Being a small business owner, you must be thinking about having a professional-looking website for your business.

Why shouldn’t you?

This website will say a lot about your brand to your existing and potential customers.

One cannot simply build a website overnight. It would require both money and expertise. So before making the decision, you may have to decide on how much you would like to spend on it.

Small business website cost is most likely to depend on your preferences on the types of websites you need to build.

So how much a website should cost for small businesses?

The answer is not as easy as the question. The answer depends on so many things.

• Small business website making cost depends a lot on the features and functionalities of a website. All these will bring a huge difference.
• The average website cost will also depend on if you are doing it through a freelancer or an agency. Hiring a freelancer to get the job done usually costs less.
• The charge of different agencies will also vary even within the same country. It depends on the experience, reputation, and expertise they had over the years.

Types of websites for small businesses and the cost

The following website categories are the most common types of websites commonly found for most of the small businesses. These prominent website categories are a single page or landing page website, a template website, a custom-made website, and an ecommerce site.

You get to choose the type of your small business website according to your requirement and the reason behind having a site in the first place.

So, let’s dive in getting to know about these websites;

1. Single page or landing page website

From the name itself, you get a clear idea about the website.

Such types of websites have a single page. It is suitable for new businesses to introduce their business nature to the prospects. Generally, such businesses have very little information to display to the website visitors.

But as the business grows, such websites lose its appropriateness, though it is indeed a meagre cost website.

Approximate cost: Such a website comes with a fast turnaround time. The price is around $400- $800 according to your requirement and the customization needed. But the cost can be way less if you hire a freelancer online to get the job done.

2. Template website

Such websites are made out of a predesigned layout after the needed customization. These templates sites are found online at a minimal price.

So, it is much cheaper than building a customized website. That is why it is utterly affordable for small business owners. Although it is a comparatively less expensive option, that doesn’t mean the look of the website remains unprofessional.

For your small business, you can choose the template that goes with your needed website. Then you can let the web designer know about your requirements. He will do the customization of the template accordingly.

Approximate cost: The template website budget is approximately $1,200- $3,200. But the range may differ according to your requirements.

You can customize a template website with a proper guide without having to hire an agency or web designer. It would save a significant cost for making your website.

3. Custom website

A custom website is precisely opposite to the template website. A custom website is made from scratch, where all the required specifications get the most priority. According to all these specifications, this website is made to bring into reality.

So, naturally, the making cost of such a website is comparatively a bit high. Because making a custom website takes more effort, thinking, and time. It takes a pro web designer to build a custom website according to a client’s needs.

Approximate cost: It is already mentioned customized website costs a bit more than the rest of the websites. The estimated budget for small businesses of such a website should be $2,500 – $7,000.

This estimated cost might go a little higher for the medium or large businesses.

Though such websites are a bit costly in the long run websites like this bring more conversion for your business.

4. Ecommerce website

By having an ecommerce website for your small business, you will get to sell your products and collect payments through various payment methods. Having an ecommerce website for your small business, you will be able to reach larger audiences.

So, these websites give you more opportunities to increase sales revenue. It also got so many contents that help to gain advantages in terms of search engine optimization.

Approximate cost: If you have set up your mind to start an ecommerce business, then you must start doing it by having an ecommerce website.

The estimated cost of such a website is about $5,000 – $10,000. The overall cost may vary according to your requirement and number of products.

Some standard cost for your small business website

Some standard costs happen while making a functional website. As a small business owner, you simply can not avoid it. You will have to pay those costs no matter what.

So let’s get some ideas about what those costs are and how much it would cost.

1. Domain name

Domain name means the name of your website or the URL that your site has. It doesn’t cost much though it has a yearly renewal fee. Each year you have to pay a certain amount of money to get it going.

Usually, a domain name would cost you $10 – $30. There are different registrars to pick and buy your desired domain. But before purchasing the cheapest offer, it is better to get to know about the renewal fee. Then you can take the rational decision.

2. Website hosting

Web hosting is where your site and all the content of it are hosted. The price of web hosting varies according to the different web hosting companies.

The most commonly known web hosting companies are Namecheap, GoDaddy, Hostgator, BlueHost, SiteGround, VentraIp etc.

The cost for your web hosting will depend on the package and the web hosting company you are choosing. The cost will be around $50 – $100 for standard web hosting.

But, if your requirement is robust web hosting, then it would cost around $300 – $500 a year. For small businesses and a new website before generating enough traffic, such hosting is not needed.

So it would be sensible for you to start small.

3. SSL certificate

Having an SSL certificate is crucial for any website, especially the ecommerce website where the customers have to provide sensitive data.

SSL or Secured Socket Layer certificate is installed after getting the domain and hosting setup done. Some hosting companies like Namecheap provide a free SSL certificate for the first year. But later you will get to buy it for about $10 a year, or the range may go up to as much as $200- $300 a year.

4. Content Management System or CMS

A content management system (CMS) is used to display text, pictures, videos, and other sorts of content on your website. Having a CMS on your website will make the task a lot easier and save your time.

WordPress is the most popular and common content management system. It would cost you almost nothing. But according to your preferences, you might choose to select some CMSs that would cost you thousands of dollars.

5. Online marketing

For your small business, just having a website is not enough. You have to let it reach the targeted audiences that are most likely to convert.

This is where you need the help of online marketing.

To reach your prospects, you need to implement a search engine optimization, PPC or pay per click advertising, Copywriting, Conversion rate optimization (CRO), Content Marketing, Social media marketing, and so on.

But it would take a considerable amount from your budget. So as a small business owner, the prudent decision would be for you not to spend a lot of money on marketing initially.

Wrapping up

We have mentioned an approximate cost for different types of websites for a small business. Yet, the actual cost may vary to a great extent according to your preferences.

The best practice is to keep a considerable portion of the budget aside for the business website. The growth of your business will depend a lot on it.

So, spending rationally on your small business website is absolutely worth it!