Shayan Ahmed
How much does a website cost in Milton Keynes?
Real numbers, on the page, rather than a form that says request a quote. Here is what I charge and what makes each number move.
Most web designers will not put prices up, which makes it hard to work out whether you are being quoted fairly. I would rather you knew before you got in touch, so that if the numbers are wrong for you, neither of us has spent an afternoon finding that out.
What things cost
A small business website
From £500- Design and build from scratch, not a template with your logo on it.
- A page for each service you offer, because that is how people search.
- The copy written for you, in the words a customer would use.
- Mobile and speed sorted, which is most of your traffic and most of your ranking.
- Basic SEO and your Google Business Profile set up at launch.
- Enquiry form, phone number and WhatsApp wired up.
- Domain and hosting set up in your name.
What moves itHow many pages, how much of the content I am writing, and whether you need anything beyond a brochure site. Five pages for a trade sits near the bottom. A shop with a page per product sits well above it.
An online shop or booking site
From £1,500- Everything above, plus the part that takes money or bookings.
- Products, prices and stock that you can change yourself.
- Payments, or enquiry paths where a conversation makes more sense.
What moves itHow many products, whether stock has to stay in step with a shop you already run, and what happens after someone orders.
A CRM or internal system
From £1,500- Built around how you already work rather than making you change to fit it.
- Jobs, quotes, customers, stock, whatever the business actually runs on.
- Yours, on your own hosting, with your data exportable at any time.
What moves itEntirely what it has to do. This is the one where the honest answer is that I need one conversation before I can give you a number.
Looking after it
From £200 a month- Hosting, updates, security and backups.
- Fixes and small changes whenever you need them.
- Ongoing SEO rather than a one-off at launch.
- A plain monthly note showing enquiries and where they came from.
What moves itWhat there is to look after. This is optional: you can take the site and host it elsewhere, and plenty of people do.
Google Ads
Management fee on top of your budget- Conversion tracking set up before anything goes live.
- Campaigns aimed at searches that turn into work.
- Your budget, in your own Google account, paid straight to Google.
What moves itYour budget is yours and I do not mark it up. What to spend depends on your trade and how competitive the search is locally.
These are floors, not quotes. Tell me what you need and you will get one number for the build and one for the month, in writing, before I start.
How payment works
- Half up front, half when the site goes live.
- One fixed price, agreed in writing before any work starts.
- No hourly billing, so a slow week is my problem and not your invoice.
- If the job grows beyond what we agreed, you get a new number to approve before I do it.
Six questions to ask anyone quoting you
Including me. Ask these of every quote you are comparing and the differences between them stop being a mystery.
- Do I own the website outright?
- Some monthly deals are closer to renting. Ask what happens to the site if you stop paying, and get the answer in writing. With me you own it from the start, including the domain and the hosting account.
- Whose name is the domain in?
- It should be yours. A domain registered in a supplier's name is the single most common way a small business gets stuck with someone they have outgrown.
- What is the total over three years?
- A low monthly and a low up-front price are different shapes, not different amounts. Multiply the monthly by 36 and add the setup, for every quote you are comparing including mine.
- What exactly is in the monthly fee?
- Hosting and the odd text change is a very different thing from hosting, SEO, ads tracking and reporting. Two quotes with the same number can be two completely different jobs.
- Who writes the content?
- A cheap quote often assumes you will supply every word. That is fine if you have time, and a real cost if you do not.
- What happens when I want a change in a year?
- Ask what it costs and how quickly. This is where the difference between a one-off build and someone who stays shows up.
What that money actually buys
Two Milton Keynes businesses, both live, both still looked after by me.
ITO Phone Tech
Phone repair and resale · Bletchley, Milton Keynes
500+ new customers through the shop in the three months since the work started, and still climbing.
itophonetech.comQuestions
- How much does a website cost in Milton Keynes?
- From £500 for a straightforward small business site, fixed before work starts. Most small business sites in the area sit somewhere between £500 and a couple of thousand depending on size and whether there is a system behind it. Anyone quoting without asking what you need is guessing.
- Why do quotes vary so much?
- Because the word website covers everything from a one-page template to a shop with stock control behind it. The questions above are the fastest way to work out whether two quotes are actually for the same job.
- Is a cheap monthly deal a bad idea?
- Not necessarily. If it spreads the cost and you genuinely own what you are paying for, it can suit a business that would rather not pay up front. The things to check are ownership and the three-year total, which is why they are on the list above.
- Do I have to pay the monthly fee?
- No. The build is a one-off and you can take the site and host it wherever you like. The monthly is for people who want it kept current, the SEO carried on and somebody to ring.
- What if I need more later?
- It gets quoted separately so you are never billed for something you did not agree to. The site is built so it can grow rather than needing replacing.
- How long does it take?
- Two to four weeks for most small business sites, from the first conversation to going live. Anything with a system behind it takes longer and you get a date before you commit.
Get a fixed price
The numbers above are Pakistan and UAE, because that is where I am. WhatsApp costs you nothing to message from the UK and it is the fastest way to reach me: I reply within a day, and I answer these myself.