How much should I budget for my website?

I spend most days talking to a wide range of businesses about their website — scoping and estimating what tend to be complex website projects and then presenting the value back to prospective clients.

We periodically hear from people that the price tag is too expensive or outside the budget they had in mind. Or, as one long-time Chicago customer put it, you’ve become our "most expensive friend" (which I think was meant as a compliment, though there was some awkward silence afterward).

When thinking about a budget for your next website project, I’d like to offer some perspective.

Your website is the center point of your marketing strategy. Ask a marketer what their #1 communication tool is – it’s likely their website and has been for years now. Most everyone your business comes in contact with has visited your website and come away with an impression of your business. 

Whether your company is big or small, your website needs to positively reflect your company to everyone who visits it. Clean design and a solid user experience (UX) go a long way. Think about it — you probably wouldn’t buy something from a website that looks really outdated and has an unpleasant UX. Recent research from Adobe confirms that customers simply do not trust websites with bad design/UX.

An article in the Seattle Times last year stuck with me: Nine of Nordstrom's display windows in their downtown Seattle store were smashed (sad for multiple reasons) and they cost $50,000 per window to replace. In comparison, we often have entire web projects built for the cost of one Nordstrom’s window.

That display window may have several thousand customers walk or drive past each month, whereas your beautiful, functional, informative, well-designed website can see millions of monthly users across the whole world. Your website’s value is easily 10 times that of a display window to your company. 

I get the competing priorities every company budgeting process faces. As a small business, we have received some nice guidance early on that “you won’t have marketing budgets to change people’s opinions.” Meaning, no amount of money we could spend on advertising will convince someone to want to build a new website — they have to have already made it a priority. That bit of wisdom saved us a lot of grief. 

Your website, as the centerpiece of digital marketing and something most customers will visit, is a valuable asset for your company and should always be a priority. 

When trying to assess the value of your website — I’m going to say at least spend one Nordstrom display window, if not two. You will not regret the investment.