We spent a fair deal of our time helping companies get the corret information about the website that they need and sometimes end up giving them more information about options that they didnt know existed, here is an example conversation with a client that shows how much is involved in working out a ‘estimated costing’ for a simple website:
[Essex Company wanting a website] We need our website redesigned and optimised and hopefully from this info you can give us an idea what is needed. Primarily we need it to be cheap and affordable as we are on a very tight budget so please understand this when giving us an estimate for our website after we tell you what we do.
This is what our companies does: We design, manufacture & fit shop fascias, vehicle vinyls & wraps, logo design, handmade a boards etc. We are a family run business, established in Essex for 15 years. We have a company ethos that no job is to large or to small, we cater for all. We support the local community as much as possible and many of our customers are on our doorstep. We also support the local drama group & provide them with banners, stage props & scenery free of charge. We want the website to provide more detailed information on our service & products. Also to compete with local competition. We want the website to look bright & clear home page with not to much text. we would like to photos with prices attached, as no one else does this as our website was created inhouse, so we would like a more professional look.
The example websites that are our competitors are very clear, not to much text and we like the toolbar for products find it easy to use. These are the web sites that we liked. Can you please give me an estimated price for a site with 10 pages, as we are looking at costing.
[Essex Web Design Company] Great, Lots of information for us on there, please confirm these are the sites you like and want us to use as ‘guide’ sites for your redesigned site. Hope you had a good weekend, If you answer the questions in the email send on Friday then we can give you a more accurate price but if you want an estimated price then a simple 10 page website with contact page / gallery and other services pages but without a Blog / News page and without us doing the Webcopy using your ‘guide sites’ as examples as the site you want and taking your answers from the ‘website design project planner’, the cost will be approximately £600, if you look at website packages it gives full details about whats included (your transfer and hosting for the first year is included obviously).
I think if you wanted a page for every service and page for all the heading below (23+ pages) and want us to incorporate the blog it will be between £1800 – £2000) you can reduce the price if you want us to do less ‘SEO’ (website optimisation) on the site. The Premum Plus website comes as standard with a one month website optimisation project.
Here are my thoughts: I see you like the [Essex Sign Company] website, will you want the same products that they have? I have included your products and their products in the page list below, ideally you would have one page on each with unique text / images for each but that will obviously cost more for webcopy (text) and be more work for us building the website so perhaps you can tell us if you dont wall all the products / services then highlight the ones you want to have their own text / pages:
Home page
About us
Products / Services
- Exterior signs (Shops)
- interior signs
- vehicle graphics (vinyls and wraps
- Exhibtions
- POS / Displays / Banners
- Digital Signage
- Logos
- Full Digital Printing & Laminating
- Pvc Banner Printing
- Shop Facias & Window Graphics
- Architectural Signage
- Printed Corex Boards
- Engraving / Laser Etching
- Label Printing
- Acrylic & Metal Fabrication
- Health & Safety / Road Signage
- Full Vehicle Digital Wrapping
News page (Blog – this is optional but recommended)
Testimonials
Gallery
Contact
Webcopy: Do you want us to provide your webcopy for you? or do you want to do it yourself? A guide price is 12 pages / 3000 words with your guidance will be approx £300
News page: Do you want a news page (blog) that you can use to create new sections / pages when you require them? you could take photos of all your work and describe new jobs as you complete them (excellent for the website’s ‘health’ in the search engines and great for the potential customers to view)
We are confident we can produce you a website to exceed your requirements but need to know answers to the above to start to get a better idea of whats required / costings etc
[Website Owner] Many thanks for your time. Unfortunately we both think that you run an impressive company but we are putting our project to redesign the website on hold for a while and as such we will not be requiring your companies services at this time.
[Essex Website Designers] Just tidying up my emails for the year, could you do me a favour and give me a one sentence reason why you didnt choose us to be your website designers? For example was it purely a price issue as we know you specifically wanted a cheap website? Notice that your website hasn’t changed yet and would love the opportunity to work with you on it.
