In other words: You are responsible for your decisions and cannot blame anyone else when what you have chosen is not successful.
We all love a bargain, but we also know that sometimes you have to pay that bit more to get the right product. No one likes that feeling of regret, when you've spent your hard earned cash on something that doesn't do what you thought it would!
I constantly get adverts from web design companies, popping up on my social media, with some quoting as little as 'from £99'! But is it realistic that your website will be 'live' for only £99 or are there other costs?
I saw this description recently which I think is a great analogy:
Like paying road tax, repairs and insurance for a car, a website similarly requires renewal of the domain name, regular software updates and it’s best practice to have an SSL certificate.
I want to help your business succeed, no disappointments! With so many options open to you it can be confusing, but your business matters and building a cheap website that customers don't like or can't even find, is not a sensible option. If I understand your business, who your customers are and what you want to achieve, then together we can build a great website and make your business more successful.
So what does it cost to build a website? Every website needs a domain name, that's the .co.uk, .com, .net etc. address of your site and will cost you in the region of £10 to £20+vat per year, security certificates
Your website will need hosting, that's where it gets stored on a server for search engines to find it and hosting costs vary. I currently build with Wix and they will host new websites from around £11+vat per month, but they regularly have a 'sale' and if you pay upfront for 3 years the cost comes down to £3.50+vat per month, e-commerce websites cost more.
Security Certificates (SSL) begin at £60+vat per year; these are essential if you have an e-commerce site and I would recommend them for any website. Updating the website is usually undertaken as part of an SEO & Maintenance contract, priced to individual requirements.
Other costs that you may incur could be for:
Images - if you don't have some good images of your own, you might find some free ones but if not then you'll probably have to buy some
Apps - there are any apps available to help businesses, from email to booking systems, some with free versions but for more features you often have to pay.
Is £99 realistic, no it's not, there will be other costs. If we take a look at Yell's pricing (without their undisclosed monthly cost, upwards of £40pm can be expected!)
For £149+vat Yell will build you a 2 page, yes a measly 2 pages, that you will have to maintain yourself, even though this has an undisclosed monthly fee.
£349+vat would get you up to 5 pages, it is built from a template so the layout will look like many other Yell websites.
£699+vat gets you a website of up to 10 pages, with a 'customised look and feel', but I'm not sure what that means?
For a bespoke website your looking at.......£3499+vat! Ouch!!
I'm not sure what value there is to a 2 page website, Google looks for websites that have engaging content and show expertise in their field, unfortunately 2 pages are unlikely to meet Goole's requirements and will therefore be difficult to rank in search results.
As I freelancer I prefer to design bespoke websites that will perform well and generate you more business. As a comparison to Yell, for a website up to 5 pages I charge £249 and £399 for up to 10 pages. If you require an e-commerce website please contact me for a quotation.