How Much Should You Pay For Your Website In 2023?
Your website is the best storefront in the world. It only costs a few dollars a month to host, and it keeps working for you even when you’re asleep.
But how much should you invest in your website development in 2023? Let’s cover, from the perspective of someone with a web designer background, what’s worth it, what isn’t, and everything in between.
Table of Contents in Detail Hide
Many Options To Choose From
With all the tools and options available today, you can get a website up and running quicker and easier than ever. Whether you go with Squarespace, Webflow, Wix, or any other platform, you can have a great-looking, well-developed site made for your business quickly.
But before you even get to the point of selecting which platform to use for building and managing your site, you need answers to this very important question:
How Much Should You Pay For A Website In 2023?
By spending time up front strategizing the best way to move forward with having your website expertly built, you will find your answers to this crucial question.
What Do You Actually Need?
Image Source: Unsplash
If you’re a beginner and this is your first site ever, you’ll benefit from working with experienced developers who know what to implement on your site for a strong online presence.
If you’re tech-savvy and a good programmer, or you’ve created a bunch of sites already, you may just want to do it yourself rather than hire out.
Ask yourself these questions:
Is your business brand new? If you’re launching your business, expect to pay between $2,000 and $3,000 for your first website.
Are you good at software development? Even if you’re new at running a business, you can probably use your software skills to build a site yourself.
Have you been in business for a few years? You have a good sense of what your revenue looks like, and a better idea of what you can pay. If you’re making over $200K a year, consider investing up to 5% of your total revenue into your website, or over $10,000.
Does your business rely heavily on online traffic? If you run a corner gas station, having a website is not that important to your business. But if your website is key to your business’ success, consider spending up to 5% of your revenue to create a site that dominates.
What do you do if, as a business beginner, you don’t have $2K to $3K to spend right now? If that cost is beyond your current means, you can go to places like Fiverr, Upwork, or 99 Designs to find a junior developer who can help you get a simple version of your site up quickly for a lower price.
Then, once you’ve made enough money to invest back into your business, you can turn to a more experienced developer to add the features you’d benefit from, improve the site’s SEO, beautify the design, and create a better user experience.
Your Client’s Size Makes A Difference
If you run an established business, your client’s size and spending power can factor into how much you should pay for a solid website.
Do you have clients who might spend $30K to $40K on one engagement, one product, or one interaction? If so, spending more on your website definitely makes financial sense, whether you specialize in B2B or B2C.
What’s The Best Platform For The Type Of Website You’re Building?
You have many website development platforms to choose from, each with its own pros and cons. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by everything you could possibly do with any given platform, focus on a few key elements that will point you in the right direction.
Here’s a quick overview to help you:
For beautiful, eye-catching, design-oriented sites, use Webflow.
For any type of ecommerce site heavy on online shopping, use Shopify.
For simple websites suitable for service-oriented and consulting businesses, use Squarespace.
For detailed directories, use Webflow.
For blog building, use Squarespace, WordPress, or Wix.
What you select depends on your end goals. Once you have a good grasp of your business model and how your business will make money, you can narrow down on which site development platform to use.
How Much Will You Pay For Site Development With Each Platform?
Here is a realistic look at how much you can expect to pay for starter sites built on each platform:
Webflow: $5K at a minimum; typically $10K to $20K
Shopify: $3K to $15K
Squarespace: $2K to $5K
For blog sites, regardless of platform: $4K to $6K
For directories using Webflow: $10K or more
Detailed Webflow designs will require building wireframes before working on the site, which adds to the development cost.
If you’re building out a blog, have a professional create the site for you to structure it correctly.
Directories will typically cost more than a simple site because they require a considerable amount of information, structure, and content.
Should You Pay To Have Your Site Developed?
Image Source: Unsplash
Before you reach your decision on whether to pay to have your site developed or create it yourself, consider these important points.
Do you like software? If you get annoyed easily with your computer or software programs, you’ll find the site building process aggravating, and your site might never get launched. Hire someone else to build your site.
Do you have many clients? If your business is running and you serve many clients, focus your attention on what you do best as a business owner. Don’t get distracted; invest in a professional developer building your website.
Do you need a developer or a designer? A website developer will build your site and get it running. A graphic designer will create your logos, branding, and color palette to ensure everything looks good together online and in print. You may need the services of just one or the other, or you may benefit from both.
If your business is established, you probably already have your branding figured out. You can provide these files to your web developer, who can incorporate your company design into the website being developed.
If you’re new and you don’t yet have logos or business branding in place, you may need to hire a graphic designer. Your site developer can then take these design elements and incorporate them into the website.
Do What You Do Best And Hire Out The Rest
The bottom line is that if you have the skills, enjoy this type of work, and have the bandwidth for it, you can do the work yourself.
But if you’re already busy running your business and keeping it going, and you’re neither interested nor particularly skilled in computer work, you are better off hiring qualified professionals to handle these aspects for you.
What You Must Know Before Making Your Decision
We’ve covered a lot of ground thus far, and you may have a pretty good idea of which direction to go, what development platform to use, and which services to pay a professional to handle for you.
But wait, you’re not done yet!
Image Source: Unsplash
This next section is the most important segment of this article. I’m going to share with you four key aspects that will put everything into perspective for you and help you make the right choices for your business’ online presence.
Key #1: Don’t Expect The Website To Save You
Build your business first and your website second. Don’t pay someone to build you a beautiful website and expect that it will magically pull customers to you.
If you’re launching a new business, do your due diligence. Validate your product market fit. Find your customers. Do what you must to get your business running on solid ground. And yes, have someone create a site, but don’t spend your whole budget on it.
Don’t overemphasize every small website design detail. Focus on building a solid business and getting a simple yet functional site up. There will be time for adding more features and beauty to your site when your revenue starts coming in.
Key #2: Keep It Simple
Knowing that you can always update or expand your site as money comes in and your business grows, start out with a simple website. It will save you money while creating the online presence you need, whatever type of business you run.
This is all you really need to begin with:
For a consulting firm or services provider: Home, About Us, Services, Contact, and Testimonial pages
For an ecommerce store: Home, About Us, and Product pages, plus a FAQs page with relevant information, such as a clear shipping process, deliverables, and anything else customers need to know
Key #3: Get Inspiration From Sites You Like
There are some great sites out there that represent their businesses well. Are you drawn to any in particular? If so, share this with your website developer.
The more you know about what you want before you even get started, the clearer the outcome will be.
Just one warning: Don’t try to be as trendy as possible. Don’t go overboard with colors. Regardless of what your competitors are doing, simplicity and ease of use are your goals to start with.
Key #4: Get In Front Of People … Then Impress Them
If you’re limited on time and money (and most new businesses are), focus on getting in front of potential customers and clients. Start with the basic premise of what needs to get out there. Don’t let yourself get bogged down by trying to make your site out of this world. There’ll be time for that later.
Visibility first. Bells and whistles down the road.
Bonus Tip: Trust Your Site Developer
If you pick a good website developer, trust them. They’ll have the experience and expertise needed to follow sound site-building principles and complete the job right for you.
Where To Go From Here
As a business owner, freelancer, or entrepreneur, your goal is to have a profitable, thriving enterprise that brings you revenue and impacts people in a positive way.
A good website is simply a tool to help get you there.
We can help with your web development needs on the Squarespace platform. From building great sites to optimizing them for SEO, we do it all.
Check out our free guides, and if you have any questions or would like to use our services, don’t hesitate to reach out.
For additional helpful tips, be sure to sign up for our newsletter written to bring you timely industry insights you can use.
