
In 2020, if you don't have a website designed to attract clients to your company, all of your rivals who do have one will leave you in the dust.
It could be time for a redesign too. With the shift to mobile-friendly pages, website design has changed rapidly in the last three years. And, if you haven't updated your website in a decade, it's likely looking outdated by the standards of today. Headlines blinking across the screen, basic colors, large text walls, and lack of mobile integration won't impress or instill trust in the customers visiting your storefront.
Websites are important because they often serve as the first impression a customer gets of your business. A well-constructed website will help clients know that you are relevant to the industry.
Creating your budget for the website starts with deciding what type of website you need.
Step 1: Figure out What Type of Website You Need
Website styles include clear shop fronts, collections, e-commerce, and complex designs.
Simple Storefront: A storefront is for window-shopping customers. It provides information about your business, the team to customers and usually includes a regularly updated blog full of valuable information about your industry.
Portfolio: If you’re Firm or company contains a lot of product or services, a portfolio website or page may be required to present the range of work you are doing. Your portfolio website represents a window for the world. A great portfolio of a website can open up new opportunities and propel you towards success.
E-commerce: E-commerce refers to the selling of physical products online facilitated through the internet. For which it needs a custom E-commerce website. This, in
turn, depends upon the e-commerce model, which also requires different website architecture. The four main e-commerce models are
- Business to Consumer (B2C)
- Business to Business (B2B)
- Consumer to Consumer (C2C)
- Consumer to Business (C2B)
Complex Design: Some businesses need complex designs complete with customer log-in features, user dashboards, additional security, and membership levels. For e.g. MLM business
Step 2: Purchase the Domain Name
Your domain is like the address of your property: this is how you are identified by people. Free domains are available on websites such as WordPress and Weebly, but often they look less formal. For example, it is yourcompany.wordpress.com instead of yourcompany.com.
Think carefully about your domain name. If you choose one without knowing how it will impact your brand, like choosing not to include your company name, your potential customers might be confused. Some domains are easy to buy because they include a unique name that no other organization has bought.
You can find a domain that is available or cheaper by adding your name or company name or by selecting.net or.org instead of of.com. A domain name can cost up to several thousand dollars, from 99 cents. Most will range from $12 to around $50 and will require annual renewal.
Step 3: Determine Your Hosting Fees
If a domain name is like a physical address, then your hosting platform is like the property where your company will be founded. You have to buy the property and its website. On average, expect to pay about $200 to $500 a year for hosting your website.
Hosting on platforms like Bluehost, WordPress, GoDaddy or Dreamhost can range from $16 a month on sites like Squarespace, to several hundred a year. WordPress and Squarespace have a large community so you'll find answers to most of your online questions. They're also fairly easy for those who lack website management experience to understand platforms.
Step 5: Choose a Template
Creating a Website from scratch is more expensive and timely. Most websites instead are built using a template. Fortunately, there are plenty of free quality templates available, but sometimes you will get a better design and functionality when you buy one. Price differences for website models are significant. Some of them cost $49 and others $1,000, or more. If you're creating a complex designed website rather than a basic storefront, you'll probably spend more on a prototype.
Step 6: Pay for Regular Maintenance and Updates
Starting a website will cost a one-time fee, with additional renewal fees such as hosting and domain names. Keeping a website relevant, however, requires maintenance and updates to be paid. Some firms think the work is over once the website is built, which is most often not the case. You'll need to keep an updated blog to have a high-performance website, ensure the services remain relevant and keep it fresh with new information and media. Determine how much time you are willing to spend per month on this task, and equate it with the expense of outsourcing or delegating the job.