21 Sep
More than 1.2 million dollars is made in e-commerce every 30 seconds. That’s 144 million dollars an hour, and 3.5 billion dollars in a day.
3.5 billion dollars worth of revenue. Let that sink in.
I know what you’re thinking; how can I get in on this action? Well, you have to be there.
For those of us who grew up with the rise of the internet, creating and maintaining a website can be overwhelming.
Let’s take a look, in order to get a better handle on how to estimate your website maintenance cost for your small business, and what goes into it.
Website Maintenance Cost Breakdown: Domain Name Registration
The first expense in website creation and maintenance is going to be the yearly fee for registration of your domain name.
Thankfully, this will be one of the more affordable aspects of your overall website maintenance cost, unless you decide to buy a domain already owned by another person or business.
Fresh domains start at $12-$20 per year.
SSL Certificate
If you’re probably going to be collecting large amounts of personal information from customers, it’s important to protect them.
An SSL Certificate is an important step to take be sure your patrons can interact with your business safely.
The price can range from $9-$300+ per year; the lower the price the lower the warranty.
If e-commerce is going to be a large part of your website, it might be worth investing in a higher-quality SSL certificate.
Web Hosting
Your website needs a place to for all its data and web traffic to call home; this is the service offered by us at OSO Web Studio.
The more you pay, the better your website will perform when well trafficked, and the less likely your website will be lost to a crash or hack.
For a decent service, get ready to pay anywhere between $40-$200 per year.
Web Design
If you want your business to appear trustworthy to potential clients, make it aesthetically pleasing. Enter the web designer.
This is an upfront cost, and it is important to consider updating the look of your website every few years to keep your brand exciting and fresh to your clients.
Depending on your budget or who you hire, you may purchase a template for them to build the website from or have them design the site from scratch.
Expect to pay $100-$200 for a good template, $600-$2000 for the building of the site itself, and $400-$1600 if you need new logos or graphic design work.
Web Master
Websites will need to go through some routine maintenance, to ensure those cogs keep spinning.
This is where a webmaster comes in. They will ensure your website remains safe and continues to function as it should.
Look to shell out $400-$1800 per year to keep it up and running.
Payment Processing
Last but not least, if you’re offering goods or services for sale on your website, then get ready for payment processing fees.
Depending on the number of purchases, look for anywhere between $0-$250 per year.
Taking all this into account, experts predict for a small business, you’re looking at a price tag of $1,100-$3,800 up front. An annual maintenance fee of can be as much as $600-$2,800.
Don’t be discouraged, ask a professional for help in developing your website and take your small business to the next level.