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Website Costs

Let's start by being clear and define what we're talking about in this article.

The formula for "cost" for this discussion is [H*V+$out-$return=Cost] or [The hours you spend on your site--H] x [The value of your time--V] + [How much $ you put into the site -- $out] - [How much $ the site brings you --$return]
If that formula returns a negative value, the your cost was that much LESS than nothing.
In other words if you get a poorly designed site that takes your money with no return, then every dollar you spend on it plus the value of your time is "cost."
If you have a Silk Shorts, Inc. site you can spend your time in front of buyers and sellers intead of the computer. Whatever $ you put into it is not cost, but investment in growing your business.

What is almost impossible to quantify is how much your business benefits from users' perception of you as a result of your having a quality, custom website. It's like trying to quantify how much your business benefits from your driving a new BMW or Lexus instead of an old beat up Chevy?

OK, with that said, let me give you an idea of how to determine how much of your advertising budget should be committed to a top notch website.

I wish I could model this part of our site like Dell Computers® does theirs. They take you through a series of steps honing in on your needs and budget screen by screen to finally end up with just the right computer and extra features that you've chosen. Out of thousands of possibilities this leads you to the right choice and a specific price.

Alas, if I spent the time to create that sort of site I'd never be free to build you a great website because all of our sites are custom. (In case you are wondering, "custom" is not a synonym for "expensive")

We do have a breakdown of some features where you can get an idea of their costs. However, t's like an "a la carte" menu and the cost of a site that includes features on this list is going to be less than if you added the separate prices of each individual feature. Kind of like the difference between buying a car complete or buying all of its components separately.

When you want us to hone in on your unique situation give us a call or send an email. We're always happy to talk to you even if you just want to clarify a point and don't really want to commit to anything, yet. If you call we'll talk about your present site, or one you are planning, ideas you have, what you've heard or read about, costs of things that are not in our list and so on. If you need something we don't have or can't do, we'll try to steer you in the right direction.

We don't do template sites. In our opinion they are the most expensive even though they may be priced very cheap. The cheaper in price they are the more they cost. Here's why:

Prospects are shopping for a competent, successful broker or agent. They know a template site when they see one.
Template sites suck up your time. You either have to make changes yourself or fight to get their customer support to make them.
Template sites usually have links that feed your visitors to other sites where they are lost to you.
Template sites seldom have well thought out calls to action to get you inquiries.
Template sites are not "search engine friendly" and are designed to snag you, yourself, not Internet prospects for you.
If you send your existing clients and sphere of influence to this sort of site, you might actually lose some of them to your competition--especially if your competition has a great site like a Silk Shorts, Inc. site (ahem).

Here's the way we normally acquire a new client:

95% of the time a present client refers them to us since, from 1996 to the present, we have done no advertising other than having this website.
We get a call asking about someone's site that we've done and how much it would cost to do a site like it.
We answer questions and explain about what we do and what the last 13 years of doing real estate sites has taught us.
We create a quote based on these conversations and send it to our new prospective client along with a Terms and Conditions document to spell out everything.
Our new client sends a deposit with a signed contract.
When we receive this and any other material that we need from the new client (pictures, articles, bio, etc) we schedule production. Production takes two to three weeks in most cases.
The first step in production is to create a graphic mock-up and place it on line where our client can see it and where we can discuss it together. When our client approves the mock-up we go to the next step.
We create the secondary pages as agreed and configure the site's source code to be "search engine friendly" so that when the search engines visit the site it is easy for them to index. This includes title, description and keyword meta tags as well as:

Standards compliant coding and layout
An HTML site map for human visitors
An XML site map for search engines "robots" (tells them which pages are most important and how often they should be checked for changes)

If the client wants to upgrade the site to use PPC (Pay per Click) to jump start their flow of prospects or SEO (search engine optimization) to raise the site's position on Google and other engines, we begin a program including all or some of the following depending on an assesment of the site, the marketing goals and the budget.

Upgrade or create listings in Google Maps and other directories that have a geographical focus adding key words, services, alternate addresses, pictures, etc.
If the site is not a Silk Shorts, Inc. site, review and upgrade the relevant code, meta tags, HTM sitemap and XML sitemap.
Create "landing pages" that will be the destination of advertising links for PPC. Thus a searcher looking for "La Jolla condominiums" will go directly to a page that is all about La Jolla condominiums instead of some generic home page, and that has search links and "signup links" as well as other calls to action.
Using client supplied information to determine their most important services we then compile a list of from 300 to 1000 key words and phrases to use with Google Adwords, and then we set up campaigns to get PPC traffic to the designated "landing pages."
We set the campaign/s up so that they may be paused so that the daily spend limit can be easily changed on a moment's notice. This saves wasting money when on vacation or when incoming leads cannot be quickly serviced.
With the ad spending limits set, the client makes a deposit directly to Adwords and normally that deposit is replenished by credit card when the balance falls below a set limit. The spend can be stopped at any time on a few minutes notice.

After the PPC is set up we begin the SEO which is a long term program that increases the "strength" of the site (in search engine eyes) so that it can comptete with business competitors for the key words and phrases that will produce the most results in the "organic" (non-paid) searches.

Our charges for PPC consist of a one time setup charge and then, if the client desires, a monthly charge to monitor the campaign. Often, after setup, client staff can keep track of the campaigns just calling on Silk Shorts when there is a problem or a change in staff.

Our charges for SEO will vary with how much and how fast the work is to be done. Most SEO campaigns take from three to six months to be effective (this varies considerably) so there is no point in overspending up front. We work out a monthly budget for this.