Whether you are operating online, offline, or even both, a website gives your business the necessary boost or edge in the marketplace—this why it is important to invest wisely in professional website design. Now the question is, how much will it cost you to set up a website for your small business?
The cost of setting up a website for your small business boils down to how much work it will involve. This means that the cost will be determined by the size and complexity of your business website. There are different types of businesses with different sizes and shapes.
Therefore, getting a precise estimate to set up a website will be a bit tough. The cost to set up a website for your small business can be high, but if you know some basics in website design or development, you can cut down costs. This article will get to know how much it will cost you to set up a website for your small business.
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How much does it cost to set up a website for my small business?
The budget range for creating a website for small businesses can be very wide:
- You can use Wix.com or Wodpress.com, Google Sites to create a website for free.
- For more than $30-$50 you can buy cheap hosting and start a website based on WordPress with a free or premium theme
- You can hire a cheap freelancer to create a website for a few hundred dollars
- For a few thousands of dollars, you can hire a small agency, or outsource the project and create a custom and professional website
- For more than $10 000 you can hire bigger agencies to get more complex and more professional help with creating a website, marketing strategy, and branding
The rough estimated cost to set up a website for your small business
It can be quite difficult as a small business owner to know precisely how much a website will cost you. With an average of about $200, you can build your website, aside from a monthly maintenance fee of about $50. But if you use a website builder, it may cost you as low $7/month.
And if you decide you want to hire, it will cost you much more. Setting up a small business website depends mainly on what you need. You will have to set up a budget for your business domain name and hosting plan.
A domain name often costs about $15 yearly, while website hosting costs around $8-$35 monthly. When you calculate the combined cost of both your domain name and website hosting, you’ll realize that it is a bit expensive.
Here you can learn how to create a free website for your small business.
But before you calculate the cost of your small business website—things to consider
Setting up a small business website has become much less complicated. But the cost implication depending totally on your budget and the kind of website you are building. Before you set up your website, there are few things you should consider, and they’ll determine how much your website will cost you to set up. They are:
- What kind of website do you want to set up? Is it a business website, an eCommerce website, and entertainment, or a portfolio website? The kind of website you want to set is determined by the kind of business you do. This will, in turn, determine how much it will cost you to set it up. Some website doesn’t require much complexities or features, and some do. So, the kind of website you want will determine how much it will cost you to set up.
- What are your personal budget and goals for your business? This will influence the way you want your business website to look and determine how much it will cost to set it up. normally, a small business website consists of about 12-24 pages with an estimated cost of $2000 to set up and run.
- Do you want to set up your website by yourself, or you want to hire an expert an agency, or a freelancer to set it up for you? This will also determine how much it will cost you to set up your website. The kind of website you want will also determine if you have the technological capacity to set it up by yourself, or you will need to hire an expert to help you with it.
The best option is to create project specifications, here you can learn why it is so important, thanks to it you can save money and time, and also problems during the development.
The tools that will determine the cost to set up a website for your small business
Having considered the few points mentioned previously, we can go ahead to look at the tools you need to have a website ready and running. Because these tools will also determine how much it will cost you to set up your business website. Here we will discuss the tools and how much it will cost you to obtain the
Irrespective of your small business budget, you can still set up any website. You need to have different tools before you can set up a website, and thankfully, all these things are available on the internet. Foremost of these tools are:
- Your domain name. Your website’s domain is the digital address of your website. It’s how your customers or your audience will find your business website on the internet. You can register a domain for about $15 per year.
- A website builder. A website builder makes it easy for you to set up your website without basic coding knowledge. Whether you are a techy person or a novice, when it comes to setting up a website, a website builder is important. The website builder aids you to set up your desired business website and add important features like plugins, themes, and SEO tags. To download some themes and plugins will cost about $300 for both.
- Then a web hosting platform. A web host is the digital rental space for your business website. Without it, your website won’t be seen online. It is important to choose the right web hosting plan for your website. If you go with a low-cost hosting plan, you will spend about $75 yearly on it.
Other tools your small business need
Apart from the domain name and website hosting, there are other tools your business website needs before it can function effectively.
- You will need a business email. This is where your customers and potential clients can easily reach you. Your business email may cost you about $5 per month and about $120 yearly.
- Also, you will need a payment processor. If you want your business to accept payment online through credit, you will need a payment processor or gateway. These are services that allow you to accept credit cards online and handling the processing of transactions. Examples of payment gateways are PayPal, Authorize.net, and Stripe. And to set one up with cost roughly $50 with a $35/month charge.
- You will also need an SSL certificate. This certificate helps to keep your website secured and safe. It secures and encrypts the contents or information that is moves between the visitor’s web browser and your website. SSL certificate is important especially when your website performs credit card transactions. It will cost about $50 and $100 yearly.
- You will need themes, plugins, and other SEO features that will help your website rank high on any search engine.
Now the question is—how can I cut the cost of setting up a website for my small business?
When you sum up everything, you will realize that you are spending over $1000 yearly on your website. And if you decide to hire an expert, it will cost you much more. For a small business or a start-up, that is a pretty expensive expenditure to make. Now the question is, how do I cut down the cost of setting up a website for my small business.
Considering that you want a business website that can function as an eCommerce site, it will cost you much cash and is easy to set up. And looking at the tools you need to have that kind of website ready and running, I believing what you need is a platform that can offer you the following:
- The free domain name for at least a year.
- A content management system CMS that will offer you free themes, plugins, and other add-ons
- And website hosting at a discounted rate with free business email and SSL certificate for at least a year.
It would help if you had a website builder that is all-inclusive but at a cut-prize rate—WordPress
The platform that can help you cut down costs and still gives you what you are looking for to set up your business website is WordPress. WordPress is a popular content management system CMS that powers about one-third of all websites today. The points outline below is what makes WordPress the best platform for your small business website.
- WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that makes it easy for you to create and customize digital content.
- It has many free themes, plug-ins, and tools that make it relatively easy for you to build an affordable website that meets your business needs.
- WordPress websites are ranked high on every search engine platform, and you can optimize your website with its SEO plugins.
- When you set up your business website with WordPress, you get a discounted $2.95/month hosting plan from BlueHost. And as if that isn’t all, the hosting plans give you a free domain name, business email, and an SSL certificate for a year.
We hope this article has helped you know how much it will cost you to set up a small business website. And not just that, I believe we have shown you how best you cut costs using WordPress CMS.
