It’s Just Ones and Zeros, Right? What’s So Hard?
Website cost seems to have skyrocketed recently. You used to be able to pay your nephew or your neighbor’s kid $100 to build and publish a website on the internet that looked decent. What’s so hard about that? There are even simple tools now that provide a template. All you have to do is plop in some royalty-free stock photos, add some words and BAM — you have yourself a website.
One of the reasons your website cost has increased is that your nephew and that neighbor kid are now young adults working for companies that charge thousands of dollars for a website. And they’ve learned a lot in the intervening years. OK, the new sites look a little better today than they used to, but a website is a website, isn’t it?
Not All Websites Are Created Equal
Those slapdash websites of the 1990s wouldn’t cut it in today’s market. They are so slow to load. They look clunky, the images are tiny and what’s with that blinking text?! Those websites even look outdated, if it’s possible for a website to look old-fashioned after just 20 years.
By comparison, today’s websites are fluid. They load quickly and work on all kinds of devices. They take advantage of scrolling, zooming and collapsing menus. Ordering is easy and secure, as long as you confirm that you’re not a robot. What would someone from the 90s think of that?
The Elements of a Modern Website
Another reason for high website cost is the various specialties required to complete a business website project. It’s not one kid in a basement anymore. Website development agencies need:
- Project managers, who act as the liaison between the customer and the website agency. Communication must be timely and fluid, as website projects often require tweaking from phase to phase.
- Website designers, not just to make the website pop, but also to fit the design to the business’s target audience. AARP has a much different design than Red Bull, even though both act as a landing page for stories.
- Website developers, the down-and-dirty code-jockeys of website agencies. They do the actual coding to make the websites work as designed. Even when an agency offers template-driven forms, there is still coding to be done to customize a site for a particular business.
- Content writers to create the new content that populates the pages. Content isn’t the last step or an unnecessary extra. Some development firms start with the content. They know that without effective content, a new website will just sit there and underperform, no matter how well it’s designed and developed. Every piece works together to make a website work.
And that isn’t all — you have graphic artists, SEO experts, photographers, marketing pros, assistants, accountants and the beat goes on… As you can see, that’s a lot of mouths to feed, all of whom drive up the website cost. Most website development projects take a minimum of three months, from initial meeting to launch. That means a lot of people are putting in many hours on your website.
But It’s Totally Worth the Expense
Your business only needs a brand-new website maybe once every five years. Some companies update the look more frequently than that, but a five-year-old website doesn’t necessarily look old or out-of-place. You can always swap photos and insert new pages of content, but a completely new website is an infrequent expense.
Your website cost, ameliorated over its functional life, is fairly inexpensive, especially when compared to other business costs, such as advertising and personnel. And unlike personnel, your website works for you every minute it’s up, without a break. If it’s effective, it may be bringing in leads as fast as your best salespeople. Now you’re not thinking about website cost; you’re considering the website ROI.
Effective Websites Have Effective Content
Ray Access is a business-to-business company. In other words, we don’t sell our writing services to the public, but to other businesses. As a result, we work with smart companies to improve their websites, to make them more effective by attracting attention and encouraging visitors to contact our clients.
In fact, more often than not, we work with the web developers who create the sites because they know the importance of good content that blends in perfectly with the overall design and style. They don’t want their site launch held up while they wait for their business client to deliver or fix content.
Website Cost vs. Return on Investment
If you’re worried about website cost, think of it as an investment in your company’s future. Think of it as a marketing and advertising expense, since it’s your information listing and your outward facing image. In a way, that’s exactly what it is, if it’s done right. And a website that’s not done right isn’t worth the paper it’s not printed on.
So, when you’re considering a new website, make sure you hire someone to develop your content too. Ray Access writers understand what a website has to do. They know how good websites work. And content is always edited, so that it always sounds like it comes from the source: you.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.