Getting a well-functioning and effective website is the first and most important
step of your internet marketing strategy. Depending on your needs, you can build
a website yourself or get a team of specialists to help you. Either way, keep all
of the design and development tips from this chapter in mind throughout the
process.
• Learned why your website is so important for online marketing.
• Learned all about specification sheets.
• Learned how to design a website so that it is attractive and usable.
• Learned how to create the right types of content for your website.
• Learned about the legal requirements of having a website.
• Discovered how website development works and how to communicate with your web developer.
Website development step by step
1. You conceptualise and plan your website.
2. You consult a variety of web design and development experts and get quotes from them.
3. You choose a developer and designer and develop your design and technical specification sheets with them.
4. The designer creates a visual mock-up of your website for you to approve.
5. The developer takes the mock-up and transforms it into a functional website. You then approve the final version.
6. You pay your developer, the website is uploaded to your hosting provider and it goes live.
Reasonable expectations
The main source of conflict between business owners and web developers results from unreasonable and uninformed expectations of the website-building process. Don’t be under the illusion that proper web development is cheap and easy; if you want a good end product, you will have to invest time and money into it. Here are some of the prices and durations you can expect, to give you a sense of reasonable expectations. Note that it isn’t good to pay more or less than these figures – you’ll either be overcharged or you’ll get an inferior product. The estimates below are rough, so it is possible that the quotes and deadlines you get will differ. Cost expectations for a simple website: • Design: R5,000 to R20,000, depending on the number of pages and the complexity of the visual elements. Add an extra R5,000 for a customised email template design that you can reuse. • Images: If you want custom artwork for your site, expect to pay R1,000 to R3,000 per image. For photographs, you will need to purchase them from a photographer or stock library for anything from R10 to R1,000. • Development: R15,000 for a basic website built from a premade template. R20,000 to R40,000 for a more customised page. • Custom CMS: R20,000 for the most rudimentary version. Every additional element, like a custom forum or ecommerce tool, will cost extra – R40,000 or more each. • Search engine optimisation: Expect a R15,000 once-off fee, and monthly maintenance of R5,000. In total, you can expect to pay around R30,000 for a good, simple and effective website. For R50,000, you will get extra useful features. Duration for creating a simple website: • Design: 2 to 6 weeks, depending on the complexity of the design work and the number of pages. • Development: 8 to 10 weeks for a basic site with a premade template. Up to a year for a very complex page. The entire process should take 4 to 6 months, with a few weeks leeway for problems that arise