Like most developers, we’re not able to give you an estimate until we’ve had a close look at your project. Prices depend on so many different factors. We’ve described some of them here to give you an idea of what’s involved and hope you find it helpful.
We start by helping you get a free website address and an inexpensive server with unlimited storage, unlimited emails and unlimited databases. We recommend Bluehost for $6.95/month.
Next we build an original interface design that suits your style and is good for your particular market. When we first discuss a new site, it’s helpful to show us samples of sites with a look similar to what you envision.
In a process called information architecture, we plan the number of pages and the content that will appear on each page. Many of our clients start with 5-6 pages and add more pages over time. Search engines also like this because adding content over time keeps your site active. Other people come to us for a 5-6 page site and, as the project develops, double or quadruple the number of pages they start with. We’ve built sites with more than 300 pages, and we’ve built one-page sites.
We include basic search engine optimization in all our website estimates. This includes naming your files and folders with search-engine friendly terms; creating meta tags, alt tags and page titles; creating sitemaps and submitting them to search engines; adding verification codes for Google and Bing search engines; installing Google Analytics; and making links to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Read more about our business website development and websites for artists and galleries.
Every site costs a different amount
One 5-page site might cost $600; another 5-page site might cost $1500. Having built almost 350 sites, we can usually give you a pretty close estimate once we’ve gone over all the materials you’d like to have on your site. We offer a free consultation for this purpose.
Most developers recommend you budget $100-150 per page. If your site has additional features, such as elaborate contact or registration forms, ecommerce, specialized plugins, calendars and other more complex functions, you should plan to spend up to $200 per page.
However, $100 per page does not mean that each page costs $100 to make. It is an average of many factors. These include time meeting with you and planning the site; receiving and organizing your files; creating a site mockup for your approval; installing WordPress or configuring a server; setting up your emails and passwords; editing, copying and pasting your text; sizing, optimizing, inserting and aligning your images; creating contact forms; configuring and adding plugins; connecting your social media links; testing your site in different browsers; testing your site on mobile devices; registering your site with Google and Bing; installing Google Analytics; uploading and testing xml sitemaps; writing and adding meta tags and alt tags; installing and configuring a Google map; plus a huge list of additional small factors.
Cost of a WordPress site
The cost of a WordPress site depends on how much content you have, how elaborate your menu system is, how complex your theme is, how many plugins and widgets you need, and how much of the site you want us to build and edit. When you meet with us, we will discuss what you would like to do.
You have many choices about how far we develop your site and how much you want to do yourself. We can install WordPress, design the theme and menu, then let you do the rest. At the other extreme, we can completely build every single page of your site. We even write posts for several clients.
Hosted by WordPress?
If you’re currently hosted by WordPress, we can move your files to a commercial server. You’ll have a much larger selection of plugins and widgets to choose from, and we can modify the theme and style sheets on a commercial server. Please keep in mind that it’s not always possible to move plugins hosted by WordPress – we would find equivalents for any plugins and widgets you may be using on their server.
Read more about WordPress modifications
Website updates
You may already have a website but need it updated. Please send us the link and we’ll take a look from the “outside”. We can sometimes give you an answer at this point. In other cases, we may need your username and password to connect to your host and take a quick look at the source code to see if the code is sufficiently industry standard for us to be able to work with it.
There’s no charge for asking! Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have. We work with a lot of clients who have very limited knowledge about computers and websites, and we work with a lot of clients who just need a little help and they’re good to go. Everyone is very different. We do our best to be very helpful regardless of how much you know.
Hosting
Your web files are stored on a type of computer called a server, which is owned by a host company. We highly recommend Bluehost for many reasons.
Bluehost offers unlimited storage space for files, a free domain name, and free web statistics about your visitors for only $6.95 per month, and they often have a sale for less. We work with dozens of different hosts every week and we believe Bluehost is absolutely the best.
Bluehost is also the #1 server of choice by WordPress.org. Unlike many popular, inexpensive servers, Bluehost makes a back-up of your files, which is critical for WordPress sites. They do not share your hosting with adult sites, which can cause your IP to be blocked by Google. If you need a blog installed, an ecommerce setup or database development, a host like Bluehost is even more critical. Some companies make these kinds of features very difficult to install and manage.
