Image by Kevin Phillips from Pixabay

Today, it is imperative for every business to have an online presence. Building and maintaining a professional website should be a top priority if you want to stay in front of high-intent customers. If you are looking forward to building a website for your business, you may be trying to find an affordable web design services in Toronto. However, the cost of building a website boils down to how much work is involved.

The size of the website and its complexities are two of the main aspects that determine how much work is needed. For instance, it costs less to build a 10-page professional website with standard features and customization than a 25-page website with plenty of features and functionality. If we get an estimation of the cost for building a website for a small business in Canada, it could range between $1000 to $5000.

In this post, we have broken down the typical cost of building and designing a website. We will explore the different factors that will affect the overall cost:

• The number of pages - A standard business website often requires 10 or more pages. In some cases, some businesses may require more pages, or as much as 20 to 30 web pages or even more. Often, the number of services may determine how many pages you need. The more services you have, the more pages you need to dedicate to each of your business offerings. For instance, a 10-page website design project costs $1500. However, you need 15 more pages for your website. How much will the extra pages cost? When it comes to additional pages, a good rule of thumb is to pay about $80 to $100 per page over and above the standard package rate. So, the extra 15 pages would cost between $1200 to $1500, making the overall cost of the project $2700 to $3200.
• Custom website layout - Having a professionally designed website can help your business successfully stand out. Since most people love beautiful visuals, building a website with a good design can effectively capture attention and engage visitors. On the other hand, a poorly designed website is likely to be abandoned by visitors. When custom designing a website, there are 3 main stages that will determine its cost:
• Research - This process involves analyzing your competitors and defining your potential customers and their preferences.
• Initial design - The data obtained from the research will be used to create the initial design and share it with the client for feedback.
• Final design - The web designer will make revisions with client feedback in mind to create the final web design.

The average time and cost to build a custom-designed website will depend on your requirements, such as custom graphics, animations, illustrations, etc. The more customized your web design is, the greater the cost.

• Interactive features - The type of business you have may require you to add more features, such as a project gallery section, a membership portal, or a blog section. You may need to pay an additional cost for these extra features. However, some features can be found in the WordPress plugin, which offers the exact functionality. In some cases, the web design agency Toronto may need to customize a close match plugin or even develop a personalized one. With that in mind, how much will you pay for the custom website design feature? Most web designers in Canada will charge you from $150 to $1500 or more depending on the complexity and programming and testing needed to ensure its functionality.

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

• Website content development - The quality of your web content can influence your target audience's judgment of your brand. Insightful, engaging, and persuasive content is the backbone of a successful website. This is especially important when launching a new website. On the other hand, an existing website with outdated or underperforming content needs to be improved or updated to make it more engaging and relevant to visitors. However, content creation is a daunting process and often the top challenge when launching a website. That is why hiring a full-suite SEO company in Toronto that offers both website development and design and content creation services is a worthwhile investment.

Creating customized content can cost between $30 to $100 per page (approximately 500 words). The cost of content creation depends on the number of words and the topic.

Other additions to consider when building and designing a website:

• Web hosting - The cost of web hosting ranges from $150 (standard shared web hosting) to $300 to $3000 (specialized web hosting) per year.
• Domain name - Domain name can cost between $20 to $50 a year (for popular domain extensions like .com, .ca, .net). However, you may need to pay more for newer domain extensions. You can use the IONOS domain check to see if your chosen domain name is available.
• SSL certificates - The standard rate for an SSL certificate can range from $85 to $249 per year, depending on the type of SSL certificate you choose. While installing an SSL certificate for your website is not mandatory, having an SSL certificate in place can instill confidence in your website visitor. Furthermore, SSL certificates are considered a ranking factor as per the Google algorithm update.
• Professional email - Using a professional email @ your domain name can show your professionalism to your potential customers that you mean business. GSuite and Office 365 offer professional email services at $8 to $34 per user a month.
• Stock Photos - Your website will need some stock photos to make it more engaging and appealing to your visitors. You can obtain photos from numerous free and paid stock websites, including:
• pixabay.com (free)
• pexels.com (free)
• unsplash.com (free)
• Shutterstock.com (paid)
• istockphoto.com (paid)
• Bigstockphoto.com (paid)

Whether you have a small or large-scale business, your website should be built on a solid foundation that will only boost in value over time. While there are many companies offering their services, make sure to do your due diligence and choose the right agency that offers a reasonable rate and whom you can rely upon in case problems will occur.