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Custom website design pricing: How much should it cost?
We know that any well-built site (online brand) deserves a tried-and-true discovery and consultative approach, so we usually devote about 20 hours to website design consulting, research and management. You can expect to pay $150-$200 per hour for top-level talent. If you want to blow your clients away with best-in-class strategy and exceptional design, you’ll need to invest a little more.
We break down the cost of custom web design so you can compare the process, the time spent on each phase and the end results.
Custom web design pricing guidelines
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Discovery, strategy planning, research and consulting: We recommend 20 hours for this stage of the process, but you can go with more or fewer hours, depending on your budget. If you are OK with a two-hour initial meeting and then jumping right into the design process, then that’s your prerogative, (#Bobby Brown). $150-$200 per hour, approximately $1,000-$5,000
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Design: We spend an average of 50 hours designing pages, usability optimization, styles, calls-to-action, interactive features, revisions, navigation and everything else that contributes to your brand identity. Sure, you can cut that down, especially if your site requirements are pretty simple. But do you want to do that at the expense of your most important brand design? We think not. $3,000-$8,000 on average
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Development and testing: Implementing your site into a solid content management system (CMS) such as Drupal, Joomla or even WordPress and coding all your style sheets, graphics, interactive elements, animations, buttons, adds, blog and additional site elements take a lot of time. Browser testing alone can take over a week with 4 main browsers and multiple versions of each. Oy! This is why most companies say it takes at least 30 days just to code a small custom-designed site. So, plan on this stage taking at least another 50 hours.$3,000-$8,000 for a small site (fewer than 20 pages)
Here at ImageWorks we can keep the cost for smaller sites (under 5 pages) below $5,000, depending on how many unique design elements and how much time is needed for discovery and consulting. For smaller budgets, see our Xpress Web Design Packages, which are hosted solutions starting at $129 per month. Any established agency or award-winning web design firm will charge at least the amounts mentioned above. As such, be very cautious if the scope or rates vary much from these guidelines.
What components go into custom website design?
You tell us, because the number and type of components vary with each site and each business’s unique needs. But there are some essential and popular elements at the core of the design process that are always required:
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Discovery, strategy planning, project management, research and consulting – See above.
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Project management – Did we mention that we assign a dedicated brand manager to each client?
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Site navigation design and architecture – So crucial. This sets the pace for your entire brand experience.
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Homepage style and design – This is the most important part of your site and where we focus the bulk of the design time. A typical homepage has many parts, including the header, menus, main display area (usually interactive), secondary content area (also interactive), advertising and widget areas and footer.
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Subpage styles – This is the main template that drives your customers through your site. At times there are multiple unique subpage styles needed.
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Form style – This is used for all types of data submission, video submission, contacting, blogging, registering and ordering items online.
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Blog style – This is one of the fastest ways to build a web presence, promote news, interact with potential customers and enhance your SEO efforts.
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Unique custom styles – Every site is different, and each page may need a unique design, imagery or animation to get across key information effectively.
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Landing page style – This is used for lead captures, promotions, specials, events, webinars and more. It allows you to increase the ROI of your advertising campaigns and web traffic measurably, and also to test offers and measure results within a specified environment.
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CMS and development platform – Our CMS allows authorized users to modify text, graphics and subpages easily on the website, without any need for technical HTML knowledge.
What other elements can be included in your site? Take your pick:
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E-commerce design and style for cart of choice (usually 5-10 page styles)
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Back-end client portal styles (for clients to log in, submit support requests, download private reports, etc.)
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Category page styles
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Product page styles
If these elements don’t quite meet your needs, fear not: We can design whatever your company needs.
Comparison shopping:
Mass-produced online web services companies:
This is just a case of apples an oranges. If you are looking for template sites, but have been unhappy with what you have found or experienced, check out our highly customizable Xpress websites, which start as a hosted solution for $129 per month.
Web design shops and agencies: How to choose the firm that’s right for you
You’ll find that minimum spend ranges from a few thousand dollars to somewhere in the high six figures. In addition to considering the cost, be sure to ask firms the following questions:
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What is your discovery process? How much time will the firm dedicate to your project? How many meetings can you have? Do meetings cost extra? We allocate at least 20 hours and often recommend more.
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How much time goes into design? How many revisions are you allowed? What if you HATE the design? Beware the curve balls the large commodity site brokers throw you, it’s the old bait and hook.
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How long have you been in business? ImageWorks has been in business since 1995.
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How many projects are in your portfolio? (And how good is the work?) A few samples are not sufficient. We post every unclassified project to our online portfolio for all to judge.
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Do you have dedicated project managers? This is a complicated process, so the involvement of managers with marketing expertise is a must-have. And we have it.
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Do you guarantee my satisfaction and an ROI? We do.
Consider this: If you hired ImageWorks and our creative services helped increase your sales by seven figures, would you care if our services cost more than those of a mass-produced service provider? Of course not! And that’s what building a world-class brand backed by highly effective marketing strategies can do for you. We can’t guarantee that you’ll make millions right away, but we DO guarantee a return on your investment! Read more here
The ImageWorks custom web design process and pricing:
Our process begins with an in-depth discovery session where we delve into all aspects of your business, including your market position, sales and marketing strategy, engagement plan, and conversion goals. We typically spend 20-50 hours consulting with you before and after your launch to ensure success.
We employ this full-throttle web design process because it allows us to create engaging customer experiences that make customers WANT to interact with your site to learn, discover and become seriously impressed. We combine business understanding, magnificent design, cutting-edge functionality and business-generating marketing strategies to take your business to the next level.
And we sweeten the deal in many other ways:
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Our process has no revision limits.
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We guarantee that you’ll love your website.
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We guarantee a return on your investment.
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We offer interest-free financing for up to one year to help make your new site fit into your corporate budget.
What do we charge?
Why beat around the bush? We’ll tell you exactly what it costs. But keep in mind that we hire only the best talent, and we do all our creative work in-house. The cost breaks down into three areas:
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Discovery and consulting – As mentioned above, we recommend budgeting at least 20 hours for meetings, research, planning, site architecture, sales and marketing consulting, site analytics, and ongoing strategic planning. But we realizes for some budgets and businesses that you may only want to use a few hours for initial discovery. Our rate is $175 per hour (minimum three hours) for a team of managers and creative executives. Figure 10-40 hours for a typical site and initial release. Companies that like to hold weekly meetings and conferences should budget higher.
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Design and animation – The time we invest here depends on the number of unique styles and animations you desire. Our design fees are typically $3,500-$10,000, depending on your specific requirements. (Simple, micro or sites with a few pages start at $1,500)
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CMS integration and site coding and testing – We charge $2,500 to set up your new designs in either Drupal or WordPress (which is less than many offshore contractors would charge if using our designs). Blog and landing page themes are additional. Additional pages and content layout, styling, testing and site/CMS integration is $275 per page. (For normal pages, consistent with approved design themes)
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