Website design costs: How to calculate them and negotiate the budget

Website design costs: How to calculate them and negotiate the budget

The web design and development process may seem simple, but it could be very tedious and requires a lot of detail, which is why it should be done as well as possible from the beginning. Therefore, establishing the client’s objectives, as well as each of the tasks and resources is essential to define the website design costs.

In this article, we will talk about the main elements to understand and analyze when it comes to developing a web design budget. We will see the fundamental steps to define the cost that the website will have for clients, and why this phase prior to the start of the project is so important.

Web Design Budgeting: Beyond Planning

First of all, we must consider that the  website design costs should not be a simple sheet in which we detail a cost for the service that is performed. It is about much more than that: It is the result of the entire initial planning process of a web project that will evolve. Therefore the importance of defining everything very well from the beginning.

Each web design project is different and has its peculiarities. That is why there are no definitive website design costs, but estimates.

Once a web project and its implications have been analyzed, a value can be placed on the work to be done.  Website design costs are defined by knowing the client’s needs and what elements can be contributed to offer the greatest benefit to both parties.

Definition of objectives and resources to establish the website design costs

It is essential to know the objectives and resources of the business in order to establish parameters and limits. When defining website design costs we cannot limit ourselves to giving only one price, we must take into account:

What type of web project is going to be carried out

It is necessary to be very clear about the type of web project that is going to be carried out, as this will determine the UX (user experience), UI (user interface) and, obviously, will allow us to get closer to estimating website design costs. Some types of website are:

  • Corporate web
  • Personal branding site.
  • E-commerce.
  • Blog.
  • Digital Academy.
  • Landing page.
  • A hybrid.

If it is a static website or with CMS

Here the difference is important, because developing a static website from scratch implies a considerable increase in budget.
On the other hand, websites that use CMS (Content Management System) are those that use software with a defined web structure and facilitate its management, such as WordPress. While they have limitations when it comes to design customization, they perform vastly better when it comes to SEO.

Custom or template web design

Obviously, the design of the web is tailored implies that the website design costs will be higher than if a web template is used. In any case, here you must assess how important it is for your project to stand out from the rest.

Budget and time limit

When we conceive a web page it is not done on a whim or to be fashionable. This must be done to fulfill a specific purpose and in a certain time, which in turn responds to the digital marketing plan.

For this reason, it should not only be estimated as website design costs in themselves, but the investment you estimate to make and the profitability that it can give you must be evaluated.

Although hiring professionals to create web pages is usually more expensive than other types of services, it is also obvious that today having a digital presence is increasingly important to generate added value, profitability and even reduce other costs.

Website management, updating and maintenance costs

All websites require updating and maintenance, even static websites. Why? Simply because someone must be aware of:

  • The payment of the hosting and the web domain.
  • Protection from hackers.
  • Technical maintenance of the website and fault detection.
  • Updating of digital content.
  • UX and UI.

Briefing to create a web page

A briefing is a document that contains the essential information for the planning process of designing a web page and budgeting for the project. There, the business objectives, project objectives, buyer persona, budget, available resources are defined, as well as other elements that will allow the  website design costs to be defined more clearly.

What influences the web design costs.

As we have already said, there are many aspects to consider when determining  website design costs  and they should be mentioned to the client so that they know that there are many details involved in creating a website.

Hosting and web domain

Hosting is the physical space in which we store the data of a web page and that allows us to publish it on the Internet.

For its part, the web domain is the web address that someone must search to access a website (Example: www.mydomain.com).

Website type

Knowing the objective of the project will help determine the work that will be necessary, and therefore will determine the web design costs.

The design of e-commerce is not the same as that of a corporate website. An e-commerce is usually more complicated in terms of structure and the details in terms of UX and UI must be taken care of much more.

In addition, choosing a type of website will also determine the frequency of maintenance, or if on the contrary, it can be self-sufficient. For example, a corporate website that is not going to be modified should not need web maintenance except for specific exceptions. However, in the case of e-commerce and blogs, constant updating of their products and blog posts is required.

Custom design or template?

Web templates are previously created designs that should only be adapted in their content to create the website. This greatly facilitates the work of the designer, and therefore, the price of the service and delivery time are lower.

However, the average design, despite the fact that it may be a bit more expensive and take a little longer, is a differential factor compared to the competition. Something genuine and personalized adds a lot of value to a brand, be it personal or business.

Plugins or payment extensions

Plugins are extensions that add functionality, provide protection or generate automation to websites created with a CMS, such as WordPress. Although a website can function without them, they offer a series of functionalities that allow a website to have a specific appearance and functionality.

Most of the basic plugins are free. However, some of them are paid and they are only used if there is no reliable and free alternative or if you want to acquire certain specific functionalities.

Structure and functionality of the website

This is very important since it implies more or fewer hours of work, and, therefore, dictates the price of the web design budget that is carried out. This is because once we know the structure of the web or the idea that is set for the functionalities that it must have, we can estimate the work time that will be carried out and the value of that job.

And not only that, if the job requires some kind of specialty, such as e-commerce development, this can make that budget higher. But, in the end, the determining factor is not the price, but to be clear from the beginning what you want to do, so as not to have extra costs because something was not in the initial budget.

Scheduling

Scheduling is the roadmap for carrying out the project. It consists of defining the times and tasks of the project.

This should be done with mutual agreement between the client and the service provider, taking into account that each task takes a time to complete and that it should be ready for the moment set in the digital marketing strategy.

Obviously, the more complex it is and the sooner you need to have a web project, the website design costs  will be higher.

Benchmarking and referrals

Having other reference websites is key to knowing better what the client wants and hopes to obtain from the web project. If the client has a website that serves as an example to explain how he/she wants it to be, it is very important that he/she transmits that information to the service provider.

Benchmarking also serves to see what the competition is doing and thus ensure that the design that is carried out is differential. This is vital in the event of strong competition online.

Copywriting (Texts from the web)

Not all agencies offer the copywriter service. However, it is essential to have a specialist in UX copywriting and SEO copywriting, this will significantly influence the user experience and even the conversions (leads and sales) of your website.

SEO

If a website has no visibility, traffic and transactions, it is useless. That is why SEO is so important, both at a technical level (maintenance and operation of the website), as well as the generation of content.

SEO is a regular cost that the client must take into account in their digital marketing budget, but it can definitely present great profitability for the business.

Photographs and illustrations

Photographs and illustrations give the website its own personality and professionalism. Therefore, it is essential to consider the costs for photographs and personalized images or if you have to resort to stock images.

So … how to define web design costs?

Finally, after having seen many of the elements that can determine the price of a website, it remains to give an answer: How to define the web design costs?

The reality is that our prices are much lower than those of our competition, without affecting the quality of the product delivered. You can visit this page to calculate a baseline estimate of the cost of the web project.

In fact, we have the best web design costs. It is a completely personalized service that also includes:

  • A project manager assigned to work with video calls and phone inquiries.
  • SEO and UX Copywriter dedicated entirely to the content of your website.
  • A graphic designer who will create your website design from scratch.

Learn about our website creation process

  1. Briefing with the client.
  2. We will tune the website designed in PDF format.
  3. We will develop the website approved by the client.

We focus on growing with you, we are your right arm when it comes to marketing and we believe that together we can achieve great things. Contact us and let us show you that we are the best ally for your business.

We offer digital marketing strategies for:

SEO Budgeting

Each project is different. Some websites need constant maintenance and optimization, while others require minimal attention. This means that the price of SEO services is calculated based on the time and research required to obtain quality finishes. The SEO budget depends on the size of the website, the degree of optimization and the scale of optimization that a website, blog or e-commerce requires.

The level of optimization of a website considers the amount of research, technical analysis, keywords, link building and maintenance on and off the site.

For their part, web stores need more optimization than personal blogs to maximize traffic and conversion rate, so they need more comprehensive packages.

Finally, the optimization scale implies the geographic reach of the website, as it implies different tactics depending on the strategy.

Consider applying SEO to your website and making it the heart of your digital marketing strategy. Contact us to discuss how to multiply the income of your company.

Off-Site SEO

External SEO is concerned with improving the ranking of a site on search engine results pages through promotional techniques such as:
  • Creation of external and internal links. With the aim of generating web traffic as an additional source and developing greater value. This can drive more traffic to your website, increase reputation, and increase rankings.
  • Marketing in social networks and brand promotions. These actions involve strategy and tactics in social media, both in organic and paid actions to give boost, visibility, credibility and traffic to the website, blog and e-commerce.

On-site SEO

On-site SEO involves optimizing the content of the website, blog and e-commerce at a structural level to make it more trackable and friendly for users and search engines. Includes optimization of title tags, internal links and URLs.

Some On-site SEO actions are:
  • Include keywords in the URL, in case the plugins don’t.
  • Using short and precise URLs, with the recommended keywords.
  • Use keywords at the beginning of the title tag.
  • Use keywords in subheadings in the content of your notes, as Google also searches for keywords in the heading tags.
  • Optimizing images and alt text that describes what’s in the image helps to identify the images and media in your site content.
  • Use synonyms and keywords that would be relevant to search items. When Google presents search results, it also looks for synonyms for the main keyword and other accompanying keywords.
  • Use internal and external links. Internal links connect the content of one web page to another on the same website. On the other hand, external links connect the content of your website with another website, enriching the content and adding value to searches.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is about locating the most searched words and phrases by users. This means that it is essential to tag the content of your site so that search engines can easily locate them.

The keywords used should target frequently used search words and phrases that are relevant to your content and add value to searches. The more keywords that are used and the more relevant they are to users, the easier it will be to find your website, blog or e-commerce. Also, if your website has a higher reputation, it will also be more relevant and better positioned.

Also, it should be taken into account that the position of the keyword in the URL affects its ranking and that the length of the keyword also influences the web positioning. Shorter URLs are easier to find and obviously rank higher.

Technical Analysis

Technical Analysis SEO technical analysis involves an in-depth review of the technical elements to improve so that Google and other search engines can index and crawl your website, blog or e-commerce.

The most common trouble spots are:
  • Need to correct “crawling errors” that prevent Google robots from seeing a page on your website and therefore not appearing in the search engine.
  • Optimize your site so it can be easily viewed from mobile devices, tablets, and desktops. Let us remember that we are in times of “mobile first”.
  • Fix broken links and make 404 errors friendly. Broken links can significantly hurt your SEO ranking because users and Google will have a hard time reaching your site and cause a drastic decrease in web traffic and sales.
  • Verify if you have an SSL certificate and a site with HTTPS encryption, which implies the protection of your data and those of your users from malicious programs and trackers on the Internet. It is an excellent ranking signal as it guarantees a secure connection with Google and reduces the abandonment rate.
  • Optimize page loading speed. This is essential, since if your sites take a long time to load, not only will you have a bad ranking in the Google list, but your users will quickly leave the site and you will lose potential sales.

Preliminary research

Preliminary SEO research focuses on finding out what’s on your website. This checklist is the content you have and discover the best way to select relevant bookmarks to optimize your website, blog or e-commerce. It includes the topics of your content, the types of media present, and benchmarking, that is, researching sites with similar content.

The goal of SEO is to differentiate yourself from your immediate competition, making your content on your website unique. This means that if your website has valuable content and responds to organic user searches, it will be easier for web crawlers to find.

The research done dives into the website’s specific market and the audience it is trying to reach. This step takes many factors into account and is one of the most expensive considerations in your budget.

Custom Desing

You deserve to have your own custom designs. We’ll create a design that’s uniquely yours, with a brand message that reflects your personality and goals.

Capability Statement

The design of a Capability Statement is a challenge, you need to be concise to summarize all the important information about your company on one page, think of your Capability Statement as if it were your resume.

Brochure

We create the brochure of your company, brand, product or service from scratch specially designed to show your value proposition to the target audience.

Business Card

Make your business card design stand out. We take the time to understand what you need so you can have an impactful card that will make your company stand out.

The Branding Kit

We make sure that our clients have a professional and unique corporate brand that allows them to promote their companies and increase their chances of success.

Logos

We take great care in every detail to make your brand unique! Our logos are handmade and then digitally designed, always thinking about the concept of the brand and target audience.