There are typically six essential components to consider when building a business website. All are essential investments in your website’s success and ability to bring in new business. Some are one off costs, some are recurring, some are ad hoc (on demand). Here is a typical breakdown:
1. Domain Name Registration – Recurring Annual Cost – The cost to register your website name and claim your patch of the digital landscape. Starts from around $13 annually.
2. Website Hosting – Recurring Monthly or Annual Cost – The cost of renting physical server space to hold your website and deliver it to visitors across the internet. Starts from around $113 annually depending how well you want your website to perform.
3. Website Design – One Off Cost – The cost of building, and customising your website design to your requirements.
4. Website Monitoring and Maintenance – Recurring or Ad Hoc Cost – Often overlooked, this is the critical cost of monitoring, maintaining and updating the technical components of your website to ensure your website security is not compromised. Can cost nothing if you choose to do it yourself, or is available as a monthly WordPress ‘Peace of Mind’ maintenance package or can be quoted at an hourly rate.
5. Website Content Updating – Ad Hoc Cost – The cost of updating the content on your website. Can cost nothing if you choose to do it yourself or content updates can be performed an an hourly rate.
The frequency is entirely dependent on the frequency of required updates to the content on your website.
6. Marketing – The most important consideration for commercial success and one that often gets neglected. So many people think that they will build a website and all of a sudden, ‘BOOM’, they will have customers and enquiries overflowing from their inbox.
It is simply not true. Maybe in 2002, but definitely not in 2021. There is just too much competition out there for the precious page one Google rankings. If you build a website and don’t commit to regularly investing time and money in its marketing then it will sit there gathering dust, somewhere on page 17 of the Google rankings, and not doing what it is supposed to do. That is, acquiring you new customers and EARNING YOU MONEY!
