With online searches for local services running at about 80% and increasing every year, the small local business person cannot afford to miss out on some of that attention. The answer of course is to have a website of their own, but what are the website development costs?

Well let’s look at what it takes to get a new website up and running.

First you need a domain name. A domain name is simply the web address of your site. It is similar to your home or business address in that it is how people find where you (or your website) live. The technical term is the Uniform Resource Locator or URL. It is the place someone will end up visiting when they type the URL into their internet browser or click through from a link they find somewhere else on the internet. Average cost is about $8 to $12 dollars a year.

Once you have your domain name you need a place for it to reside on. Technical term is a server that is connected to the World Wide Web. Using another analogy it is like the house that you reside in. The house has an address, the URL or domain name and it is attached to a home or place you live that people can visit. Costs of hosting run about $5 to $10 per month on average.

You have a domain name and are sign up with some one for hosting now you need something (website) for your visitors to see. This is the big ticket item and varies as widely as your taste or requirements. A one page website with minimal graphics and no frills could be as cheap as free, if you want to try your hand at some of the “what you see is what you get” or WYSIWYG free web page design programs to $10,000 or more for a fully functional site with shopping carts and lots of fancy graphics. Just take a look at a big site like Amazon to get an idea of just how complex a site can get.

But for most local mom and pop, brick and mortar businesses, your total budget to get a nice 5 page site up and running should run about $2500 to $3000.

Now just getting a website developed and online is a good start but if you don’t get anybody visiting your site then you just have a nice looking website that you can show off to your friends and relatives. Not going to help the bottom line of your business much.

That's where the other website development costs come in. The technical term for that is Search Engine Optimization or SEO and that’s where I can help at Website Support Services. The SEO items like article submitting for backlinks, video submitting, email marketing, social media promoting of your website and mobile site marketing will all figure in to your website development costs and the return on investment you make in your website.