It is usually the first question I get asked after I say that I build Web sites. Rather than say “that depends…depends on how much you got.” I try to rephrase the question as, “What are the main costs associated with building a Web site? Since typically the person is not asking for a price, but wants to know more about the process and associated costs.

First is fixed costs. Hosting, domain names,and email are the main elements involved in the commercial support of a Web site. Some companies or businesses may want to host the site on internal Web servers, but I oppose that idea for security reasons. A public Web site should be on public servers and set up to support a diverse audience. Most internal IT departments are not staffed, equipted or trained to provide support to a public Web sites. Secondly, commercial hosting and Web support is so inexpensive that providing IT staff to support a Web server is just not realistic.

The Web site itself has three major areas of costs – content, design and technology. Is the content readily available or will staff time be required to find and formulate the content? Is the design readily available based on company branding and product brochures or will it have to be created and approved? Lastly, what technology or programming will be required to provide components of the site such as content management, document management, search, analytics, or video streaming?

In developing content for a Web site, Compton Communications uses a content plan. The plan lays out the specifics of text, headlining, photography or graphics needed for each page of the site. An overall diagram depicts the page names and organization of the pages. Many companies have the material, but it may take a good amount of time and effort to locate branded narrative or copywrite the materials for the Web.

Most companies are lack good photography of their products, services, personnel, activities, etc. making design more costly and time consuming. Businesses with good branding programs can save significant money on design as exact colors, logos, supporting taglines and photography are often available in corporate reports or product brochures. In some cases, companies may have used a variety of agencies to develop product brochures and they have a variety of brands. Providing quality photograph may be expensive, but vital to building a quality site.

Technology is a feature not readily apparent to many in building a Web site, but the choice of Windows or Linux in Web server types can severely impact costs in development. The more applications the commercial hosting firm makes available to the Web server, the lower the costs. There are quality applications to provide content management, photo albums, blogging, etc. that are available no cost, but the application configuration and customization may add significantly to project costs. For example, the search function is vital to a site that has more than two-levels of content, but not all vendors provide a quality site search application. The same applies to site statistics, extra expense may be required to get the quality of statistically support desired by the marketing department.

A common feature on most web site desired today is Web videos. Most commercial servers support video streaming from Web servers without any special applications needed. However, video may require special encoding or page development to work properly and support a wide variety of Web browsers. Videos longer than two minutes should be encoded in flash and this may require special equipment and software.

What’s all this cost? Well nothing. A Web site should be able to save on the costs of printing brochures and product sheets every quarter, of distributing and saving news releases, of providing customer telephone support and troubleshooting. A quality Web site should save you money in the long run.