New Website: How much should I expect to pay?

[HandH]

Hi,

I think its time for my business to launch an e-commerce website.

I have no knowledge of webdesign or SEO but have registered my domain and have been using it for email for a few years.

From the research i've done it seems the best way to get hits (and hopefully sales) is a combination of Adwords and SEO. I've identified 8 or 9 adwords which have CPC ranging from £0.04 to £1.20 they all have medium or high competition.

So how much should I expect to pay for the site to be designed and hosted? Also what should I budget for SEO and Adwords in order to reach a first page position on Google?

I was contacted by " it'sezee" a franchise run company that will design the site for £250 then charge £60 per month to host and maintain the site. Is this reasonable?

Thanks

 

[Baz Watkins]

Ok, here goes lol.

An ecommerce websites cost will all depend on the amount of products you want to offer, and the quality of the design project as well as the designer.

If you use a CMS for say a few hundred products, expect to pay between £800 and £4000 for the build, stock data input will be charged seperately and can double or triple the price in some cases. This is for people working with Joomla, Magento etc.

As far as the PPC goes, that depends on how much money you want to spend, ppc is probably the quickest gainer of visitors / market traction there is, but can cost a lot to compete for keywords, allthough yours seem reasonable. Also many ppc firms will attach a minimum spend to make it worth while.

If you have only a few products, get a google voucher and have a go yourself, but you will make mistakes, and you probably will lose some money doing so.

I offer web design and ppc like so many others on here, i'll send you a pm if you wish, but to put it into context, I've just finished a proposal / quote for a Joomla based ecommerce site and that came in at just under £2k to build alone, with no product addition. The PPC element was fairly cheap as their monthly spend was below £500, but this still would have cost £175 to set up and £125 a month to manage.

Anyway I hope this helps.
B.

Hi,

I think its time for my business to launch an e-commerce website.

I have no knowledge of webdesign or SEO but have registered my domain and have been using it for email for a few years.

From the research i've done it seems the best way to get hits (and hopefully sales) is a combination of Adwords and SEO. I've identified 8 or 9 adwords which have CPC ranging from £0.04 to £1.20 they all have medium or high competition.

So how much should I expect to pay for the site to be designed and hosted? Also what should I budget for SEO and Adwords in order to reach a first page position on Google?

I was contacted by " it'sezee" a franchise run company that will design the site for £250 then charge £60 per month to host and maintain the site. Is this reasonable?

Thanks

 

[evocart]

It's difficoult to advise to know what style, cart and design you require, it can range from a few hundred to a few thousend for an ecommerce store that is specifically designed for the client. £250 + £60 a month is reasonable depending on if what you get is going to meet your needs. But before you go ahead ensure you know what you get from the start, including how much time and effort they include in the £60 per month, look at past work and ask for references.

SEO can be very costly if you higher an outside company, again you need to be confident of the results, have relistic aims and know how many hours a month they are going to spend on your SEO as it's not a case of adding keywords and leaving it, requires a lot of time, effort and money to get on the front page of google, especially if your product has millions of sites selling the same.

PPC is a good way to gain new customers as long as you choose your keywords carefully and set it up properly otherwise it's easy to spend 1000s with very little results - or without realising it.

Best of luck.

 

[debbidoo]

Bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question without seeing the full spec, but have you considered something like ShopMaker or Open Mind Commerce? Either of these could provide a good quality low-cost option.

If you're going to attempt your own PPC, do some research first to make sure you're able to get the best value for money from your ad spend. Google's AdWords learning center is a good place to start but you will find these forums helpful too.

Good luck

 

[Blagger]

If you're on a budget probably the best way is to start on something with a basic design using something like Magento, which I believe you can use almost straight out the box. You can get all your products added and then do the design/feature changes as you need later.

Adwords is pretty straight forward to use, if you already know your keywords you can get up and running using a daily budget and then optimise as you start getting clicks. Best to read up as much as you can or get a pro to run it for you for the first three months (though you'll end up paying someone to do it for you)

SEO is the hardest, requires a lot of work and a lot of patience. Again read up and you can't go wrong.

 

[catchtheniche]

Hi,

I think its time for my business to launch an e-commerce website.

I have no knowledge of webdesign or SEO but have registered my domain and have been using it for email for a few years.

From the research i've done it seems the best way to get hits (and hopefully sales) is a combination of Adwords and SEO. I've identified 8 or 9 adwords which have CPC ranging from £0.04 to £1.20 they all have medium or high competition.

So how much should I expect to pay for the site to be designed and hosted? Also what should I budget for SEO and Adwords in order to reach a first page position on Google?

I was contacted by " it'sezee" a franchise run company that will design the site for £250 then charge £60 per month to host and maintain the site. Is this reasonable?

Thanks

I will answe you honestly. If you don't know SEO or PPC which are the key of all web business I suggest you to stop. First learn PPC and SEO from real expert, if you want I can recommend someone. You don't have to do all SEO, but you have to know it very well. With PPC you can test the water without investing thousands of dollars and know the future of your business just in few days. You need programmer if you dont use such services like yahoo store, designer and a lot of different things. It is a lot to learn and I suggest to learn it first. You will save a lot of money and time. Trust me.

 

[Paul Norman]

Sensible answer from Baz above. Obviously, the exact cost is dependant on specification, but you will get a good site on the road in the range he is speaking of.

The itseasy deal is no deal at all, until they have asked you for a detailed specification and functionality.

 

[FreelanceSoftwareDeveloper]

Since you already have a business offline spend a bit of time thinking about what functionality you would like to have in an online store. How do you currently manage stock, payments/accounts, offers...

I wouldn't go with the it'sezee product as are just churning out their own system for a fixed price with no real consideration for what you might need. They even say their local 'consultants' don't need to have any technical knowledge just come round and try to get you to place an order on the spot!

Over 12 months that will cost you around £1k, which is a reasonable budget for a fixed price design with no ongoing charges other than a few pounds per year in hosting.

 

[sjdev]

Hi,

You'll find lots of PM's coming in offering a site for £0.50 with 10 years hosting, I'm sure.

You didn't say what type of site you wanted. Basic sites can literally have one less zero on the price compared to a full e-commerce site.

I'd recommend viewing previous works by the company, especially similar to your type of business, and even contact them to see how they feel.

 

[FreelanceSoftwareDeveloper]

You'll find lots of PM's coming in offering a site for £0.50 with 10 years hosting, I'm sure.

If you get any PMs report them using the report button. Unsolicited PMs are not allowed and you have not asked for anyone to contact you offering a quotation.

 

[Murton]

Hey,

I will be willing to help you and I can advise on all matters if you wish to PM me.

Thank you.

 

[Parrot Hosting]

All of the above is good advice and the price ranges are also reasonable. At the end of the day you will get what you pay for and the result will be down to the quality of the design work and the ecommerce products used. For me I would provide the hosting, joomla CMS and a full e-commerce framework but the price would be dependent on the work involved.

Currently, I would consider using Tienda as the ecommerce platform as it is fully integrated into joomla and has a good pedigree in that it is designed by Dioscouri who produce a wide range of multi-user applications at a very high level of finish.

I would certainly choose open-source as a solution for the simple reason you will never be locked in to the web designer for expensive support and upgrades and this will also help to keep your costs down but your options high.

Good luck and let me know if you want more information.

Regards

 

[marketingexpert]

I will answe you honestly. If you don't know SEO or PPC which are the key of all web business I suggest you to stop. First learn PPC and SEO from real expert, if you want I can recommend someone. You don't have to do all SEO, but you have to know it very well. With PPC you can test the water without investing thousands of dollars and know the future of your business just in few days. You need programmer if you dont use such services like yahoo store, designer and a lot of different things. It is a lot to learn and I suggest to learn it first. You will save a lot of money and time. Trust me.

I totally agree with this one, if you tread the minefield of PPC or indeed SEO wihout knowing what you are doing, you can lose a small fortune with nothing to show for it.

PPC is great to test the level of interest in what you are offering, but I would not use PPC to try and sell. Remember that people mainly use Google or any other SEs, to look for information before making a buying a decision.

My personal opinion is to capture people details by giving a free offer of some sort in exchange of their email/name/mobile number. This will allow you to market and provide them with valuable content and information around what it is you do. This builds rapport, trust, credibility and builds confidence in your audience which leads to sales.

Another thing to consider is that PPC ads only get around 3 to 20% of clicks, whereas the natural search results and Google Places gets around 80% of click. SEO is where you should put most of your attention as its free traffic, but you will need to either learn it yourself which will take time (which effectively is money) and patience in seeing results or investing money with a GOOD SEO company or person. I emphasize the GOOD as there are some unscrupulous operators out there.

The money you spend with a good SEO service will pay dividens and would most probably end up being cheaper than if you were to learn it yourself.

This is a huge subject and one that cannot be covered in detail in a short post.

PPC is great, if it is used for testing out new keywords, or testing landing pages quickly. Apart from that it is too expensive for any ROI. Money is better spent in many other ways.

You can always claim your position in Google Places just Google "Google Places" This in essence is a free webpage that is Google SEO ready that allows you to ad photos, video and even a QR codes for mobile marketing (this is not to be ignored)

If you would like a free guide on how to set up Google Places or would like a guide on selecting a good SEO company then PM me and I would happily send you them.

 

[AdWords_Adviser]

I can only comment with authority on AdWords.

An AdWords campaign could bring you good results, however you are likely going to need a lot more keywords than 8 or 9 to succeed. How much it costs depends really on how much you want to spend.

Before starting your AdWords campaign, I strongly advice that you read through and understand the many AdWords tutorials Google provides. Start a campaign without the proper knowledge and you could do some considerable damage to your account from which you may never recover.

Another thought, turn of the Display Network. Stick with Google and the Search network until you get the hang of running an account.

Finally, keep your eye on profit, not click-throughs. How many visitors you get to your website is not really improtant so long as they convert and convert at a profit.

Hope this helps!

Adrian Key
Editor of the AdWords Adviser, making AdWords profitable for small business

 

[unet]

Op,

These questions are a little bit like " I want to buy a car " how much will it be? the price will range wildly.


check out the good quality web designers that post on this forum and offer good support and advice. These are the guys ( and gilrs ) that you will want to quote for your site.

Just one thing. Make sure YOU register the domain and not anyone else