It’s 2018 and there’s no gainsaying that the digital revolution is fully upon us. Whether you are a small business or a large corporation, a business website is just as important as your office space, if not more important. Your prospective clients won’t even give you a second chance if you blurb something about not having a website yet. And to be honest, you have no excuse. How do you seriously explain that you have a business and you cannot account for just one of the 1.9 billion (and counting) websites in existence? Yeah, the internet is that large. It’s only a matter of time before we have just as many websites as we have humans.

The importance of having a professional website

I bet you already know why a business website is a must-have for you. However, you should also know that just any website won’t do the job. All the DIY guides you’ve spent all your time reading would only set up your business to fail spectacularly. Remember that thing they told you about when something is too good to be true? Yeah, using Wix and Squarespace, cheap freelancers or your cousin’s best friend is too good to be true because it is. I already told you the number of websites in existence. If you are to reap the maximum benefits from your business website, it has to be unique. And you’ll never achieve that with a template, no matter how good you think your freelancer is. Below are a few reasons why you need to have a professional website.

First impressions count

You should remember that your website is easily your selling point. It’s your first shot at creating a lasting impression on the minds of your potential customers. What kind of impression would you create if your website looks just like a million other websites out there? Bottom line is, your website is too important for you to risk having a shoddy one.

Performance

You get what you pay for. When you hire a cheap freelancer or self-build your website, you cannot expect to get a responsive website that would serve your business effectively. Websites of that ilk take forever to load and that’s never a good thing for SEO purposes. And we all know the best place to bury a corpse is the 3rd page of a Google query. No one ever visits.

Time

The thought of launching your website in a few hours is enticing, to say the least. It’s what the DIY manuals would tell you. But it’s just one of those things that are indeed too good to be true. Your business website could just be the most important part of your business. So, I have to wonder why you feel you could rush things. Even at that, anyone with a self-built website would tell you it’s all a lie. It takes a lot of time for all the components to come together. Plus you keep getting errors messages you cannot understand for every mistake you make. At the end of the day, it would take less time for a professional to get your website functional.

So, how much does a professional website cost?

The first thing you should have in mind is that your website is a great investment in your company. Like all other investments, a high initial capital holds the promise of higher returns. So, prepare to go hard or go home. It’s as simple as that.

Giving you a number could be very tough because there are various factors that affect the cost of a website. If you’re doing it yourself, you shouldn’t spend more than $100 a year. Freelancers or designers that are just learning their trade could charge anywhere between $1000 and $5000, depending on their level of competence and your negotiation skills.

By now, you already know you need nothing less than a professional business website. But there are many companies out there that would camouflage as professionals. At the end of the day, they are only a little better than your cousin’s friend. If you’re hiring a reputable website building agency, your budget should start at minimum $10,000 for an informational website and $20,000 for an e-commerce website. Ultimately, the actual charge would depend on your specific needs. It could soar as high as $75,000 or even more in some cases. However, you shouldn’t expect to get a fully functional and responsive custom-built website for less than that amount.

Here is a list of the factors that could affect the cost of your website:

• Type of website: a blog would cost less than an online shop. The number of pages, amount of customization, and content required also affects the price.

• Domain and hosting: there are different domain and hosting services and their charges could vary greatly. Again, you get what you pay for.

• Basic technology: would your website be using HTML or PHP or a content management system. The choice would depend on the nature of the website and this would affect the cost.

• Components: Plugins, third-party apps, etc.

• Setup and design: brand messaging, SEO, project strategy, etc. all have to be included in the website. And this could shoot up costs.

• Maintenance: a reputable website building company would also factor in the costs of ongoing maintenance after launch as well as marketing when building your website.

You already have a basic idea of what costs you money when building a custom website. But do you understand the time and energy that goes into building a professional website? First, there is the all-important brand messaging and strategy. The design and appearance of your website should embody everything your business stands for. It‘s your most potent branding tool and a great deal of creativity is needed to ensure it sends the right message. And this goes beyond the home page only. Every page, every image, every text, and every element on your website has to be in line with your branding strategy. And it’s one of the reasons why a top-notch business website is a huge investment.

Then there’s the not so trivial matter of information architecture. Having the best content on your website is not the same as organizing the contents intelligently. Your contents must be organized such that even the most distracted user would find it difficult to navigate. But your regular freelancer doesn’t know this. Other subtle elements of web design that enhance user experience such as wireframing, user interface design, etc. are also taken into account by a professional web design company.

The 5-second rule, as we call it, is also a part of optimizing your website to enhance user experience. Any visitor to your home page should know what your business is about within 5 seconds. This would be very tough for a cheap web designer to pull off. A web design agency would have in-house brand  professionals that work diligently to make this happen.

When you pay a premium price for your website, you’re also paying for the experience of the web designers, developers and brand strategists. With that experience comes top-notch technical skills that may never be learned elsewhere.

The current competition in the consumer market means your business needs to stand out before it can be recognized. As emphasized earlier, only a custom-built website can do this for you. Ultimately, your budget would also affect the quality of the website you build. You might explore DIY options or go for a cheap freelancer when you are just starting out. But when you are thinking about scaling and growing your company, you cannot take that inferior website to the big stage. You’ll definitely need a great website that’ll match your changing status. And if you can afford one from the start, your business would be better off with it.