How Much Does a Website Redesign Cost?

Redesigning Your Site Will Change Your Future…

Make it Count!

The Professional Website Re-design Process (Buyer’s Perspective)

Redesigning your website will definitely change your future. There are so many exciting new options you can have incorporated by today’s website designer’s capabilities. When you redesign a website I’m going to offer you a few tips on primary considerations before making the final decision on what components to include in your new website facelift.

1) How Much Time Do You Have?

“I want to redesign my website but how long will it take?” If you have an imperative project deadline that must be met, determining the timeline can be a great starting point. What about that trade show, network meeting or business event that will depend on you having a live web site? If the situation describes you, that will pretty well dictate what type of work can be performed by the deadline.

The average turnaround time for a professional twenty page website- four to six weeks.

2) How Many Pages Will Be Included?

In the redesign of a website it’s your chance to really kick it up a notch. If there are any stale images or content pages it’s a good time to address these concerns. You may also request that in the new redesign your website has a content management system included. This means after your website gets launched you have full control over the content.

The average size of most web sites we create- twenty pages.

3) What Is The Website Redesign Cost?

I know you don’t want to spend much but I fear people that spend too little. They may will come to me and request a targeted traffic generation strategy. That presents a problem, if the web property looks and feels bad, converting web site visitors to action will be far more difficult. These web pages are generally a product of low budget or poor quality, that lack the important elements to convert traffic into sales or leads. I recommend you get a few detailed written proposals from people or Internet marketing companies you are comfortable with. If you are serious about doing business on the Internet you most certainly should invest in a stunning website design.

The average cost to build a nice twenty page website- $4,500.00 (including content writing and on page optimization).

4) Do You Want To Update Your Own Web Site In The Future?

Today there are many content management systems that are available with very intuitive user interfaces. These programs include WordPress, Joomla or Expression Engine. My favorite is WordPress, but they all put full publication capabilities in the hands of the user (you). In this case your website redesign gets a theme that is designed to fit within the parameters of the content management software being used.

The average cost to custom design a stunning WordPress theme- $1,800.00.

5) Do You Have An Existing Brand And Logotype?

There will always be elements from the old website version that you will want to keep in your new website facelift. A well established logo along with branding should be a consideration for remaining consistent. You can also use this opportunity for refining both branding and logo definition if you desire. There will also be the need for plenty of eye candy such as beautiful images that capture what you do, products shots, staff shots and any other images that help build credibility and believability. Are there any awards or claims to fame that your business has? Are you a member of the better business bureau? These are all signified with icons that can be included in your website redesign.

The average cost to create a logo- $135

6) Are You Happy With Your Web Host?

If you are happy with your current web host there’s no need to change. On the other hand, web hosting has become incredibly cheap. If you have been paying for the same hosting plan for two or more years chances are you are paying too much. It’s time to get second opinions.

The average cost for monthly hosting- $8.00 per month.

7) Do You Like Your Current Website Address?

While you are planning this website redesign project you can keep the same domain name or consider changing it. In the event of changing a web address for branding or better online marketing purposes you can simply redirect all the traffic from the old web address to the new one as soon as the new web site goes live. If you were ever considering changing the domain name for any reason, now would be a good time to consider doing it.

The average cost to register a new domain name- $10 to $20.00 per year.

8) Are You Happy With Your Current Website?

If you think you are not getting a good return on investment from your current site, why?… Why do you think that and what do you think can be done to improve your unhappiness? Most of the time a business owner’s unhappiness with their website stems from not being clear with what they want from their website. Planning the goals, desirable outcomes and objectives with your website redesign service is your pivotal point. Now you have taken the first step into having a pleasant, happy and profitable new web site. It simply comes from the understanding of why you exist on the Internet (maybe a bit of soul searching will be needed).

The average cost for a thorough usability test with actionable insights- $1,200.00.

9) Is Your Current Website User Friendly?

This question relates a little bit to the one above because user friendliness means you understand the reason people come to your site. To keep it simple, if the sole purpose or goal of your current website would be to sell products, are you making it easy for people to buy them? Usually this question gets answered easily with goal funnel creation in Google Analytics. The same would apply if the purpose of your website was to generate leads your sales team can close. Whatever the goals are, this will provide the basis on how you measure usability. When we know the most desirable outcomes we want from our web pages it will be easier to determine usability weaknesses (friction).

The average cost of setting up good usability testing through Google Analytics and website optimizer- $1,500.00 to create and analyze experiment environments.

10) Do You Want New Content Pages?

If you are in the particularly painful position of having no real content pages on your site, have your website redesign services of choice create some professional content pages for your visitors. Not only will your visitors appreciate content such as video or contextual, search engines will also have some food to eat. In order for a search engine to favor your site with rankings it must be worthy of these rankings. The majority of search engine algorithms look at the way you have your pages set up on your website. This includes page structure, interlinking and visitor engagement with your pages. In 2010 there is a large demand for video content. After all, how many generations of human beings have been programmed to watch TV? The fact is, information will always be easier to digest when delivered by video. Therefore video should be a consideration in your website redesign. We base our content writing volumes on pages which contain 400 to 600 words.

The average cost for writing new content pages- $120.00 per page (includes on page structure, interlinking and tagging)

11) How Many Content Pages Do You Want To Create?

If you are looking for contextual pages professionally written a good content writer will be worth seeking out. Quality and appropriate persuasive content writing are skills well worth the investment. When I determine content pages for any web site, research tools are used to explore markets and understand what people say and feel in that vertical. After performing research it gives you a really good idea of how many content pages you want to create. The topics of content pages are determined by market research and client business model.

The average cost to drill down an entire vertical keyword market with full market analysis reports- $1,800.00 (with site blueprint)

12) What Can Be Improved?

Certainly after the time you’ve been present on the Internet you have some improvements in mind! With the website redesigning process, there’s no time like the present. What you do today will almost certainly influence your online success in the future. If you are part of the majority, your website was built three to five years ago. As sadly as it is, that’s considered from the stone ages. There is so much more the web has to offer now.

• Ecommerce
• Visitor Feedback Forms
• Visitor Surveys & Polls
• Forums & Message Boards
• Blogs with image scrollers and user interaction features
• Your Own banners and photo advertising
• Simple PayPal Integration
• Downloadable & Streaming Video
• Audio Streams
• Webinars

Talk to your website redesigners and find out what they’re capable of doing to help you achieve your goals.

The average cost for a complete data driven website audit with actionable insights- $1,800.00.

13) What Is The Purpose Of The Website Redesign?

Why do you want your website redesigned? Perhaps you want to improve the quality and quantity of leads. If you are selling products, you probably want to improve the conversion rate of product sales. Whatever your goals are, your website redesigner will take that into account before blueprinting your masterpiece.

The approximate cost for a website wireframe marketing blueprint- $1,400.00 (includes market and keyword research)

14) What Are Your Key Phrases?

The starting point for keyword rankings begins with determining parent keyword phrases. A parent keyphrase is one key word or phrase that describes your business to a tee. Here you want to think of three different phrases or keywords that most accurately describe what you do. Next, with some refined keyword research tools we can uncover what phrases people type to find businesses that do what you do. Then we can combine that with market research and develop a keyword strategy. The approximate cost for pay per click in organic keyword research- $1,500.00.

15) What Do You Like?

I know you’ve been thinking about this redesign for a while now. That means you’ve probably seen other web sites that you like. You should make a few notes of the websites the catch your eye. Pass this information along to your new web site redesigner.

The average cost for creative conceptual designing (design renderings)- $300.00 per design.

16) Are There Any Special Effects Or Functions?

Remember we are now in the year 2010. Your site was built years ago, there are so many new bells and whistles that you want to consider…

• Optin lead form system and list building
• Customized forms and surveys to learn more about your market place
• Password protected pages
• Flash transitional media
• Your own content management system

These are my top five picks of techniques and methodologies that, for the most part, were not being employed three or more years ago in web site design.

The average cost for flash transitional media in your top header is $250.00.

17) Who Is Your Current Target Audience?

If you have a pretty good idea of the people and businesses you are targeting it’s time to communicate this information with your website redeveloper. Who are the people that will most likely take you up on your offer? Are they male, female, over 25, children, etc. If you are a business to business company, who are the businesses you serve?

The average cost of key word in market research for targeting your audience- $1,400.00.

18) How Does Your Target Audience Perceive You?

Does your current audience understand who you are? Your business has done a fantastic job branding your well respected name, congrats. If that is the case why not expand on your current branding efforts! In many cases the target audience does not really understand what the business does for them. In a world where patience is running thin and information is running thick we need to strive for that three to five second glance.

The average cost for RE-branding your company ranges from $500.00 to $5,000.00 and up.

19) Is It Time To Re-Brand?

If you think your website lacks the ability to communicate your call to action or business offerings effectively, is your brand out of focus? When you commit to redesigning your site let’s focus on your brand. It doesn’t make sense to bring visitors to your website that are looking for apples when you sell oranges. A good website redesigner will bring clarity to your brand.

20) Summary

In my opinion a change in the tide has happened in 2009-2010. Most people on our planet usually go on the internet to find stuff. That’s not the big change, the change has occurred in the mind set of business people. Where do you go when you need answers? How much do you spend on low return advertising? If you spend $5000 on Yellow Pages, magazine ads, print media advertising, radio or TV you could probably refine your budgets to include a stronger web presence. That’s where people are going to find you.

Make Your Re-Design Count

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