The Three Parts of A Small Business Website

Over the years as a website developer, I have met some people that want a website but are not sure of what makes up a website, how the pieces work together, and what is the price of the website.

So today I will give you the 3 parts of a small business website and a simple pricing guide.

Here are the 3 Parts of a website for small businesses

The Domain Name or URL: The domain name is the website address that is typed into your web browser. A domain name usually starts with “www”. This is your business location or address on the internet. Here are a few tips on choosing your domain name:

• It should be easy to say and spell
• It is generally a good idea to indicate the your type of business in the name. (Example: www.SouthsideFlorists.com vs www.SouthsideShop.com
• For small businesses and search engine purposes the best domain extension is “.com” vs .biz or .net etc.

The Website Itself: A website is compilation of text, programming code, pictures, files, and folders. A website developer creates the tiny processes and arranges the words, phrase, and files for easy display on the internet. There are multiple programming languages and platforms that are popular among web designers but a very common one among business owners is WordPress. WordPress’ ease of use allows business owners to change content and keep their content relevant and timely without having to hire a developer to dig into the HTML code every time routine updates need to be made.

Hosting: The third part of a website is hosting. All of the files, graphics, programmed pages and text that are created by website developer has to be moved from their computer and be made accessible on the internet. The hosting account is the location that the files are placed that allows for that information to be viewed online.

Understanding this process helps you to have a good ideas what all goes into creating a website and making it appear online.

How much is a Small Business Website

Another popular question I am often asked is how much is a website? The best answer to this question is – it depends. Yes a website can cost $100,000 and up, but most small business do not need the same type of website technology needed as Bank of America or your local hospital. For a small business there are low cost Do It Yourself web builder options starting at $29, and there are developers that will build a website from a templates for $99-$399. You also have the option for custom website builds for $499 – $2999 depending on the complexity of the project. As you an see the price of a website is entirely affordable and can be made to suite large and modest budgets. I would caution you that in may cases you get what you pay for, a simple website builder included with your hosting will have more limitations then having a developer create a website for you.

Therefore when choosing a website developer you want to know more then just the price of the website and hosting, you will want to know if the designer you chose has experience in online marketing, or are they able to turn visitors into buyers, and will they also provide any support after the design and delivery of your website. These are the questions that should be asked when you are looking for a website developer for you business. Actually I wrote a report about what to look for in website designer, the the book is available here.

If you are interested in building a website for your local business first, take a look at the work from our development team or you can view our prices and design packages.