Table of Contents
For many businesses, their website is not just the first foundation stone for marketing but also one of the major business expenses. It is an investment- a pathway through which leads can be generated and converted into successful sales ventures. Hence, just like any other kind of investment, website designing should also bring a positive return on investment (ROI) and lead your business venture to success.
Very much like any other kind of investment, the calculation of website ROI is on the basis of the cost and its results.
So let’s take a look.
The price of a website varies on a wide scale. With the help of the latest technology, many people choose to DIY all the way with tools and hence get it done for free. On the other hand, some brands choose to hire a web design and development services or web designers who are freelancers. The cost of each of these choices varies wildly- while freelancers can charge anywhere between INR 10,000 to INR 15,000, some of the best web design companies in India can charge in lakhs, based on the requirements.
One of the basic criteria which determines the price of a website design is the time required to create it. Since there is no material brought in truckloads, the time needed for designing, programming and communication dictate the cost.
Content creation and image designing are also processes that are time intensive. But they can either be handled by the web firm itself, a freelance team or even the brand itself.
Below are the major cost factors:
Project management and communication:
The number of people who will provide the feedback and approvals along with managing the project.
Designing:
Questions like whether it is a new brand or requires revisiting must be asked. Are the templates used off-shelf?
Programming:
What kind of features are used on the website? Are they simple or complex in nature? Does it require custom programming? Is the functionality of the site complicated?
Team:
What kind of professionals are involved in the team? Are they experienced?
Content:
What is the size of the website? Does it need new content? Redesigning content usually costs less than writing fresh content. If any photography or videography is involved, the cost goes upwards.
CMS platform:
Although content management isn’t much of a factor, considering WordPress websites cheaper would be a mistake that companies providing web design and development services want you to avoid. WordPress is a good option when small and simple websites are in question. But it will not work efficiently for complex sites such as amazon.com
Results
The result derived from these efforts can vary to a larger extent. In fact, the ROI for websites can drop to negative if the site isn’t performing well. Hence, the entire cost of the site will be a loss of money. Again, website ROI can also amount to crores. It can be either from direct revenue earned from various e-commerce or from the value leads of a lead generating website.
There are multiple factors that can show variations in the return on investment for a website. We have listed five major factors that have an effect on website ROI:
The cost involved in the creation of a website
As mentioned previously in the blog, the cost of creating a website varies from one web design and development company to another. Money and hours spent in the process of creating the design and the development of the site form the baseline for the return on investment.
Maintenance cost of website
Launching a good website is not enough. There are a number of out of pocket expenses that can come up post-launch like hosting (although chances are low). The time-consuming part of the process can be in content marketing like blogs, email marketing, and social media marketing. Additionally, the advertising cost may also be high.
Traffic
The number of visitors who line up for your website and actually end up staying and interacting is a sure way of measuring success. Hence, websites that are designed with the goal of making them search engine friendly perform really well in search engines. When it comes to traffic, it is the marketing part and not the web design that is directly responsible for traffic generation.
Conversion rates
The number of visitors who take any kind of action on the website such as becoming the lead or making a purchase with the help of e-commerce, the result shows its effect. Hence, any good web design and development service will tell you that, unlike traffic, it is the web design aspect that has a direct impact on the conversion rate. However, website traffic times the conversion rate which is equal to the results.
The lifespan of the website
When we are purchasing various items such as a car, we consider its lifespan- how long we can use it in the future. But the same is not often done for a new website. Buyers of websites do not consider their lifespan when creating them or buying them.
But this has a massive impact on the return on investment. If all things are kept equal, a website is capable of generating twice the ROI by staying effective for twice its estimated period. Any good and well-built website will keep generating results for at least five years and even more. But a bad site will require redesigning within a short span of two years and sometimes even less.
To wrap things up,
The market is challenging for everyone as costs and outcomes are all kept on the same board. But we also know others who have crashed and burned. But always remember that while creating a website, saving money should not be your top priority. You wouldn’t believe how much a difference there is between a website designed for INR 10,000 and another for INR 50,000. A good site will surely produce good results. But a great site will dramatically produce better results that will generate hundreds of lakhs of rupees over time.
