In the previous article, we have discussed the rough ballpark of building a website. Now you’ve decided to pull the plug, you should also be aware of the ongoing costs that incur when maintaining a website.
Domain
A domain name is like your business address. Customers need to know your address in order for them to visit your store. Most business owners think domain name fee is a one-off payment, which is wrong. Domain names have to be renewed yearly and it is different from your hosting.
Your web designer should set up courtesy alerts to remind you to renew the domain. The best practice is to ask your web designer to turn on auto-renewal to avoid any late fees or the loss of your domain. You don’t want to risk losing your normal or paying the hefty late fees. For example, we once had a client who forgot to renew her domain, in the end, we had to contact the domain registry and paid over £100 in late fees to reclaim the domain.
How much does a domain name cost?
A domain name normally costs around £20 a year, but it can also go up to thousands of pounds. Why is that? It’s because of parked domains. Parked domains are domain names that are purchased in bulk by resellers and they try to resell the domain for a much bigger margin. You don’t always have to use a .com domain for your business, the reason is the surge of search engines. Most users don’t even type your domain name in the URL bar to look for your website, instead, they simply type your business name in the search engine search bar to access your site. Therefore, your search engine visibility is just as important as your domain name!
Pro tips for domains
- To avoid overpaying for your domain, you can also opt for .net other than .com.
- Set up an auto-renewal plan to avoid expiration and late fees
- Consult with your web designers to see if they offer domain hosting and management
Hosting
Every website needs to be hosted on a web server. Hosting a website makes it accessible via the web. It basically means renting storage space on a server to store your site. We spoke about the domain as your business address, in this case, hosting is the store you rent to run your business. There different types of hosting plans offered by most companies and you should know which options work the best for your site:
Type of hosting
Shared hosting £3 – £10/month
Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting £10 – £45/month
Cloud-based web hosting £10 – £350/month
Dedicated hosting £65 – £200/month
Shared hosting
Shared hosting is the cheapest form of web hosting. You share your hosting platform with a number of other sites, therefore the cost is a lot less. The downside is that you also share the bandwidth which could slow down your site during peak hours. Shared hosting can be a great low-cost option for basic catalog websites that do not generate a lot of web traffic.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting
A VPS server is a good middle ground between shared hosting and having your own dedicated server. A VPS is one physical server but allocates multiple, separate servers to its sites. Compared to Shared hosting, VPS hosting guarantees much faster speeds and more stable performance. You should consider VPS hosting plans if you are running an e-commerce site or a blog that generates a steady amount of traffic.
Cloud Based Web Hosting
With cloud-based web hosting, your website is hosted on a virtual server. This is a popular option for a number of reasons. The frost and most important reason being that cloud hosting plans can handle unusual surges in web traffic. Moreover, with cloud-based web hosting plans, your payment is based on your consumption, meaning that you only pay for what you have used. If your site has started to see a large volume of traffic, you should consult with your web designer or developer to upgrade your Shared or VPS hosting to Cloud-based web hosting.
Prices range from £10 – £350 a month.
Dedicated hosting
Saving the best for the last, Dedicated hosting is the most expensive yet the best option among all hosting plans. As suggested by its name, you will have a server dedicated exclusively to your website. Complex and large size sites that require exceptionally high levels of data security will benefit from a dedicated hosting server, as it guarantees stability whilst handling a large amount of web traffic. Because not having to share a server with other websites gives you the full bandwidth.
Content Updates
In addition to the cost of technical setups that we have discussed, you will need to factor in the cost of content updates. Costs will vary depending on the size of your website, any updates you want to make. Remember that your website is never really ‘finished’, even when you are happy with how it looks and works. Make sure that you update it on a regular basis to keep up with the competition. You also want to update your content catered to your customers. Last but not least, updating your web content with relevant keywords will massively improve your site’s visibility on Google search.
Additional costs
As your business is growing you might also want to consider expanding your content to attract more visitors. Aside from the costs we have already mentioned, there are some additional services that you should consider:
1. Content production
Keeping a blog will increase your exposure in search engines. In order to do so, you can create blog posts about information that is relevant to your business, for example, industry updates, tips, changes in local regulations and laws, etc. Producing written content is something that you can do yourself to keep costs down.
2. Imagery
We always tell our clients, good images will directly affect the aesthetics and brand image on your website. Do you notice all professional websites have high-quality images on their landing pages? You can too and you don’t need to spend thousands of pounds on a professional photo shoot. Simply purchase stock photos and insert them into your site and blog posts will enhance your site by a mile.
3. SEO / marketing
Let’s say you own a local carpenter in Norwich. Searching ‘Norwich carpenter’ on Google is likely to produce millions of search results. The question is: how can you make sure your business appears near the top? This is no simple task and a lot of it has to do with how up-to-date the content on your site is. Hiring an SEO manager will keep your site up to date with relevant content to increase your exposure.
To conclude, maintaining a website requires a budget. You should always think long-term. Discuss your goals with your web designer or developer to get the best option for your business. You can always message us for a free consultatio