How much should a small business website cost?

If you've ever searched for the price of a website, you'll know the answer isn't particularly helpful.

You might find someone offering websites for £50.

You might find an agency charging £5,000.

Both can be genuine prices.

So what should a small business actually expect to pay?

The answer depends on what you're asking the website to do.

Start with what you need

Before thinking about price, think about the website.

Do you need:

• A simple online presence?

• A one-page website?

• Several pages explaining your services?

• An online shop?

• Online booking?

• A members area?

• Something connected to another system?

• A website that you can update yourself?

• Help with SEO?

The more a website needs to do, the more time it will generally take to build.

That's where much of the difference in price comes from.

A simple website can be relatively inexpensive

If all you need is a professional website explaining what you do, showing your services and giving people a way to contact you, you don't necessarily need to spend thousands.

A simple website might only need a few pages.

It might use a platform such as Google Sites.

It might be exactly what your business needs.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Bigger isn't automatically better

I've seen small businesses spend money on websites with features they don't actually use.

A website can look impressive and still be a poor investment.

For example, you probably don't need an expensive booking system if you only take two bookings a month.

You probably don't need 30 pages if your customers only need five.

And you probably don't need a complicated online shop if you sell three products and could handle orders another way.

The right website is the one that solves your problem.

What are you actually paying for?

When you pay someone to build a website, you're not just paying for someone to make the pages look nice.

You're paying for things such as:

Planning

Working out what the website needs to do and what information people need.

Design

Deciding how the website should look and how information should be presented.

Content

Helping organise or write the words people will read.

Build

Actually creating the pages and making everything work.

Mobile usability

Making sure it works properly on phones and tablets.

Search basics

Making sure the website is structured sensibly and gives search engines useful information.

Testing

Checking links, forms, navigation and the other things that need to work before launch.

Experience

Knowing what tends to work — and what tends not to.

That last one is difficult to put on an invoice, but it's often one of the most useful things you're paying for.

Don't forget the ongoing costs

The initial website isn't necessarily the only cost.

Depending on how your website is built, you might also have:

• Hosting

• Domain name

• Software or plugin subscriptions

• Maintenance

• Security updates

• Content changes

• SEO

• Support

Ask about these before you agree to anything.

A website that looks cheap initially can become expensive if you're tied into lots of monthly charges.

And a more expensive website isn't necessarily expensive to run.

What does my website cost?

My websites start from £399, although the final price depends on what you need.

I agree the scope and price with you before I start building.

I'll also explain what's included.

If you want something outside the agreed scope, I'll tell you what that means for the price before doing the extra work.

And if I think there's a simpler or cheaper way to achieve what you want, I'll tell you.

That's important to me.

I'd rather build you the right website than sell you the biggest one I can.

A useful question to ask

When you're comparing quotes, don't just ask:

"How much is a website?"

Ask:

"What will I actually get for that price?"

Find out:

• How many pages?

• Who provides the content?

• Who provides the images?

• Is hosting included?

• What happens after launch?

• Can I update it myself?

• What's included in revisions?

• What happens if I need changes later?

• Are there ongoing costs?

That gives you a much better basis for comparison.

My advice

Don't choose the cheapest website.

Don't automatically choose the most expensive one either.

Choose the solution that does what your business needs at a cost that makes sense for you.

Sometimes that's £399.

Sometimes it's more.

And sometimes the best advice is to spend your money somewhere else.

A good website should be an investment in your business — not a monthly headache.

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