How much should your website cost?

As a website designer I have heard a lot of “gist” on the amount people pay for designing websites in Nigeria. Some are outright hilarious, especially when you get to find out and see for yourself what they pay all that money for.
So today I’ll be writing on the cost of building a website in Nigeria. The values stated in this post are in no way precise as people have different pricing systems, but they are meant to be used as a guideline for estimating what a service should cost.
Its important that you know this so you don’t get ripped off. There are a lot of inconsiderate people out there.

So let’s see the typical things you would have to pay for.

Registration

Registering your domain name under one of the registrars is usually accompanied with the hosting plan provided by the web host your designer uses. However they are priced differently and so would both be paid for. Be sure to choose a good domain name, one that can be found and easily remembered. See How to choose a domain name

Hosting

Your website host is the big computer where all your website files are kept for public access. So it mostly depends on the size of the files you would have and the amount traffic you would be getting. Nice web hosts would usually give you free domain registration with your hosting plan, usually for a year. So if your designer asks you to pay more for hosting the next year, don’t be too surprised. For most Nigerian hosting sites, you should get a decent plan for below N10,000. This should come with free registration.

Design

This would be the largest budget center most of the time, unless you have heavy website development requirements. There are basically three kinds of websites

1. The brochure styled website:

This is usually a static site, containing around 10 pages, more or less. Explaining basic services to clients, a site like the Footprints Eco Solutions website is brochure styled. Sites for showcasing products and services are usually brochure styled websites.

2. Ecommerce websites:

I’m sure, if you have been surfing the web like me, you would have noticed ads for ecommerce sites flooding the Google ad spots. Ecommerce sites sell products online, they usually require a catalog of their products and payment systems to help customers buy their products. Popular ecommerce websites are Amazon.com and our own recently launched Konga.com and Jumia Nigeria.

3. Specialty websites:

I call them specialty because they vary in their purpose. These sites have a wide array of functions like lead generation, web app management, support and ticketing systems and online bookings and reservations. Websites like Aero online booking site and Buffer.com which is a social media management tool are specialty sites.

Brochure styled sites are usually the cheapest and should cost less than N60,000 unless you decide to add extra functions to the website. This should include standard pages, up to ten of them, contact forms and possibly social sharing options where needed.
Ecommerce and specialty websites are more expensive and generally demand more from their creators. To get one, you would be looking about prices above N100,000 in any case. I would advise you to be weary when they come really cheap, it might be missing important features like advanced security, which would eventually turn out bad.

Content creation

The whole essence of your website is to generate clients, otherwise called leads, for your business or it might be to simply get traffic to your blog. Whatever the purpose is, your content is what defines your success most times. It creates social engagement which google tends to love so much it rewards you by raising your search rankings. This way more people around the world find your website. Most website designers can offer content creation services for you, or contract it to people they know, they tend to have these skills within their networks.
On an average, this service would cost you N10,000. This would depend on who does the job in the end. But it shouldn’t go above N15,000 for standard requirements. Be sure to inquire about the qualifications of the person providing this service though, don’t let just anyone write for you.

Photography

Visual elements on a website could make or break it. When properly used, they could make your clients lust after your products, and yes I used the word lust on purpose. The world is running short on time and so reading has become too demanding, visual elements are simple to understand in most cases and pass on a lot of messages at once, helping the client or customer make a decision faster. Where you do not have pictures, good ones, to use, I recommend having a professional photo-shoot session. The cost for this would depend on where and by whom it is done. Be advised against using stock photos from the web of white people, it makes your brand look cheesy. A duck shouldn’t swim like a dog.
Over time I would update this post and give you an estimated cost for this service from different studios and individual photographers.

Blog

Yes, the ever cherished blogging platform. A blog helps you regularly feed content to your valued readers. There are a lot of free tools out there to help you setup a blog, so if you are feeling very “techy” and ready to learn, head over to WordPress.com and open one for yourself. See Linka Ikeji’s blog for a typical example. You could have your designer customize this to the allowed extent for your brand. But for a more flexible design, I’d recommend the self hosted wordpress blogging platform. Custom blogs could also be designed.
It can be and most times would be integrated with the other services to make it cost less. I’ll get back to you on an actual value.

Tips to get the most value from your website and reduce the design cost

1. Know the platform you are using and try to understand it well enough to exploit all its features.

2. Get a website host for yourself before you get the designer. Although this could turn out bad if you don’t understand your requirements first. So be sure you know what you need before doing this.

3. Let the designer use a template he is used to. If you do, he would probably go easy on the price. But having him do a scratch job for you could be demanding, everyone tries to save time nowadays. He could raise the price bar really high for starting from the ground up.

4. Good old fashion respect. If you show your designer that you understand he would be doing work for you and appreciate him as such, I can assure you, speaking from experience now, most people would do a better job for the same price. Sometimes even adding extra features without billing you for them. Don’t go shouting at him because something went wrong somewhere or because you think you have the right to, because you are paying. Life just doesn’t work like that.

OK. So there we have it, now you should have an idea of what would happen when you call up a web designer for his services. Have anything to add? Share your comment with us.