For the most part, the costs of building a website relate to the size of the website you are looking to build for your business. A small static website (a website that doesn’t need changing frequently) can be really quite cheap whereas a large website with a custom design and advanced content management system could easily rack up into the thousands with additional annual maintenance costs. No matter the size of the website though, there are a few aspects that make up the final costings.
Domain Name
Domain names are the web addresses that you type in your browser to access a website e.g. yell.com, bbc.co.uk. Domains names can be registered with a web registrar who will lease you the domain name for a period of time, usually a year or two years. Domains names must be unique. This means that two organisations can’t ‘own’ the same domain name. If your chosen domain is already taken then you may have to shell out some cash to buy it from who ever owns it or choose another one. One way you can get around the “my domain name is taken” problem is by choosing a different suffix. If you were looking for www.petshop.com and it has already been taken, you may be able to chose a different suffix e.g. www.petshop.co.uk or www.petshop.net.
Website Design
We’ve already explored where to get a website design from in previous posts (take a look). To summarise though, if you’re not too concerned for a unique design then you can get a web design for next to nothing. However, if you’re serious about your website and branding then you’ll want a custom design where the price can vary depending on the quality and where you source the design. Companies should be looking to create a website which retains the look and feel of the organisation, after all, one of its primary functions should be as an extension of the organisations marketing efforts.
