Indications for Designing, Building and Deploying New Websites
The indications given here are intended to help with budgeting and are not set in stone:
A brochure site for a small business or organisation: £640
A more complex site with some additional functionality: £960
A small online shop (eCommerce) site: £1,600
I expect to include up to two hours of changes and/or initial support with using the site and I always deliver sites with a good level of search engine optimisation (SEO), including submission via Google Search Console. I will also support with domain registration and setup of DNS records and Nameservers.
I would normally invoice for half of the total at the point that a “first draft” of the site is available for testing and further development, and for the balance when the final live site has been deployed.
Things That May Increase the Cost
- Additional facilities (booking systems, events handling, complex shop functionality etc)
- Lots of content – going to 10+ main pages
- Lots of products – adding 20+ products or hundreds of variations
- Production of the bulk of the original content and copy
- Complex blogging, custom posts or portfolio arrangements
- Setting up integrations with other platforms (mailing lists, other commerce channels, social media etc)
- Further support and training with using the site
- Third-party plugin licenses for specific additional features, if required
Web Hosting Services
The standard hosting accounts that I am able to arrange for my clients are backed by well-regarded UK-based independent hosting companies (Brixly & Krystal) and have been selected based upon careful research and testing.
Standard WordPress-optimised Hosting (suitable for most brochure sites and simple business or shop sites): £12-£15 per month or £120-£150 annually
Higher-Resources Hosting (for shops and other more-complex sites): £17.50 per month or £175 annually
Scalable Cloud Hosting or VPS (for very demanding or high-traffic sites): Bespoke cost based on needs
Where I arrange hosting for your site, setup, server maintenance & optimisation, software updates and regular backups will be included free of charge. If the site is to live on a third-party hosting account not arranged by me I can provide a basic updates and backup service for £5 per month.
Other Ongoing Website Services
Regular maintenance and addition of content (blog posts, products etc) on your behalf: £40 per month (to be reviewed if regularly exceeding 2 hrs per month)
Setting up, maintaining and supporting with analytics (I prefer Plausible to Google Analytics for reasons of data privacy): initial setup £20 and then £30 annually.
Marketing integrations and SEO (setup and connection of Facebook Business, Facebook Commerce, Google My Business, Google Merchant Centre Enhanced Free Listings and SEO reviews using Google Search Console): £160 to £320 for initial setup then £40 per month if ongoing support required.
One-off amendments or additions to and development of site, more complex SEO work and monitoring, integration with third-party platforms (EPOS, stock management, back office, other sales channels etc), bespoke development and additional training sessions are priced based on my normal hourly rate – currently £40 per hour.
I Don’t Normally* Offer …
- Help with photography or sourcing images.
- Setup of social media accounts and support with creating or adding social media content.
- Setup and maintenance of email accounts, cloud storage and other business systems.
- Setup and support with pay-per-click advertising.
- Production of paper materials, general graphic design, logo design and help with branding.
- Native (iOS and Android) app development. Sites can, however, be delivered as Progressive Web Apps to further enhance their already app-like behaviour on mobile devices.
- Support with or maintenance of websites not built by me.
- Technical support with hosting accounts not arranged by me.
*Although my arm can sometimes be twisted …
