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The Edmonton Guide to Web Design – How Much Should You Spend?

This is the most commonly asked question we receive from our prospective clients. You run a local business and you have an awesome sales team, a unique product line and you’re looking to get some online exposure. You’ve looked around at the competition and have the budget to build the website of your dreams. The only question is, how much should you spend? You’re curious, “How can one web design company charge me $1000 for a business website, while others charge $10,000 and up?” What EXACTLY is the pricing breakdown of building a quality web site?

At Adster, our team has been building websites for over a decade, and while other companies have their own methodology when it comes to site development, this is the formula we use for our projects. We’ve broken our website development down into 5 main areas and have attached a percentage value which represents the portion of the total project budget we dedicate to that category.

Without further adieu, let’s dive right in.

Website Pricing Breakdown

Content & Information Architecture (30% of Total Project Price).

Price Range(ish) – $100 to $200 per page.

Elements:

  • Content Layout & Brainstorming.
  • Sales Copy & Website Content
  • Establishing Unique Value Proposition for Web

Things to consider:

Website Content Creation EdmontonDo you have content ready to go for your website? Do you have a company mission statement or vision? More importantly, do you know what your companies unique value proposition is? This type of content is absolutely vital and helps set your brand apart from your competitors.

With Google hammering businesses of late and penalizing websites with thin content and crappy linking strategies, quality and unique content is more important than ever.

Graphic Design (25% of Total Project Price).

Price Range(ish) – $75 to $150 per hour

Elements:

  • Wireframe Layouts,  User Interface Design (UI), & Graphical Design
  • Custom Graphics & Icons.
  • Web Based Logos.
  • Use of Appropriate Fonts & Font Families.

Things to consider:

Edmonton Graphic Design

Custom vs. Template. Going with a custom design and professional designer will increase the overall price of your website. Custom Design will also require greater input on your behalf. Think, “How can I build a custom house without letting the home builder know what types of cabinets, flooring and window treatments I want?”

Template sites on the other hand can be tempting due to their cost effectiveness, but remember as a business owner, if you’re looking to stand out from your competition, this may not be the best of ideas.

Search Engine Optimization (25% of Total Project Price).

Price Range(ish) – $200 to $400 per hour

Elements:

  • Custom Meta Titles, Descriptions & URL’s
  • Optimized Semantic Coding
  • Custom 404 Pages
  • Crawlable Website Sitemap
  • 301 Re-Directs if necessary
  • A whole ‘lotta other confusing stuff

Things to consider:

Edmonton SEO CompanyOnce the initial SEO mind map for your website has been researched and integrated, what happens to future products and services you add, or changes you might make? Unless you’ve spent the better half of a decade researching search engine optimization, building websites, taking courses and bleeding Online Advertising, this is better left to the professionals. We’ve created some highly effective, and cost efficient monthly marketing packages that include SEO. However, for our budget conscience business owners, Adster has an awesome AutoSEO feature built into FLEX CMS.

User Access & Content Management (15% of Total Project Price).

Price Range(ish) – Website Integration – $500-$1000 One Time Fee and $25 per Month.

Elements:

  • Multiple User Access
  • Add Products, Blog Posts & More
  • Super Lightweight and Extremely to use Website Editor

Things to Consider:

CMS Built for EdmontonContent Management refers to software that enables you, the businesses owner, to easily make minor changes and additions to your website. While there are a variety of popular free and paid solutions on the market, Adster chose to develop our own proprietary software. Why? We needed something fast, easy to use, and optimized for our typically non-technical clients. Ultimately, Adster needed something we could stand behind.

Website Maintenance Support (5% of Total Project Price).

Price Range(ish) – Client Support & Meetings – $100-$300 One Time Fee and $25 per Month.

Elements:

Things to consider:

Website HostingIs speed important to you and your clients? Of course it is! All of our clients are hosted on a dedicated server in Vancouver which boasts 99.9% uptime. We also ensure that all of our clients domain registration, auction procurement and renewals are taken care of. We also offer phone support should you have any questions about your hosting plan.

 

Conclusion –

Ultimately, how much you choose to spend on a website depends on what you’re after and realistically how much you can afford. We’re not denying the fact that businesses can cut corners and find cheaper companies to represent them, however down the stretch remember that your brand is being represented by the effort you put forth in your companies online presence.

At Adster, we’re very transparent with our customers. We wanted to break everything down so our clients, old and new, can see that there is some method to our madness, and that our prices don’t just come from thin air.