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How much should your web site cost?

© Robert Pratt

Of course this is a complex issue that can be answered in many different ways. It's a good idea to remember that in general, the articles on this web site do not contain many specifics. But once in a while, it is required to help business owners build a concrete foundations for internet business.

Given the wide range of business activity, size, and capability, issues of money are all relative. At the end of the day you still have to make up your own mind about what is reasonable and acceptable. It may be a good idea to relate the figures below to commonly advertised web site 'packages' in the $300-1000 range, or to strict hourly fees.

Depending on how much input I get, the level of technical knowledge of the business owner, and their understanding of what is for many an essentially invisible investment (short of looking at the web site a hundred times per day and wondering who else is looking at it), I use both price structure in my business. But of course I also typically provide up front quotes.

In short, your budget should be in keeping with the size of your business, defined by average gross yearly revenues. New businesses can use their business plan for these figures. A good benchmark for initial construction and basic early maintenance and minor changes is 2.5% of gross revenues.

So if your business earned $100,000 in revenue last year, $3000 is a reasonable amount of money to spend. If this number seems high to you, consider that initial construction represents an enormous personal investment on the part of a web designer - when that person is working on your web site, there is no other task that can be accomplished - and you are really buying a full time employee for days or weeks.

Also consider that 2.5% represents a product that is in keeping with your business scale. If you purchase a smaller or less developed web site, it will likely not fit your business properly. It will not reflect your business size or capabilities, and you may lose more in the long run because your web site visitors will consistently misread the kind of business your web site represents.

If your plan considers a web site to be the primary vehicle for business growth into the future, then you may need to spend 3-3.5% of revenues. Of course, if it is strictly an information site that is designed only to draw people to a physical location, then 1.5-2% is quite reasonable.

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