This is a question that we are asked quite frequently. The honest answer is that cost depends on what you would like your website to do for you.

A website can be a simple online brochure, found when someone is typing in the name of the specific company into a search engine. This type of site provides an online profile of the company’s products and/or services, location and contact information.

Although the most cost effective solution, this style of site is most beneficial for companies whose brand is well recognized and would be sought out intentionally.

Most often clients would like their website to acquire customers by ranking well in search engines. By ranking high up on page one in a search engine, potential customers are able to find local businesses that provide the product or service they are looking for now!

Achieving prominent rank in search engines under a specific product or service naturally requires knowledge, skill and time, which increases the cost accordingly.

Other elements to consider include the addition of Video, Blog, Copy Writing, Photo Galleries, Client Portals, PPC Marketing and Social Media Marketing.

While all of these elements help create a high quality online experience and some of these elements improve a sites rank in search engines, they too require additional time and therefore cost to complete.

To sum it up, understanding your company’s online goals and expectations is essential to creating a website and digital marketing campaign that helps your company grow and achieve its goals. When cost is the only consideration and “cheaper is better”, a businesses sales, growth and prosperity suffer as sales are lost to competitors that have invested to rank well.