If you’re a small business owner still in sticker shock over the cost of a new website or website redesign, find out why web design and development is so expensive.

Your website is outdated and in desperate need of a redesign. Or is it that you’re starting a new business and need a ground-up website? Perhaps you’re looking to add a few new features to your existing site and need some help with the technical implementation of them. Regardless of your circumstance, many business owners don’t know exactly why the website design and development are pricey. If you’re in sticker shock, read on to find the factors that influence the cost of web development and design.

Design & Technical Complexity

Fusing design and technical expertise is art. You need a beautiful, eye-catching website, but you also need it to function properly and not frustrate your users. You want your users to continue coming back to your website, and encourage their friends to visit, too.

Templated designs will definitely take less time than a custom design. So when you’re thinking about the look and feel of your site, it’s important to bring examples of sites you would like to model your design after so that your website designer can determine if a custom site or semi-custom templated site will be the best and most cost-effective option for you.

Every website is different and presents a different set of design and technical challenges. A real estate company, for example, will require more complex coding and development than a local restaurant. There will undoubtedly be more website pages, filled with fluid content that demands constant updates. Even something you’d think would be simple, like adding a payment portal, may require several hours of work to implement, test, and debug. (Because, yes, there are always technical bugs to work through!)

Popular development options include:

• Content Management System (CMS)– If you want to be in control of updating your own website you'[ll need one of these. This functionality is required to add on certain features such as a blog, the ability to auto-post to social media, or an events page.
• Featured Content – Web pages commonly feature blog posts, upcoming events, product launches, timely events, client testimonials, products, or specials on one or multiple pages throughout the site.
• Email Forms – Of course you want to build your email list and leads! Integrating your email form with your email marketing platform is a must for all websites.
• Payment Portals – If you’re a business that needs to take payments online, or using a third-party service like PayPal, you’ll definitely need this.
• Account Profiles – If your customers want the ability to create profiles and save products or other information to their account.

The Depth of the Website

The number of pages of your website will vary greatly based on your industry, products, and service offerings and require a substantial amount of design and technical development. The fewer pages you need, the lower your cost for web design and development will be.

Content Development

If your website requires copywriting, graphic design, photography, or the development of other creative assets, it will obviously require more time and investment. Costs are determined through the amount of time preparing for interviews, interviewing your company, writing the content, and editing the content.

Content development is more expensive on websites with lots of pages than those with only a few. If you’re looking for a place to cut costs write your own content and ask your web company if they provide editing.  This often provides a happy medium, you the expert provide the content and your editor can ask for clarification about areas they don’t understand, correct grammatical errors, and suggest alternate formatting for easy reading.  If you’re super busy or need your website done yesterday, you may want to pay to have it created instead of delaying or tabling the project in an effort to save money.

Niche Expert Staff

Overall, your website will be as good as the design and development staff you hire. Here are some key people that need to be involved in your project to ensure you get the website of your customer’s dreams:

• Project Managers are the liaisons between you and the design and development team. They are responsible for communicating your brand’s vision with design, the functional demands to the development team, and ensuring that all aspects of the website project are delivered on time.
• UI / UX Designers are the ones who ensure your website isn’t just a website that you love, but a website that makes sense to the user. They get a deeper understanding of how the customers will use your website and create designs accordingly. The goal is to create a website that is intuitive and easy to navigate for your users.
• A Team of Technical Experts are the magicians who bring your ideas and creative designs to life. They’re a crucial piece to delivering a website that works.
• SEO Experts are there to make sure your website is optimized for search engines. They’re the ones who help set your website up for success post-launch.

There are several factors that affect the cost of a website redesign, but the best place to start is with a consultation. Give us a call if you’ve got questions! We’re here to help!