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BUDGETING YOUR NEEDS
When planning a web site or a site upgrade, your company should consider
the two phases of web development: design and maintenance.
Design Costs
Your Web designer will estimate the cost and duration of your Web site
development based on the scope and complexity of your project. Scope is
based on the estimated number of pages you’ll need. Complexity is based
on the features the site will incorporate (e.g. original graphics, a shopping cart,
or a searchable database). Obviously, a simple brochure site will cost considerably
less and take less time to implement than a complex E-commerce site.
Designing a Web site can be a very expensive process, particularly when database
and E-commerce services are included.
Many Web design firms recommend the following guidelines to develop your estimated budget:
- $30 - $500 per page
- $5 - $150 per image/graphic (budget more for logo design)
- Add $45 - $5,000+ for E-commerce/database functionality,
increasing significantly with the number of products/SKUs
*These estimates will vary depending on the level of content development and the designer you choose.
Maintenance Costs
The cost to maintain your Web site will depend on two things:
Complexity: the level of skill required to maintain your site.
A brochure site may require only simple HTML to make additions or updates
to your site. On the other hand, adding or changing a product listing for
an E-commerce site may involve database programming and CGI scripting,
as well as HTML code. Your designer will charge higher fees for more
difficult or complicated services.
Update frequency: how often you update existing or add new pages.
If your company needs a brochure site that will change only rarely
(for instance, when you add a new sales person or launch a new product),
your maintenance costs will be significantly lower than if you need an
online store that may offer 10 new products each week.
The complexity of the site will determine the hourly fees for maintaining
your site, and the frequency of updates will determine how many hours
your Web firm will spend updating the site.
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