Affordable Website Design: What Are You Actually Paying For?

If you're looking for affordable website design in Sydney or the Sutherland Shire, you've probably noticed that prices can vary massively.

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You might receive a quote for $800, another for $3,000 and another for $10,000, all for what sounds like a “business website”.

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But you're not necessarily paying for the same thing.

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The cost of a website comes down to how much actually needs to go into designing, building and setting it up properly.

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Here are five of the main things you're actually paying for when you hire a website designer.

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01. Website Content

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One of the biggest factors in the cost of a website is simply how many pages need to be built.

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A one-page website is very different to a website with multiple pages. Each page needs to be structured, designed, built and optimised across desktop, tablet and mobile.

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For example, a small service business might only need:

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• Home
• About
• Services
• Projects
• Contact

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Another business might need individual pages for every service, location or product it offers.

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More pages generally means more design and development time, which means a higher overall website cost.

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More pages aren't always better, but they can improve SEO.

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02. Template or Custom?

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You're also paying for how much design work goes into the website.

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A designer may start with an existing website template and customise it to suit your business.

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A custom website involves considerably more work, where the design starts from zero.

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The layout, typography, spacing, imagery, colours, navigation and overall experience can all be designed specifically around your business and content.

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This becomes particularly important when a business has a large amount of information, an unusual service offering or needs the website to work in a very specific way.

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You're not just paying for a website that looks good.

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You're paying for someone to work out how everything should be presented so the website is easy for your customers to understand and use.

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03. SEO Setup

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A professional website should also consider how search engines understand your pages.

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This doesn't mean paying for an ongoing SEO campaign.

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There are SEO foundations that can be set up while your website is being built, including:

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• Page titles
• Meta descriptions
• Heading structure
• Clean URLs
• Image alt text
• Image optimisation
• Internal links
• Sitemap setup
• Mobile optimisation

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If you're replacing an existing website, there can be even more involved.

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Existing URLs may need to be reviewed and 301 redirects added so old pages point visitors and search engines to the correct pages on the new website.

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SEO shouldn't be something that's only thought about after the website goes live.

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04.

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Functionality

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Not every website is just a collection of standard pages.

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The functionality your business needs can have a major impact on the amount of work involved.

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You might need:

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• Contact or quote forms
• Online bookings
• Ecommerce
• Product filtering
• Search functionality
• Blogs
• Project portfolios
• Customer accounts
• CMS collections
• Third-party integrations

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A builder who wants to regularly add completed projects needs a different setup to a restaurant displaying a menu.

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An online store with hundreds of products is completely different again.

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This is why two websites that look relatively similar on the surface can have completely different development costs.

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05. Everything That Gets Your Website Live

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There's also a lot that happens behind the scenes.

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A website still needs to be tested across different screen sizes, links and forms need to work, images need to be optimised, the domain needs to be connected, and everything needs to be checked before launch.

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Depending on the project, this can also include things like:

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• Migrating content off an old website
• Setting up Google Search Console
• Connecting analytics
• Setting up forms and notifications
• Testing mobile responsiveness
• Connecting your domain
• Checking redirects
• Final launch testing
• Showing you how to update the website

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These aren't necessarily the exciting parts of website design, but they're what turn a design into a properly functioning website that's ready for customers to use.

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So, What Should You Actually Pay For?

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The price of a website shouldn't just come down to how many hours someone spends making it look nice.

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You're paying for the pages, design, development, SEO foundations, functionality and setup needed to create a website that actually works for your business.

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And not every business needs the same thing.

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A good website designer should be able to look at your business, work out what you actually need and build around that, rather than selling you features you'll never use.

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Looking for an Affordable Website for Your Business?

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If you're not sure what your website actually needs, you don't have to figure it all out yourself.

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Tell me about your business and I'll work out what the website needs.

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