Web Design

• Hosting – In order for your website to be accessible online, you will need to ‘host’ it on a server. For an efficient, unmanaged hosting service you can expect to pay in the region of £10-20 a month. Depending on the type of website you require, our hosting price will start from £150/year. 
• Domain – In order to set up a website you’ll need a domain, which comes with a yearly fee. A domain is registered for a minimum term of one year, which should cost you somewhere between £5-20. Alternatively you may wish to purchase a high-end domain from its existing owner which can cost a lot more.
• SSL Certificate – In order for your site to appear as https, you need an SSL Certificate. Https is now a requirement for all websites, without one Google will not rank your site well and you will receive browser security warnings. In order to have this enabled you need, as a minimum, a domain validation SSL Certificate. This comes with a yearly fee of around £50.00

• Image / Video licenses – It’s not possible to take images from anywhere you feel like online, so if you don’t have your own photography, you’ll need to purchase stock images and license them for use. A stock image can cost anywhere from £1-250, depending on the image and where you’re sourcing it from. 
• Copywriting – One of the key considerations in building a website is the amount of content that will be required. If you don’t have a lot of spare time, we highly recommend you hire an agency or freelancer, who can write the copy for you. A 5 page website as a minimum should be around 2,500 words of fully proofed, well considered content. This is a vital point to consider as content is key when it comes to SEO and rankings.
• Plugin licenses – Sometimes rather than coding certain functionality into a site, it can be quicker and easier to use a plugin. These could include things like sliders for images, booking systems, and payment processors.
• Payment processing fees – If you’re running an ecommerce site, then you’ll need to consider payment processing fees. For example, if you’re using PayPal at the checkout, they will take 3% of all payments that are processed through your account. If someone purchases a product for £100, you will actually receive £97, whilst PayPal receives £3.00.

The price for a domain name can range anywhere from £5 – £30 per year per domain. Depending on your specific requirement, you can either purchase a location based domain, such as .co.uk or a top level .com domain, which is not area specific, and will be slightly more pricey.

You can register a domain for 1 year, but we would always recommend registering for at least 2-3 years or more if possible. Registering for longer periods, such as 4-5 years is ideal, and comes with an added SEO benefit, as Google will determine that the domain is going to be around for a long time.

You can also opt to purchase a premium domain from companies or individuals who’ve purchased them previously. These will usually be priced at upwards of £100. Once you buy a premium domain, you’ll only be required to pay the renewal fee which is just a small % of the original cost.

When purchasing your domain, be aware of companies trying to upsell you unnecessary extras, such as ‘domain name protection’ or ‘who is opt out’. You could vary quickly find your bill going from £6 to £60 for a domain.

Essentially, keep it simple. Unless you’re purchasing premium, your domain name should always be a relatively cheap yearly cost. We normally recommend GoDaddy.com for your domain purchases.