As a business owner, you should know by now that your website is a vital marketing business asset.
Essentially, it is a pivotal and significant instrument in terms of driving leads to your business. Think of your website as an online presence for your company wherein its performance directly contributes to the success or failure of your business goals. With that said, your website should not only make notable first impressions but leave a lasting impact on your visitors as well. How well you execute these impressions can mean the difference between a visitor that contacts you and your competitor.
Considering the importance of a website, business owners should endeavor to allocate a good enough budget for its creation and design to ensure that it is done and executed professionally. Unfortunately, web redesigns tend to be costly. As most businesses are adhering to a strict budget in order to survive, some business owners will inevitably cut corners. However, this does not always produce the results you want.
Moreover, skimping on having a proper website can spell a potential disaster for your business. Web redesigns may undoubtedly be costly, but the money invested in this area will pay for itself countless times over–IF, and only if, an effective website is the result. So, how much does a website redesign cost? What factors come into play?
For starters, asking the potential cost of a website redesign is comparable to asking how much it would be to build a house from scratch. Keep in mind that there is a myriad of factors to take into account for the overall price. Below are just some of the most common factors that significantly affect a website’s overall redesign price.
Factors affecting web design cost
1.) Customization
Your business is distinct and unique. Simply said, it has a personality. With that said, your website should reflect the kind of personality your business has. While template web designs can be used to build a website from scratch, other elements need to be created to show that your business has individuality. Otherwise, it would look generic and uninteresting–two things you do not wish your website to be.
Although templates are good enough to put a site together, they do not offer a customization factor. That said, your website is going to look bland and may reflect badly on your business. Consider investing in customization to ensure that your customers would not only arrive at your site but stick around long enough to browse and know what your company is about and what it uniquely offers.
2.) Design
Many business owners tend to dismiss a website’s design as pure aesthetics. As a result, some of them would rely on cheap templates or simply re-use old templates. Sure, re-using an old template might be a cost-effective approach to web design. Unfortunately, old templates do not always convey what your brand is about.
Creating a custom design will undoubtedly be more expensive, but it would reflect what your company is about. The cost for a custom design typically varies depending on how complex you wish the design to be, the number of design concepts to choose between and incorporate, and how many pages there are on your website.
3.) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
While getting to the first page of Google search results should be one of your goals in creating a website, it is not automatic. To get to the first page of search results, you need to optimize your website for targeted keywords. Your company may have an amazing website, but all that will be for naught if audiences do not get to see it. If you want your website to gain traffic and reach its intended target audience, then search engine optimization is important.
Search engines are constantly updating their algorithms to ensure that they are meeting the needs of site visitors. With that said, your website must reflect these updates. Optimizing your website for search engines involves determining which keywords consumers are likely searching for and creating a code to ensure that your pages are loading quickly, among other things. Keep in mind that SEO is a crucial factor that must be considered in cost when developing a website if you want your website to get anywhere.
4.) Usability and navigation
For your website to be successful, it must be easy to use and navigate. Usability involves organizing your web pages into the information architecture of the site. On the other hand, Navigation involves the logistics that go into the course-plotting of your website and how easy it would be for your visitors to jump from one page to another in your site.
Moreover, this includes setting labels for links, formal testing such as usability testing, and A/B testing. The more time a web designer dedicates to these tasks, the easier it will be to use and navigate your website. Bear in mind, though, that the cost is directly proportional to the time and effort spent on this aspect.
5.) Social media
One of the best ways to find your target audience is by setting up a social media presence. Having a presence on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or LinkedIn will inevitably add to the cost depending on which sites you will be targeting. Additionally, it would cost more if a custom design is needed. Keep in mind that your company’s social media presence contributes to your website’s overall access.
Social media presence is a paramount aspect in creating a successful digital marketing strategy in this time and age. A social media presence would also improve your company’s branding campaign making it an important factor contributing to the cost of a website’s redesign.
6.) Mobile-friendliness
If your website does not have a mobile function, you are already falling behind most of your competitors. Today, most individuals use their mobile devices more frequently than their laptops and desktops. That said, web functionality is everything, and your website should be accessible to everyone regardless of what device they are using.
Your customers should be able to move smoothly and flawlessly from device to device to obtain the same information. Your website should have a responsive design that ensures that your website is formatted to the screen of the device on which it is being viewed.
7.) Functionality
Any technical components of your website such as message boards, eCommerce, web forms, among others, all form part of the functionality. The more you incorporate, the higher the cost will be. While most functionalities are available for free as a plugin or module, you will still need to configure and customize them to go with your website.
8.) Content
Do you wish to include new content? Or will you simply copy old content into your new website? Do any of your existing content need to be rewritten or adjusted for your new website? All of these should be taken into consideration when redesigning a website. Ask yourself whether your business would benefit from news articles or weekly blogs. If these generate traffic to your website, then you might want to pepper your website with these regularly.
However, this would mean that your business would need the expertise of a content writer. If your business would need someone to write your blogs and post to your site directly, you would need to hire someone for this post.
Today, surfing and visiting pages on the web has become rather commonplace that it is easy to overlook what went into the construction and design of a website. In this regard, many business owners tend to underestimate the amount of time, work, and effort that goes into building a professional website that delivers results. While this does not mean that your website has to be exorbitantly pricey, you should be wise not to skimp on costs where they matter either.
Now that you have a better understanding of some of the factors that go into the price determine what your goals for your website are. What are your priorities, and what do you wish for your website to accomplish? From here, you can contact a web design agency so that they can learn more about your goals, requirements, and needs. Then they will be able to have an approximate of the total costs for your website redesign.
