A small business website costs whatever it costs to do four things: decide what the pages should say, write them, build them so they work on a phone, and keep them online. Every quote you get is a different mix of those four, which is why the numbers vary so much and why the totals are hard to compare. This article explains what moves the price so you can read a quote properly. Our own prices are on the pricing page, where they belong; this article will not quote them.
What you are actually buying
Strip the jargon out of any website quote and it is paying for some combination of:
- Planning. Which pages, what each one is for, what the visitor should do on it. A five-page site for a plumber and a five-page site for a dental practice need different pages. This is where cheap sites skip, and it is why they look like every other site.
- Writing. The words on the page. Someone has to write the headline, the service descriptions, the about page, the questions people ask. If the quote does not mention writing, you are doing it, or the site will launch with placeholder text.
- Building. Turning the plan and the words into pages that load fast, read well on a phone, and have a form that delivers to your inbox. This is the part most people think they are paying for. It is usually the smallest part of the work.
- Keeping it online. Hosting, the domain, security updates, backups, and someone to call when the form stops working. This is where the cost continues after launch, and where many quotes go quiet.
A quote that only covers item 3 will look cheapest. It is also the one that produces a site that gets no leads, because the planning and writing that make a site work were never done.
The four things that move the price
How many pages, and how different they are. Ten pages that are mostly the same (one per town, with the town name swapped) cost little more than five. Ten pages that each need their own thinking (one per service, each with its own photos and questions) cost more, because each one is planned and written.
Who writes it. You writing it is free and slow, and the site will wait on you. Someone writing it for you, after asking the right questions, is the part of a quote that varies most. It is also the part that decides whether the site says what you do.
Photos. Your own photos of your own work are the single most convincing thing on a trade's website. If you have them, the site uses them. If you do not, a quote either budgets for a photographer, uses stock (which most people can spot), or builds a site that does not need them.
What has to connect. Online booking, a payment link, a reviews feed, a chat box, an existing CRM. Each one is a day of someone's time and a thing that can break later. Only add what you will use.
The costs after launch
The number on the quote is not the cost of the website. Add:
- Hosting and the domain — every year, forever. Ask whether it is included and for how long.
- Changes. A new service, a price change, a new team member. Ask whether you can make small edits yourself, and what a change costs if you cannot.
- Keeping it working. Forms, SSL certificates and plugins all stop working eventually. Ask who notices and who fixes it.
- Getting found. A site that is launched and never touched again drifts. Ask what, if anything, is done after launch to keep it showing up.
A site with a low build price and no plan for the four items above often costs more over two years than a higher quote that includes them.
How to compare two quotes
Write both quotes as a list under the four headings above (planning, writing, building, keeping it online) and the four after-launch costs. Blanks are the real difference between the quotes. Then ask each provider three questions:
- Who writes the words, and what do they need from me?
- What happens when I need a change?
- If I stop paying, what do I keep?
The answers tell you more than the totals.
When the cheapest option is the right one
If you need a page that confirms you exist, with your hours, your phone number and your address, a one-page site from a builder, or a well-kept Google Business Profile with no website at all, is genuinely enough. Spend the money on reviews and photos instead.
If you need the site to produce customers, you are paying for the planning and the writing whether the quote names them or not. A site that costs less because it skipped them is not cheaper; it is a different product. Why your website isn't generating leads is the list of what that product is missing.
Find out what you have first
If you already have a site and are deciding whether to replace it, start with what is wrong with it rather than with a quote. The free website audit tells you whether the current site is mobile-friendly, readable by Google, and able to take a call, and the report shows which of those needs fixing. Fix it or start over is the decision in full. Our own prices are on one page, with what is included listed the way this article asks for.
What the site needs to contain also depends on the trade: a dental practice pays for a booking flow and a reassuring tone; a roofer pays for photos and an estimate form.