Now, more than ever, having a strong web presence is more critical than ever for companies wishing to grow. Especially with the rise of mobile devices, Americans are now more active online than ever. In fact, in just the last six months, email opens on tablets and smartphones have grown by 80%! Internet marketing is one of the number one ways to increase leads, and there are many companies out there that can help you take your online marketing strategy to the next level.

What Matters in Internet Marketing?

Internet marketing is all about increasing your online visibility and appealing to users. If you talk with a professional about internet marketing, you’re likely to hear plenty about search marketing, PPC, and social media. We gathered a few stats with respect to those things:

• Simply having a blog can give your site 434% more indexed pages and increase indexed links by 97%.
• About 85% of users totally ignore paid ads found on search engines.
• Keywording is one of the most effective ways to increase visibility with SEO, but it’s about to get harder because Google will no longer provide keyword information for analytics, probably by the end of the year.

Though all of these things are important to internet marketing, they have one goal: to draw users to a particular website. For that reason, a great website is arguably the most important component.

The Hub of the Wheel

Though most businesses will acknowledge that it is important to have a great website, many are not familiar with the typical web design costs and are taken aback when they first meet with a custom website design company. Prices charged by website design agencies certainly vary, generally based on levels of customization and years of experience. Here, however, we’ll at least look at the factors effecting website design costs for top website design companies and small scale companies alike.

1. Client Server/Hosting Requirements– Hosting problems in and of themselves take between two and ten hours initially to address for every project, and further problems take about ten to 20 hours to sort out during any given year, per client.
2. Scope– This seems to be the hardest for most clients to understand. What the client wants and what the client needs, though often two very different things, have a major impact on website design costs.
3. The Client– You might not like it, but it’s true. Website design and development companies will often either structure their contracts on hourly bases or get a read on you to determine if you’re picky or difficult to deal with. The easier it is to work with a client, the less expensive the website design costs.
4. Tech Support– Clients without much technical knowledge require more hand holding, especially if they don’t have IT staff, resulting in a project that takes longer to meet their satisfaction.

There are certainly other components, most of which are broken down in price quotes. Typically, a custom site will cost a minimum of $2,500, though the price certainly will vary. Before you go in for a meeting, be prepared for that. Sticker shock is common, but avoidable. You do need a website, and you do need a quality one. At the end of the day, you’re likely to make up what you spend in leads and conversions. Find more on this topic here.