Website development costs

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heavenlywild

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Topic # 136674 5-Dec-2013 08:18

Hi all,

I am looking to revamp my business website, and by revamp, I mean a total overhaul to ensure it leads to more customer enquiries.

It's a fairly simple website, without a CRM or anything behind it. It simply contains info on the business, what we do, and our portfolio.

What is a reasonable price to do this out in the market? Ball park figures would be helpful!

Update: In total it would only contain 20 pages.

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Reply # 945862 5-Dec-2013 08:47

It could range from a few hundred to a few thousand, depending on specifics of what you want. For example, if you want custom graphics & photos etc created as part of the package, this adds cost. Are you providing the text content or expecting it to be written or re-written based on some guidelines? Again, this can add cost.

The cheaper options tend to be solutions that involve some minor customisation of a CMS template, such as Wordpress, Joomla, etc.

heavenlywild

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Reply # 945874 5-Dec-2013 08:58

Yes, I would want a copywriter, and in terms of graphics, I have everything that's needed, including the logo.

It's really creating a website from scratch, and transferring the revised content from the old site to the new.

I've been quoted $9k. The website would be housed via a CMS where I can go in and make changes and load content. Is this a fair price?

hairy1

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Reply # 945875 5-Dec-2013 09:04

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Ouch. 9K. I must be undercharging.

If you are techy and want to spend a few hours having a lash, setup a Joomla or Wordpress site, go to somewhere like http://themeforest.net/ and buy a nice template.

As you are only doing content you shouldn't have too much trouble customising it.

The really fiddly stuff with CMS's is all when you start adding multiple extensions.

Cheers, Matt.

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

thegeekboy

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Reply # 945898 5-Dec-2013 09:22

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You need to read this.
From 2012 - but still good.

Website build - buyers and sellers guide

Have a good look at Squarespace while you are looking.

kobiak

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Reply # 945914 5-Dec-2013 09:45

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Really depends on tech specs.

as self employed front-end coder, i would get you an example, based on wordpress development when design is provided.

usually there're unique pages:
- home
- default page
- contact us page

depending on complexity this will take 1-3 days of work with changes. Including responsive.

adding unique designs for:
- blog posts
- any other additional changes

will add 1-2 days per page/unique design.

costs associated $60 per hour. So quote from $1000 to $1500 will be a good start.

I doubt any agency would do any cheaper. :)

helping others at evgenyk.nz

heavenlywild

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Reply # 945918 5-Dec-2013 09:54

Thanks guys, great advice and help!

I believe the $9k quote is somewhat inflated, considering it's not even an e-commerce site.

My current site sits on Wordpress. Can anyone recommend any sites to purchase PC and tablet-friendly templates?

kobiak

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Reply # 945924 5-Dec-2013 09:58

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http://themeforest.net/ would be first option and last. cheap and good :)

helping others at evgenyk.nz

hairy1

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Reply # 945927 5-Dec-2013 10:04

Yep. +1 for themeforest.net. Put a new theme over the top of your existing content, refresh the content and you will be good to go.

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

andrewNZ

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Reply # 945928 5-Dec-2013 10:07

I think it depends on the visual quality and usability of what you'll end up with, as well as what else the price includes. People often get burned when they go for the cheapest option and have to pay for variances to get what they want.

I'm not saying 9k is a good price (I have no idea), I just think it's a case of getting what you pay for in many respects.

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Geektastic

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Reply # 945931 5-Dec-2013 10:12

I'm just having mine done by a skilled lady in Wellington using Wordpress as the base (you'd not know from looking at it though) because I understand the back end so it's easy for me to change things.

Total cost will be in the region of $4,000 by the time it is done, I think. This includes SEO optimisation, design, coding, setup, necessary training etc.

gundar

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Reply # 945935 5-Dec-2013 10:18

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I have to be honest here, as soon as I hear the customer saying "It will be easy", "I have all the graphics and logo already", "only 20 pages" - I immediately double my estimate.

timmmay

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Reply # 945953 5-Dec-2013 10:36

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On one hand $9K is very cheap if you have a good professional doing the work. On the other hand find someone charging $60/hr, provide all the content, a few days work might do it. A custom design/skin based on your requirements could take hours or days, sometimes one little thing you've asked for may make things a lot more time consuming. Buying a skin/theme would be cheaper, though I find the cheaper skins/themes sometimes need some work to get them right. For example the theme on my website does page names in a strange way, so every time I update I have to manually update the theme. I also tweak the html generated to make it more standards compliant, which is lost when updates are done.

Running on Wordpress makes things easier.

heavenlywild

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Reply # 945973 5-Dec-2013 11:24

gundar: I have to be honest here, as soon as I hear the customer saying "It will be easy", "I have all the graphics and logo already", "only 20 pages" - I immediately double my estimate.

Well, I recommend that you look at each customer on their own merits as assumptions can be a pitfall.

heavenlywild

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Reply # 945975 5-Dec-2013 11:26

In some ways, I believe the more staff a company has, the more you are paying for their salary and offices, which is fair enough.

Anyway, looks like 9k is overkill at the moment, according to what's been said. I don't want to advertise my business here as it's just a shameless promo, but if anyone's keen to see it, I would be happy to PM you with the link.

Update: The current site is made via Wordpress, and it took a couple of days to get up.

mattwnz

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Reply # 945995 5-Dec-2013 12:06

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60 per hour seems very low, especially considering builders and mechanics usually have a higher hourly rate. 9k sounds way to high but it depends on what they are doing, and you also need to factor in the on going updating costs in keeping it up to date and secure. Eg wordpress needs to be updated when patches come out, as do plugins and any themes used. If you buy a theme any changes you make to them have to be manually made again each theme update that comes out. Web design companies will often also buy a theme and adapt it, as creating a new theme from scratch could increase the price up to that 9k mark. If you are also wanting copywriting a web designer may not be the best person to do this for you. Also if you are wanting seo, the price for this can be as high as the web design work to do it properly. Most web designers will instead say that it search engine friendly, so follows googles best practice guidelines.

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