How much does a website design cost?
This question is asked daily though at time difficult
to answer as there are many types of of websites that a business
could consider. In this article we answer the basics to the question
without going into complex designs or internet marketing strategies.
to answer as there are many types of of websites that a business
could consider. In this article we answer the basics to the question
without going into complex designs or internet marketing strategies.
There are three major components to a website which
should be considered, each of which can be organised and managed by
your website designer.
should be considered, each of which can be organised and managed by
your website designer.
Domain Names
Your domain name is the first step to putting your businessonline. Your domain name is similar to your home address. An example of
this is www.designsenseweb.com.au. You can register many types of
domain names including; .com, .com.au, .net.au, .org.au, .id.au, .eu,
.co.uk, .asia, .nz. Most business websites based in Australia will
register a .com.au domain name though it's best to chat with your
website designer to choose the right domain type.
- Australian domains (.com.au) $34.95 for 2 years registration
- International domains (.com) $24.95 for 2 years registration
- Non-commercial organisations (.org.au) $44.95 for 2 years registration
- Australian domains (.net.au) $24.95 for 2 years registration
How much does website hosting cost
Website Hosting is a service which is provided by a hostingcompany. They provide you with a user name and password which allows
us to install your website on their server. This allows your customers
to view your website on the world wide web.
There are many levels of website hosting which suit different types
of websites. It is important to match the right hosting to your
website as some hosting providers have more down time more than others
and some are slower than others. If your website takes too long to
load, or isn't available at the instant someone is looking for the
services you offer, it's quite probable that you will never see that
prospect again. Attempting to save money in this area usually proves
to be a mistake.
The second most important aspect of a host is service, if you can't
get hold of your host while you are having problems then this is a good
recipe for disaster. We have dealt with hundreds of hosts and find that
the cheaper hosts offer lower levels of service compared to the higher
priced hosts. At the end of the day, you do get what you pay for. In
some instances we have experienced cheap hosts loosing websites and not
not taking responsibility for their mistakes. Cheaper hosts concentrate
on quantity not quality, you will also find that their security levels
are quite average.
- Economy Hosting - good for personal or low traffic websites. $100 to $200 per year
- Basic Business Hosting - good for small businesses with low traffic $200 to $300 per year
- Business Hosting - great for content managed or shopping cart websites $300 to $450 per year
- Premium Hosting - best for larger websites with high traffic turnover $450 to $900 per year
Website Design
The website design cost will depend on a wide range of factors suchas the number of pages, the content and complexity of the design,
whether a contact form is required, or a banner design etc. You are
paying for the website designers time, so the more complex the design,
and the more variations that are considered, the more it will cost. The
following are average website design costs you would expect to pay.
Average Cost: $500 to $5000 one time cost
The following website design prices and packages have been tailored
to suit most budgets and industries. If you would like further
information or help are selecting a package to suit your needs, please
contact us or your website designer for assistance.
Choosing a website designer
It's important that you find a website designer that you can trustand talk to about your business and internet marketing needs. Most
people tend to look for the cheapest option which eventually costs
their business in sales and on-going costs. A website which has been
tailored to suit your business should be relatively easy and
inexpensive to maintain in the long run.
Also consider that there are many website designers that are
there one minute and gone the next, try to consider a reputable firm
that is well established.
7 steps to choosing a reliable web host
As business owners, the time we spend choosing a supplier is often inproportion to the money we spend on that service. But is this always
the best approach?
When you choose a web host, you are investing in a supplier
that is responsible for keeping the online part of your business —
usually, your website and your email — operational. Many of
us rely on our websites for lead generation, sales and support; we rely
on our emails as our primary means of communication. If the platform on
which these services rely becomes unavailable, we immediately start
losing sales, upsetting our customers, and wasting valuable staff and
personal time.
I propose we should instead invest time proportional to the impact that supplier can have on our business.
With that, here is a 7-point checklist that you can use to assist you in choosing a suitable web host for your business.
1. In which geographic location will your website be hosted?
If the web host is based in the US, as many are, then your website
will take much longer to load for your Australian visitors. In addition,
search engines sometimes use the location of the web host to make
presumptions about the location of the business behind the website.
As a general rule, if your business is situated in Australia, always
choose an Australian web host whose servers are located in Australia. Be
aware that some cheaper Australian web hosts will cut costs by having
their servers located in the US — so ask the question.
2. How and when can you contact technical support?
Some web hosts will only offer email support. This is all well and
good until you have a problem with your email! Choose a web host that
offers telephone support so that you have the assurance of being able to
get a real person on the phone if things go wrong.
Find out at what times technical support is available. If you only
work 9–5, then business hours support is probably adequate. But if
something goes wrong, day or night, you want to be able to contact the
web host to know that a problem is being resolved; particularly if your
website is a 24-hour sales tool. For this reason, 24x7x365 technical
support can be a good selling point.
Tip: Call their technical support number instead of their sales
number and see if you get put in a queue. Some companies have a tendency
to answer sales calls immediately, but leave support calls in a long
queue, and you don't want to get a false impression of wait times when
you call their sales number to become a customer.
3. What backup strategies are in place?
Depending on how much you are paying for the service, the web host
will have one or more backup strategies to deal with faults. To get an
idea of the extent to which the web host has planned for unexpected
events, try these questions:
- If the server on which my website is hosted goes down and can't be
recovered, is there a backup of my account that you would recover from? - If the entire datacentre is destroyed, is there a backup of my account somewhere else?
- If a malicious person breaches the server's security and deletes my account, could they also delete the backups?
you may be comfortable with limited backup strategies employed by your
web host. But if you don't trust your own policies to do those backups
regularly, knowing that your web host has an effective strategy in place
is reassuring.
4. How fast do the websites load?
There is no technical limit to how many websites a web host can
squeeze on to a single server. But the more activity, the slower the
server becomes, affecting the load speed of all websites hosted on it.
Therefore, this becomes a cost driver for the web host, and they must
make an active decision regarding how much they are prepared to fill up
each of their servers with respect to performance.
As a rule, the less you pay for your web hosting service, the more
crowded that server is going to be, and the slower your website will
respond.
Ask the web host for a list of clients so you can visit their
websites and get a feel for how quickly they load (but bear in mind that
other factors, such as the complexity of the website, will influence
this.)
5. What redundancy does the web host have in place for its hardware and network?
Ask the web host to describe the redundancy of its infrastructure.
Modern web hosts will often use some form of cluster that can survive
hardware failures, rather than having discrete physical servers. If the
web host talks about clusters or virtualisation, they have probably
implementing hardware redundancy.
Typically, a web host will be connected to the internet through
several providers. A well-designed network can survive one of these
connections failing without disrupting the service.
6. Does your web developer endorse them?
Your web developer will have certain technical requirements for your
website, so you need to consult with them before making a decision.
Ideally, they should be involved in the selection process, because
they will generally have much more experience with different web hosting
companies.
The web developer may have a preferred web host, for which they receive some form of kickback — there's nothing wrong with this arrangement, provided you do the due diligence on the company anyway.
The web developer may also offer their own web hosting
services, either through a reseller arrangement, or their own server.
Once again, perform the same due diligence — but this
situation can work well if you have an excellent relationship with your
web developer, as you can then have personalised, one-on-one support
directly from your web developer.
7. How much does it cost?
Shared web hosting (the type where you share a server with other
customers) can cost anything from $2 per month to $100 per month.
What you need to ask yourself is, what can a web host realistically
offer for my money? If you are paying $2 per month for a web hosting
account, can that company really afford to spend any time at all with
you on the phone if you call for help? The answer is typically "no".
A web host charging less than $15 per month is most likely cutting
away part of the service that you will one day rely on. It might be that
they are overselling, loss-leading, or that technical support is
outsourced overseas, or that you'll need to wait in a queue for half an
hour when you call, or that the servers have too many websites on them
and they will run slow, or the backup strategy is not thorough, or...
the list goes on.
Putting it another way, if you need to criticise your web host for
any particular activity you feel is less-than-stellar, but you were only
paying them $2 or $5 or $10 per month for the service, can you really
justify the criticism?
The bottom line is a business should expect to pay at least $20 per
month for the type of web hosting where you can expect decent, prompt,
professional support and a fast, reliable service.
This checklist is certainly not comprehensive, but it covers the most
common issues and questions you are likely to have as a business which
relies on its website and email in some form or another.
Invest time and money to get the right service for your business.
For more details please see at http://webhosting.edu.vn/en/
