If you have ever asked for a quote on a web site, I would not be surprised if you have come back somewhat confused by the range of quotes received for exactly the same brief. There are literally thousands of web design agencies out there, and I can say from personal experiences that not even the most expensive ones provide the best solution.

So, are  you paying for the expensive ones brand name? Are the cheaper firms cutting corners? Let me explain the key considerations for building a website, which will help you sift through the quotes to determine who really is supplying the best solution. To do this I will break down the costs:

Step 1 – Agency Costs

Any agency that you involve will basically be selling their time for a profit, otherwise it isn’t worth them doing it. Every hour that a staff member spends on your website is costing them money. Many different skills sets will be required depending on your brief:

     * Creative Designer
    * HTML/CSS Programmer
    * Copywriter
    * Search Engine Optimiser

Typically, agency staff  demand salaries of anywhere between £20,000 to £50,000 a year  for these skills. In fact, depending on their seniority and area of expertise, possibly a lot more. So let’s assume an agency charges £25.00 per hour to keep things simple.

Step 2 – The time involved

Depending on your actual needs  (i.e the website brief), this really determines what is involved. Some agencies will build a simple 5 page website using an off-the shelf template, which means that their development costs are very low.   Whilst others maybe building a bespoke design, meaning that development costs are higher,  but you can be confident that your website will be unique.

Let’s take for example, a bespoke design. What’s involved:-

Customising template – A creative designer can take anywhere between 0.5 and 3 days to get a design approved. So let’s say its takes 1.5 days, which costs £300.

Writing the code – Assuming you approve the design, an HTML/CSS coder has to convert this into a functional website. This will typically take a day costing  £200.

So, we have come up with a price of just £500,  but is this it.....

...no this is probably why you are seeing costs vary so widely on your original quotes for the same specification. There is more....

Step 3 – Agency marketing and business costs

Okay, so we have worked out the agency’s staff cost, but let’s not forget that they have incurred costs of:

    * Advertising & Marketing
    * Rent & Rates on Business Premises
    * Computer Hardware & Software
    * .. and probably more!

So lets, assume that staff costs account for 50% of the businesses cost, we will assume that the cost doubles to £1,000 to cover the agency’s costs. 

Step 4 – Additional Features

So now, you may want additional features like :-

    * Professionally written content
    * Search Engine Optimisation advice
    * A content management system
     * Link Building for Search Engine marketing
    * Online Publicity Services
    * Pay per Click Management
    * A blog, forum
    * …. the possibilities are endless.

As expected, this will certainly start pushing up the price, however this the area where you are also going to see your Return on Investment. Otherwise, you are simply buying an online brochure. In general, depending on the software used the prices vary enormously in terms of time and licence costs. But, let’s assume you concentrate on the Joomla Content Management System (CMS), which supports all these features and is also a robust system. One used by corporates as large as Porsche.

In general terms, it would take five days to build the Joomla CMS including coding and design, so £1,000. To add features like blogs and forums can take a day’s work, so let’s costs these at £200 each. For Online Publicity, Link Building, Search Engine Optimisation and professionally written content you are typically looking at a day’s work for each, so £800 in total. So for a solution it will say and forum and blog plus marketing should cost £2,200. With agency overheads, we could double that to £4,400.

In summary, these are the costs I envisage someone should expect to pay for a professional job. Of course there are cheaper ways like finding an agency without major overheads, typically these are agencies outside of London like ourselves.

About the Author

Max Worton is the Marketing Director of Web Efforts UK, which specialises in building Joomla Content Management Systems (CMS). The company has evolved in to a Search Engine Marketing specialist from its CMS roots, and helps people not only build powerful website solutions, but also give them a competitive online sales tool.

For more information contact Max on 0870 20 30 444, or visit our website www.webefforts.co.uk