Introduction
You've decided that it's time for a new website. According to statistics, 83% of businesses plan to maintain or increase their spending on outsourced business services (including website redesign) this year [Source: Clutch].
This means it's more important than ever to invest in your business' digital presence to remain competitive.
We get it, you want to stay ahead of the curve and beat your competitors, but how much is this new website going to cost you? Unfortunately, the answer isn't a black and white figure.
How a Website Gets Built
Website costs will fluctuate a lot depending on the agency or freelancer you contact. Each web designer will have a different method to website building, meaning differing costs. Choosing the correct agency or freelancer for you is a vital decision to getting a finished product that you are proud to call your own.
So that you can understand the costs behind a new website in 2024, here's all the aspects that go into building a site.
This includes the work of many different skill sets; from designers to developers, project managers to content writers.
Website strategy planning
You've heard it all before but, failing to plan means planning to fail.
Building a website with no clear strategy or plan will definitely end in disaster, hence why this is such an important step in the website building process. This is a service that should be offered by your web design agency or freelancer of choice. After all, they are the experts.
Digital strategy is much more than just defining goals as well. A great design agency should consider:
- Peer and competitor analysis
- User flow discovery
- Creative workshopping
- Digital positioning
- Information architecture
Before the website building even begins, you and your web designer should have spent time focussing on a clear plan of action, timeline and overall goal for your website.
Whether you are rebranding your business or simply scrubbing up your digital presence, planning is a step that cannot be skipped.
'What does this have to do with the cost of my website?' You may be asking. The planning and strategy process isn't one to be rushed. From analysis to workshopping, careful consideration goes into every aspect on the road to a high-quality website for your business.
This expertise is used to ensure that your website can be built comfortably inside your budget with no shocking hidden costs added along the way.
Project management
The difference between a cheap website build and a more expensive one is often project management.
When outsourcing your website building needs, you shouldn't have to be the project manager. Oftentimes cheaper website design options mean you have to take on the role to ensure that the build stays on track and budget.
On the other hand, great project management ensures that your website gets built efficiently and cost-effectively.
The job of a project manager during a website build is not only to keep the project on track, but update you along the way and become your digital partner. Usually around 1/10 of the cost of a website goes towards project management, and it's not a cost you'll want to cut.
Website structure & sitemap
While website structure and site mapping is a part of the strategy stage it's so important that it deserves it's own explanation.
Mapping out your website is crucial to understanding the finished cost. By understanding the structure of your soon-to-be business website, designers can give you an accurate quote on the price tag of your desired site.
The consideration of website structure means you can see your customer's journey before the website is even built to optimise the site architecture specific to your goals and KPIs.
We will touch on SEO later in the article, but a clear site structure is also very important so that your new website can rank highly on Google. A well planned and executed site structure means that Google's spiders can crawl your website with ease and put you at the top of the results page.
Building a website is much more than just creating pages and throwing them together, it's strategic and takes expertise.
Web design
If you aren't an expert in the world of website building this is usually where you would assume the project would begin (ignoring all those prior steps!).
Web design is one of the biggest aspects of a new website build, as you would expect. The design needs to be modern, reflect your brand and also resonate with your target market. Great web design unfortunately isn't cheap, but is worth the investment.
The vast majority of users in 2024 will make a snap judgement purely from your website design, meaning it's important to get it right. A unique built website is more costly than a templated design, but think about how you want your users to remember your website. Do you want to stand out from your competitors or be another one of the crowd using the same template?
Web design again, takes time to create memorable experiences for your visitors. From animation to interactivity, to colour and font choices.
Web design also involves user experience (UX) attention. This ensures that your users have a great, memorable experience on your website. Your visitors should be able to get a quick idea of who you are and the products or services on offer, that's why web design is so important.
Web development
Backend development is the other big chunk of a website building process. This is where your website becomes fully functioning.
Development is as important as design because without development, your awesome design wouldn't have the ability to convert your visitors. Development costs can range depending on how big your website is and any extra requirements you have.
For example, a web developer will be the one to build custom functionalities, such a chat bots and forms on your website.
Mobile responsiveness
Developers are also responsible for making sure that your website can be viewed any and everywhere. A huge amount of users now browse the web on their phones and tablets, not just desktop. This is why investment in responsive web design is key.
Responsive websites will respond to any screen size, so no matter whether it's an iPhone or Android, your website will appear in a way that still has great UX and load speed.
Content writing & imagery
You've got a great design and the website works but now it's time to make it your own. Content writing and imagery are the next step in the website building process.
Great content writing will engage your visitors and can also help you rank higher on Google. You can choose to write the content yourself or hire a content writer for you. This will affect the overall cost of your website build. If you're on a budget, perhaps opting to write the content yourself would be a good idea.
On the other hand, expert copywriters know the tricks to getting your visitors to convert through informative and compelling language. Again, this expertise does come at a cost.
When it comes to the imagery on your website it's important to consider exactly what your visitors will be expecting. You can use high-quality stock imagery or opt for the more expensive option of hiring a photographer to get your own pictures.
If you sell physical products your users will be expecting to see good quality images of them so take this into consideration. These pictures can help you to establish a brand identity so choose wisely.
Other media to consider include videos, icons and other graphics. Again these can be sourced or made bespoke for you.
Testing, launching & hosting
You've reached it! The final step in website building; it's time to test. While testing isn't a costly aspect of the web design process it is an important one.
Top web design agencies won't launch an unfinished product, especially one that doesn't work the way you need it to. Knowing that the UX is up to scratch, load times are short and pages are responsive is very important. Then it's time to launch.
Post launch there are some on-going costs of your brand new website, such as:
- Hosting
- Domain name renewal
- 3rd Party Integrations (if any)
All this, and possibly more if you have an integrated CRM, add to the cost of a web design project. But, with the world becoming more and more digital by the day you know it's an investment that will be worth it.
New Website Costs in Australia
Now that you know what goes into a website building project, hopefully you'll understand why costs can vary so much.
Freelancers are often a cheaper option because they can't offer the same skillset that a creative design agency can. Usually a freelancer will specialise in one aspect, be that web design or development, and while they can build great websites you may end up wishing you'd hired an agency when you have to step into the role of project manager.
You could also be tempted by Google Ads claiming to build websites starting at only $500 AUD. It's an all too common tale of business owners falling for the cheap price, then having to invest in proper web development later down the line to fix bugs left behind by shoddy website builders. Meaning you actually end up spending more than you would have originally.
Remember that while you want to ensure you're getting good value for money, cheap price often means cheap outcomes.
It can be a whirlwind when scouring the internet for web design quotes, but contacting agencies really is the best way to find out exactly how much your website will cost.
What Factors Determine Website Pricing?
By now I'm sure that you understand that a website's costs can fluctuate massively. Different companies have different necessities and all this things add up to make a final number. The main types of websites are:
- Static, small business websites
- Strategic build websites
- eCommerce websites
- Custom websites
Starting from the top of the list is the cheaper option, then the further down you go the more figures added to the grand total. Defining these costs is the following factors.
Number of pages
1 page or 100? This can really define how much you need to spend on your website. Many small businesses can run on a single page website, however if you want to showcase products or services you may want to consider more.
By knowing an estimate number of pages you will be wanting before contacting agencies for quotes you can ensure that you're getting an accurate figure. It might go without saying but, the more pages the higher the cost.
Design type
The type of web design that you're looking for will be a big determiner on the final value of the site. Animation and interactivity all take time which leads to a higher price tag.
Not all businesses require advanced, interactive elements so it's important to decide if this is something you want to invest in.
SEO & content writing
As mentioned earlier, content writing can be done by yourself or a professional. Either way you want to make sure that the content on your website represents your brand and also speaks to the audience that you're targeting.
With content writing comes SEO (search engine optimisation), where keyword optimisation and other tactics are used to get your new shiny website on the first page of Google. A professional SEO content writer will be able to write copy that is not only enticing, but also speaks to Google and increases your visibility.
Other options include using AI to write your copy for you. As future tech continues to evolve this is a popular choice for many business owners to save money. Be warned though that you will still need to proof read and edit the copy that AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini gives you.
Imagery
Whether you're choosing to use a professional photographer or stock imagery, both come with a price. The media you choose will affect the overall cost of your web design project. Visuals can have a large impact on return on investment, therefore you shouldn't cut corners here.
Instead consider what your visitors will be expecting when they get to your website. If you're a restaurant then users won't want to see stock images. Instead they're more likely to be enticed by professional shots of your dishes.
Return on investment the biggest indicator of a successful web design project. So while cutting costs on media may lower the threshold of return, you may be decreasing the effectiveness of your new site.
Extra additions
By adding custom builds you can expect the cost of the website to increase. While aspects like web design, number of pages and imagery are necessary parts of any website, there are some aspects that might not be needed by every business. That's why these are added extras.
A great example of this is CRM system (customer relationship management) integrations. Businesses with large customer bases can request their website be hooked up to their CRM, such as Hubspot, so that they can track user's activity and use this for targeted marketing.
Another extra that some people may want to invest in is custom CMS (content management systems). If you upload a lot of content with multiple writers in house, you may want the back end of your website to be easily manageable. This is where custom builds can come in.
Final Thoughts on Australian Website Prices
It's no secret that a good quality website is expensive. Website prices in 2024 will hugely depend on what your business' requirements are and the quality you expect from the website.
Remember that quality website building does take time, so while it may be tempting to fall into the tap of quick turnaround, cheap options, you're likely to regret that choice in the long run.
So, how much does a website cost in 2024? The best way to find out is look for agencies, whose portfolios you like the look of, and contact them for a quote. Great agencies will be transparent on what they can offer within your budget and work closely with you to ensure that you get a website you can be proud of.
Investing in a high-quality website can be the difference between being a market leader or falling behind.
