How Much Does it Cost to Have a Small Business Website?

By kellyglass

A couple of years ago, I put together a creative brief and requirements document to solicit bids for a website redesign. The most surprising things about the process to me were: 1) I quickly discovered that I needed a technical guru to help me sort through the specifications and recommendations; and 2) the pricing from professional companies varied dramatically.

It was overwhelming to navigate through the options when I had access to several internal experts. So I can imagine how difficult this process would be for small business owners looking for straightforward websites of about 10 to 20 pages with some basic content management and social media widgets.

As I prepare to go through this process yet again, here is some research I uncovered to help you know what you are getting yourself into financially with a new or redesigned website, along with some sites Affinity Express designed for small businesses.

Basic Costs:

Domain name: $10 per year. You should never create a website without owning the domain. Here is how you can register your domain name.
Hosting: $25 to $200 per year, depending on traffic and hosting services. You can get discounts if you pay for a year or more in advance. The average is about $10 per month if your site is new and does not have much traffic or data. If you need large files or develop higher traffic, this cost may increase—not such a bad problem to have! But it is not advisable to use a free service for a professional site.
Web design and development time: 60 hours and up. This varies based on the requirements. See Website Packages below for price ranges.
Software: if you plan to manage your website directly from a web browser, you will need a content management system (CMS). This is a program you install on your website that lets you create pages, modify their appearance and control other features through a browser. There are free CMS scripts and commercial ones.
Content writing/development: $50-75 per hour. There are a variety of projects under this heading including:
- Re-write or edit existing web copy—1-3 hours per page
- SEO articles (300-500 words)—2-4 hours per article
- Press releases—2-3 hours per page
- Sales letters—2-4 hours per letter
- Online catalogs—2-3 hours per page
- Original web content copy—2-4 hours per page

Depending on the project, these tasks can include the following steps: research and concept development, copy writing, meetings with clients and web designers, proofreading and editing, revisions to web copy, consulting and communication (e.g., teleconferences, faxes, e-mails, and travel).

Website maintenance: $500 a year and up, based on the number and type of updates required. Consider whether you want to include reviews, links, interactive pages, etc. Charges are typically hourly, monthly, quarterly or annually based on the webmaster.
Online marketing of website: $750 per month and up. You can advertise on individual websites or you can sign up as an advertiser using one of many affiliate networks, which act as intermediaries between you and the sites that will display your ads.