If you are building a website for your Australian business, you should know exactly how much it will cost you. Not only will this give you a clearer idea of whether or not you should proceed with the project, it will also help you to get a better deal from your web host.
Why a website is important for your business
A website can help you connect with new customers, increase sales, and promote your brand… but only if it’s done right!
Most businesses don’t realize it… but… their website is their number one sales person. Your website is the face of your company. It’s what people see, hear and read about your company before they decide whether or not to do business with you. Therefore, it should be an accurate and believable representation of your company. If it’s not, you could be losing thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of dollars every year. And there’s no need for that to happen. The good news is, there are certain easy-to-do things you can do right now to make sure this doesn’t happen to you (or your client).
1. Importance of websites in today’s world
With more than 5.5 billion websites on the Internet today, it’s easy for any business or individual to become invisible to the vast majority of their potential customers. Websites are the first impression most people get when they learn about your company, so it is vital that your website is both professional and informative.
2. Benefits of owning a website for your business
The benefits of having a website for your business are pretty obvious. Right off the bat, you get to use the “magic of the web” to spread the word about your business, get found by potential customers, and increase sales. However, there are other less obvious (but no less important) benefits of having a website for your business.
3. What will a good website do for you?
The answer is simple: It will make you more money! However, there’s a lot of confusion about what “more money” really means. Does it mean more cash in your bank account? More products sold? More orders received? More customers? More leads? More gross sales? Does it matter? Yes, it does matter. You see, when you begin to think in terms of increased numbers, you are no longer focusing on the single most important consideration which is: What is the website doing for YOU? Remember, a website is a tool. It’s something you use to accomplish your goals. Increased numbers (i.e., sales) are great. But if they are not achieved at the expense of the other three components of profitability (which include, but are not limited to, increased sales, decreased expenses, and increased profits), you have not done your primary job as a website entrepreneur.
Other costs involved in making a website
There are many hidden costs involved with creating and maintaining a profitable website.
1. Website Hosting
Web hosting refers to the facility that allows you to put your website online. There are many different types of web hosts, each with different features, pricing plans and service levels. For most of our clients, we recommend they consult with our web developer to get the best hosting plan for their website.
How to choose a web hosting company?
There are several important considerations when choosing a web hosting company, such as:
- Control: Do you want complete control over your site, or do you want to let the host do everything? Some hosts will give you nearly 100% control, but there’s a trade-off. If they offer complete control, they’ll typically charge more than hosts who limit your control.
- Customer Service: Will you get good customer service if you have a problem with your account? Find out before you sign up!
- Feature Set: What features do they offer? Remember, you can always add extra bells and whistles later, but you may not be able to take them all back if you switch to a different host.
- Security: Do they offer the security you need to run a business website? Make sure they are PCI compliant and use advanced malware scanning, intrusion detection, and firewall protection.
- Transfer/Backup Space: How much space will they give you for backups and how often will they make backups for you? Don’t forget to factor this into your decision.
- Uptime: How often does their server go down for maintenance? Is it at least once every other month or even weekly? Factor this into your decision.
- Support: How responsive are they when you have a problem? Are they nice enough to
The different options when it comes to web hosting
When it comes to web hosting, there are three main types you need to be aware of: Shared, Reseller, and Dedicated. The first two are the most common but least desirable options. In fact, in most cases, shared hosting will cost less than dedicated hosting. However, both shared and reseller hosting have one very important thing in common which is…
They Are Turnkey!
That means, when you sign up for either type of hosting plan, your provider takes care of everything for you. From setting up your site to adding and configuring modules to spam filtering and anything else you can think of. The only thing you have to do is add content to your site. And that’s not always as easy as it sounds. If you decide to go with either of these types of web hosting, I suggest you invest in a good tutorial on how to set up and configure your site. This way, if any problems arise in the future, you’ll be able to fix them quickly and easily without having to send a fax or telephone call to one of your providers.
Dedicated hosting is, by far the most expensive option but also, in many ways, the most powerful. With dedicated hosting, you own everything including the server, domain name, and all configurations. If you need to make any changes, you’ll have to send
2. Email Hosting
With nearly 1 billion messages sent every day, it’s no wonder more and more businesses are looking to email as a viable sales channel. However, without proper setup and maintenance, this can easily turn into a disaster.
How to choose an email hosting company?
Hosting companies are like banks: They are extremely important to the health of your online business but, until you’re ready, you shouldn’t deal with the responsibility yourself. There are many reputable companies out there who will host your email for you at a very low cost. You just have to know where to look. Start by asking our website expert for consulting you about your emails. Choose the one that is geographically closest to you and has the lowest price. Of course, you can also go with the one that offers the most bells and whistles. That’s up to you. Just make sure it’s not you.
3. Development
The first thing you need to know is that there are many ways to skin a cat. And when it comes to websites, there are many cats.
There are hundreds of different types of websites. Some are designed to be informative. Others to sell. Yet others to entertain. And so on.
The trick is to understand what your client (the person for whom you are creating the site) wants and needs… and then to deliver it to him in the most effective way possible. This means you should identify the primary purpose of the site… and then hire a developer who is experienced enough to follow proper guidelines, write clean code and build a performing website. That’s how we build every website for our clients, our developers interact with you, know your need and ace the development part.
How to choose a web development company?
Don’t hire the first person who quotes you a price. That company may be a good fit for a project you have in mind but they may not be the right fit for you. Be picky. You should only hire the “best” developer in your area. Hire someone whose personality and skill set are a good match for you and your business. Someone who will add value. Not only should you hire a local expert, you should make sure they are an expert in what you need. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions. If a developer can’t explain things in a way you can understand, if they can’t provide references, or if they can’t offer a personal guarantee, then they are probably not the right fit for you.
The benefits of having your own website
Did you know that nearly 90% of all new customers say they research products and services online before they ever contact a salesperson?
The advantages of having a website
The biggest advantage of having a website is that… it gives you the ability to reach millions of people with a single mailing.
Websites are cheaper to make than printed pages. They capture a reader’s attention more easily. They can be updated more easily. With the help of Search Engine Optimisation, you can leverage the digital market for growing your business. Websites also enable you to make sales in a variety of ways. You can offer a lead magnet to get people to sign up for your email list. You can have an opt-in form on the site that gives people the option to receive special offers and updates from you. And you can use the “Call To Action” (CTA) at the end of each webpage to guide a reader to take some kind of action. In fact, according to a study by the Stanford Research Institute, 80% of all website visitors will leave your site without taking any kind of action. That means 20% of your visitors are just “passing through” your website. If you don’t do something to capture their interest and get them to take some sort of action, they will go to your competitor’s site who will be happy to greet them with a warm and friendly “welcome”.
Ways to measure the effectiveness of your website?
Google Analytics is the standard for tracking website metrics, but there are many other ways you can measure the success of your website. To start with, you need to know how many people visit your site. Next, you need to know what pages they visit. Then, you need to know how long they stay on each page. After that, you need to know whether they click on the ads you have running on your site. Then, you need to know if they buy something after visiting your website. And finally, you need to know if they come back to your site again.
Building a website yourself or hiring someone to do it for you
If you choose to build your own site or have someone else build it for you, there are certain things you should consider: What’s important is that you consider these things. Don’t put off building your site until tomorrow because “you know what, I’m too busy right now to do anything like that.” Or, “you know what, I just don’t feel like it.” Or “you know what, I just can’t figure out how to make it work.” If you put these excuses off until later, you may never get around to it at all. Don’t make the mistake of assuming you’re not smart enough, not creative enough, or not motivated enough to build a website. You may very well be right but, the reality is that there will always be someone out there who is much smarter, much more creative and much more motivated than you. If this is true, why should it matter if you are able to create a good product? You see, in business, “good enough” simply isn’t good enough. No matter how good you are at something, there will always be someone better. And remember this: Not only is it important that you do the work (and do it now), it’s also important
Reasons why users will go to your website
The principle is relevance. This is where many people get confused because they think relevance is having something to say that is important to them. But that’s not it at all. Relevance is when what you are saying is important to someone else. In other words, it’s when your website or blog post is relevant to your reader. If what you have to say is important to the person reading it, then he will be more likely to continue reading and, hopefully, to purchase your product or take on services you have to offer them.
The second most important principle is that of reciprocity. This is the idea that people don’t like to give something to someone unless they get something in return. And it’s reciprocal. If you are a first-time visitor to a website, it is extremely unlikely that you will make a purchase. However, if you have an existing relationship with the owner or someone else associated with the website, there’s a much better chance that you will buy or engage in services with them.
Set-up and hosting fees
To get started there are couples of things you will be needing when first stepping into the digital world. Most businesses across Australia oversee some of these things just because they think it doesn’t make any impact on their sales or profit.
The most important of all is a logo, generally, a logo is a combination of text and images used to identify a business. Effective logos convey the brand’s mission and values. When it comes to logo design, it’s all about branding a company visually. Investing into building a logo always pays off, the cost of the logo can range somewhere between A$99 to A$499.
The next important thing is a domain name, a domain name is a word or words that identifies your website. It can be yourname.com.au, orgname.net.au, or any other combination of letters and numbers. A domain name is a recurring cost, you can get a domain name for your business somewhere from A$20/year depending upon what ccTLD you choose (Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) are Internet domains that identify a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory by its country code. eg: .com, .com.au, .net.au, .net, .org, etc,.).
Hosting, as mentioned above, is one of the most important things when taking your business online. Understanding hosting costs can be overwhelming especially because of some very technical terms that are mentioned in almost 80% of hosting provider websites. But, what matters is how reliable and secure their services are. Hosting costs can vary from provider to provider, a reliable and secure provider’s hosting prices can be expected to be starting from A$150/year
You can’t miss email hosting, can you? Having a business email is as essential as having a mobile number for your website and business. Email hosting costs are not very complex to understand. You can get a business email for your business (eg.: hello@yourdomainname.com.au) for A$50/year.
Finally, when it comes to designing and developing your website, the cost can range from agency to agency, or even if you choose a freelancer, every freelancer has their own range of prices. What determines the actual cost of designing and development highly depends upon what type of website you’re looking for, what kind of features are you expecting on your website, and again the cost of designing and developing an E-commerce is always higher than a simple or business website. The cost of a small business website in Australia can be seen starting from A$799. The cost of an E-commerce store is determined by various factors, as E-commerce stores are more complex, the number of products, payment gateway, user database, user dashboard and if any required complex functionality. You can expect your E-commerce cost starting from A$999.
Cost of maintaining a website
Maintaining your website can be a real pain in a**. We only have 24 hours in a day, 8 hours of sleep… we hardly have 12 full hours to work. Running a business is tough, you have responsibilities, deadlines, clients to handle, accounts, legal, etc, etc,. Most business owners cannot find the time for their website, forget about maintaining and keeping it up-to-date. That’s where we come to recuse, our developers and designers take care of your website, update content, image, and software up-to-date as per your instruction. Engaging a developer or designer after completing your website is usually preferred to be invoiced on an hourly basis. Website maintenance can cost you A$80/hour.
You can automate your domain, email and hosting invoice with direct debit and forget about overdue bills and fees. Every year invoices are emailed to your email. Almost every hosting provider offers you this ease of mind.
The process of creating a website
If you are interested in having a website designed for you by one of the best web designers in the world, read this first. It will give you a clear idea of what the process is like and what is involved in building a profitable website for your business.
Planning your site
Website planning begins with research. Before you can even think about what information (or lack thereof) you want to convey to your audience, you need to know who your audience is. What are they interested in? What concerns do they have? What questions do they have? Once you know all this, you can use it to guide the content and messaging of your site.
Finding out what people want to know
One of the easiest ways to find out what people want is to ask them! In fact, there are three types of questions you can ask: open-ended, yes/no, and ranked. Open-ended questions give respondents a lot of freedom to answer in any way they choose. Yes/no questions are easy to understand, but they only give you “black and white” answers. Ranked questions are the most useful because they force respondents to give a specific order of importance to whatever it is you’re asking about.
Hiring a website designer/developer
If you’re going to spend the money to get your website designed and built, you might as well spend the extra couple hundred bucks to get someone who really knows what he’s doing. You should seriously consider hiring someone who knows what they’re doing to create a profitable website for you. Not only will this save you a lot of time and energy, it will also give you a much-needed professional opinion of your site and its viability. Hiring a pro can cost anywhere from A$500 to A$10,000 or even more. Hire someone who can tell you exactly what you need to do and why you should do it. Someone who can explain all the options available to you and show you which ones are best for your situation. Someone who can help you avoid common pitfalls and mistakes.
Writing great copy for your site
Copywriting, especially for websites, is all about hooks. These are little statements, facts, or questions that make the reader perk up and pay attention. Once he’s focused on you, you can start building the case for why he should give you his money.
This is where copywriters/content writers separate from mere writers. It is always beneficial for businesses to engage with a content writer or a copywriter for writing a great copy for their website. A copywriter/content writer is someone who specializes in writing copy for websites or ad copy for marketing campaigns. That means he or she can take a sales pitch and make it more powerful. Usually, the goal of a copywriter is to make what would otherwise be a mediocre ad great. Or, conversely, to make a great website or ad more likable and ordinary. There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to content writing. Different projects require different skills. But no matter the project, there are certain basic copywriting concepts and strategies that are universal.
Keeping your site fresh and interesting
Website updates are important, but they need to be scheduled. Adding fresh content to your site every week is much more effective. Schedule time and energy to update your site two to three times per month. You should make an effort to add something new to your site at least once every 30-days. Don’t wait for something “important” to happen before you update your site. If anything, you should consider making minor updates more important than major ones.
Testing your site to see if it works
The goal of the website is to drive sales. Therefore, the website should be tested to make sure that it is, in fact, achieving its goal. Does the site contain enough compelling copy? Are the calls to action properly identified and clearly visible? Is the site mobile-friendly? Do the navigation techniques work effectively? Does the site function smoothly on any device? These are all questions you should be asking yourself when you’re testing your site, and they’re questions you should be asking frequently.
Making your site available on the ‘net
Once all checks are done, you’re happy with your website. It is time to go live and present your website in front of your audience like never before.
The factors that determine the price of a website
There are several factors that determine the price of a website, some of the main factors are discussed below:
1. Content
Is your website informative or not? If it’s not, you can reduce the price by writing poor-quality content. But, if it is informative.
Is content important? Of course it’s important. Without good content, a site isn’t likely to get any traffic. But, content is only one part of the equation. You also need something called “content promotion” and “content marketing.” Content promotion is what you do to get your current content (i.e., posts) noticed by the search engines. And, once your content is discovered by the search engines, it is the job of the other pieces of the marketing puzzle (such as links and link building) to convince the search engines that your content is indeed valuable and ought to be ranked higher than the content of your competitors.
2. Design
Does the look of your website attract or repel visitors? If it’s the latter, you should pay more attention to your website’s design.
One of the main goals of website design is to make it easy for people to find what they are looking for. But, there’s another important goal of website design which is to persuade people to click on whatever it is your website is selling. Persuasion through website design isn’t as simple as it sounds. There are many more variables involved than just making a website easy to find. Designing your website so it is easy to find what you are selling is only the first step in the process.
3. Functionality
How does your website interact with your customer?
What makes websites more likely to convert is interactivity. Websites that allow you to “touch” the site are 8 times more likely to get a sale than a static site. And there are many ways to add interactivity to a site. One of the most powerful is to ask the reader to take some kind of action. To do this, you need to have a compelling reason for the reader to take the action. For example, you might have a form that says “Tell us what you think!” and then have a few sentences like this next to it: “Your feedback will help us make this site even better.” If you do this right, the reader will fill out the form and send you their thoughts, and you’ll have a double win because not only will you get valuable feedback, you’ll also be able to use that feedback to improve the site.
Conclusion
In conclusion, when it comes to websites, every market is different. Some markets are more competitive than others, and in these cases, it might even be worth paying a premium for a top position. However, in most cases, a first-place position in a low-competitive market will give you a healthy profit regardless of the costs involved. Just make sure that you’re clear on the exact nature of the market you’re in before you set your site up and start spending money.
The answer is simple… It depends! Every business has different needs, get your consultation for a website project by experienced designers and developers here at WEB Magicians. Call (02) 9064 2866 and book your free consultation!
