Scope: how many pages, and what each one does
The number of distinct page layouts matters more than the raw page count. Ten service pages that share one layout cost far less than ten pages that each need their own design. A typical local business site has a homepage, a page for each main service, an about page, a contact page, and often a page for each area it serves.
Write down the pages you think you need before asking for a quote, even roughly. It is the single most useful thing you can send a developer.
Content: who writes it and who supplies the photos
Content is the most underestimated part of the cost. If you supply finished text and good photos, the build moves quickly. If the developer has to write, edit, or source images, that is real work and it should appear in the quote.
Service and location pages written for your actual customers, rather than copied from a template, are also what help you rank in local search, so this is usually money well spent.
Design: template or custom
A well-chosen theme adapted to your brand is faster and cheaper. A custom design costs more but fits your business exactly and avoids the extra code that makes many themes slow. The middle ground, a lightweight custom build from a solid starting point, is what most small businesses need.
Whatever the approach, ask whether the result will be fast on a phone. Load time affects both your rankings and how many visitors call.
Features: what the site has to do
Every feature beyond pages and a contact form adds to the scope. The most common ones are:
- Online booking or scheduling, especially when it connects to the calendar you already use.
- Quote request forms with conditional questions or file uploads.
- E-commerce: products, payments, shipping, taxes, and inventory. The number of products and how they vary drives the effort.
- Integrations with a CRM, email marketing, or industry software.
- Member areas, customer portals, or anything else with logins.
Migrating an existing site
If you already have a site with content and rankings, moving it is a project of its own: inventorying every page, moving the content, and redirecting old addresses so you keep your search traffic. It often costs less than writing everything again from scratch, but it should be quoted explicitly. The redesign guide explains what the work involves.
Bilingual sites
In Southwest Florida many businesses serve customers in both English and Spanish. A proper bilingual site has a separate page for each language, tagged so Google shows each visitor the right one. Most of the extra cost is translation and keeping both versions up to date. Machine translation is a starting point, but customer-facing pages should be reviewed by a fluent speaker.
Ongoing costs after launch
The build is not the only cost. Budget for these every year:
- Domain name renewal.
- Hosting, from basic shared plans to managed hosting with backups and better speed.
- Licenses for premium plugins, themes, or booking and e-commerce tools.
- Maintenance: software updates, security monitoring, backups, and small content changes, done by you or under a care plan.
Ask who will own the domain, the hosting account, and the code. You should, so you can change providers later without starting over.
Timing in Southwest Florida
Seasonal businesses here are busiest in winter, so the best time to build or redesign is the off-season. That gives the new site time to settle in search results before the busy months. Starting in the middle of the season is possible, but the project then competes with running the business.
Where spending more pays off, and where to save
Some parts of a site directly affect leads, and some mostly affect looks. If the budget is tight, put it where it returns the most:
- Worth paying for: fast loading on phones, clear service pages, a contact or booking path that works, and accurate tracking of leads.
- Worth paying for: getting redirects right when replacing an existing site, since lost rankings can take months to recover.
- Fine to keep simple: animations, elaborate layouts on pages few people visit, and features you are not sure you need yet.
A good site can grow. Launching a focused version first and adding features once you see how customers use it is often the better use of the same budget.
How to compare quotes
Two quotes rarely cover the same thing. Line them up on these points:
- Fixed price or hourly: a fixed quote with a clear scope is easier to budget, and hourly work should have a cap.
- What is included: content, photos, SEO setup, analytics, training, and how many rounds of revisions.
- Speed and accessibility: whether the site will be tested for load time on phones and for accessibility.
- Ownership and handoff: whether you get the code, the accounts, and documentation.
- Support after launch: what happens if something breaks a month later.
How to get an accurate quote
Send your current website address if you have one, a rough list of pages, the features you need, a few sites you like, and when you want to launch. With that, a developer can give you a fixed price instead of a guess.
For new sites, see my business website service. For examples of builds for small businesses, see the Island Painting and Antamba case studies.