How Long is a Piece of String? – Website Costs

I receive this question often.

"How much does a website cost?"

My usual response is:

"How long is a piece of string?"

It's similar to asking how much a house costs. There are many factors that influence the cost.

A house requires a plan – a “blueprint", and so does a website. This gives focus to the budget.

• What’s the layout?
• How many rooms?
• What is the function of each room?
• What colors?
• Carpeting or wood floors?
• What parts of the house require Maintenance?
• What security will be included?

These are just a few of the considerations for a website that mirror building or buying a house.

Three of several foundation questions to be answered in website development are what are the site's purpose, goals, and audience? From these cornerstones, the need for the various features of the website are evaluated.

Some of those elements could be:

• Number of pages
• Types of pages (photo and video galleries, testimonials, contact, services etc.)
• Inventory
• Interactive features
• Social Media integration
• Search Engine Optimization

When choosing a feature for a site the guiding question becomes: does this element serve the purpose, the goals, and the audience?

Without these to help filter the choices, expensive and time consuming ideas can come forward, costing time and money, but may ultimately be discarded.  With no foundation to keep your project focused, it can become extremely expensive very quickly.

You make focused choices when you keep in mind your purpose, goals, and audience.