It is almost impossible to give a general price for a website. It will depend on how much we do, how much you do, and how specific your requirements are. The following are a few things to consider.
Splendid Spider specializes in relatively simple, low cost website designs. We can design you a single page website, sometimes called Micro Sites, or a multi-page site that gives a more in-depth view of your company. We can also just design the page once, and turn it over to you for any changes you would like to make in the future.
Here we will cover some of the items to consider that can affect pricing.
Pricing is based on items such as the number of pages on the site, custom graphics or text requirements, special features that may be required to get the look you want, and versions of browsers that will need to be supported.
Pricing may also be impacted by what you already know and how much you want to know about websites. It's relatively brief from a time standpoint to have somebody say, "just do it, don't tell me any details". It's another thing for them to want to review every piece of code or learn about why they should have a website host that supports certain features.
It's also impacted by how much you want to do yourself. We recommend that you get your own domain name and hosting. We'll be happy to give you guidance on how to do it. Doing it yourself leaves it in your control rather than having to come back to Splendid Spider every year to process the renewals.
If you're an individual that has an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that gives you space for a website, and you need either a personal site or you don't plan on using your website for much more than directing people to your business, you may be able to use the website space provided by your ISP.
If you plan do actually conduct any business from the site, using your personal web space isn't appropriate. In fact, it's probably in violation of your provider's Terms of Service. Using your personal website as your business site also may not provide you with a separate email address for your business. In some cases, however, you can have a site with just a few pages and it will suffice.
The next step up is getting your own "domain name", which provides you with an address like "www.MyCoolStore.com" or "www.SplendidSpider.com". This can help give you a memorable address. When is the last time you remembered somebody's site name when it was something like "www.globalwebsiteconglomerate.net/~users/thatsmyname/mywellhiddenpage/index.html"?
If this is all you do, it's a good step. But there are reasons to go further that we'll be happy to explain to you. Each additional step can make your business appear more professional.
All that getting a domain name does is provide an easy to remember reference to your website. You'll want one for the same reason that you would want a phone number like 1-800-flowers. Getting a domain name does not get you a place to put your web, it's just getting the name.
Your website still needs to "live" somewhere. Just like (before cell phones) you needed an address for a phone number to go to, you need a web host for you domain name to go to. Sometimes your personal ISP will provide enough space if you're just getting started. But it's better to take the next step, called "outside hosting".
Small Sites will need a domain name and outside hosting. If you already have that, great, we can build or update your website there. If not, we can help you obtain one, or get one for you.
If you think your website will get a lot of visitors, or if you're going to want a lot of graphics or video, you'll need outside hosting. There are some free sites available, but most of them require you to allow ads on your website. Not only does it not look professional, but you have no control over what goes there, so you may be advertising a competitor.
Do you want fancy Flash graphics? Is it important that your site work with every browser that's been around for the last ten years? (You most likely don't need it, but some people think they do.) Do you want to update your site on a frequent basis with new products, pictures or just to keep it new?
We can help you find a company that specializes in these things. We can do them, but they're very time consuming, and as a small company we would prefer to be able to help more customers rather than get tied up in one or two big projects that use up ll our time.
Do you need a website put up that won't require any changes for a long time, maybe the equivalent of an ad in the Yellow Pages? Are you going to need regular updates of relatively minor information, or full page updates? Do you want to have a constant update of new products and inventory?
These are things that you need to consider before a design can be started because they require different approaches. Unless you're already somewhat technical, you won't want to do updates on your own. Let's discuss what you need, and find out what works best for you.
We can help you get your website, whatever your requirements are. Please contact us to get us started on your own page. If you're not sure what you need, contact us and we'll help you figure it out.
