for a secure site today. SSL is a small file that encrypts data between your clients and the hosting server — for example, the data of their credit cards.
If the site has such a certificate, then a green padlock will be placed at the beginning of its URL, and http will change to https.
Every customer site needs to keep its customers safe, especially if you're an e-commerce business.
SSL certificates can be free or paid, the cost can be over $100.
4. Website Content
Content filling your site is no less important than hosting or a domain name. Content is filling your site with relevant, literate, and clear information.
Website Content is the hidden cost of a website building. It is not the responsibility of the developer to fill your site with content. This includes filling in information about the tagline, subheadings, product features, "about us” page and more.
If you have created a website, then do not be lazy — hire a professional content manager who will fill it properly!
You may have an idea to fill it out yourself, but remember that this is not a chat with a friend. For content to work for you and increase your income, it must be properly created and written for SEO. After all, in order to write content, you need to be able to do it.
The cost of filling your site with content starts at $5.
5. Design
We classify design as an additional cost because it is an important part of influencing your customers. After you create a website you will get a standard theme on your site, and it may be good enough. If you want more, you have to invest extra money.
Site design is primarily what draws attention to your service. If you want to turn visitors into customers, improve your design!
The hidden cost of design lies in 3 points:
- Website Design Templates
Deciding on Website Design Templates are the part of the design costs. For example, on WordPress, you can buy paid templates for $35. If you hire a designer, it will cost about ten times more, but also be of higher quality.
- Personal logo design
Spend the extra money to professionally design your unique logo. You can order this service on Fiverr, for example.
- Quality images
Quality site = quality images. The visual is very important.
6. SEO
SEO is about optimizing your website for search engines. Simply put, you can create an amazing site with great content and an attractive design, but users won't find it unless the site is optimized for search engines.
SEO is a constant job and costs a lot of money. To be successful, you need to be in the public eye and also be in the first few searches.
The cost of SEO optimization will depend on who does it. There are many companies with different price ranges. The choice is yours. We would advise you not to skimp on SEO and hire a professional SEO company, only then will you get the best results.
7. Security
Usually, when creating a website, some standard (minimum) security settings are set. However, this will not be enough to ensure that your data and that of your customers are adequately protected.
You will spend +/- $ 100 per year on security.
How much does it cost to create a site at Wishdesk
No matter where you build your website, the hidden cost of the website building will always be present.
In today's blog, we wanted to show you in detail what it takes to build a safe and working website that will generate income for you.
Our web developers will be happy to help you. Plus, you can get a finished project in half the time, as we learned how to do it faster and bring you more benefits.
Listen to our blog on
https://soundcloud.com/internetdevels/the-hidden-cost-of-website-building