Ongoing Website Costs - The Definitive Guide
Beyond the upfront cost of building a website, there are ongoing costs that you need to be aware of and budget for accordingly, as our guide explains in detail
Updated 26 September 2024
Summary
We cover:
Warning: Australia has many self-proclaimed 'experts' when it comes to SEO, running online adverts and other marketing efforts. Business owners all over Australia are routinely taken advantage of due to the fact a lot of online services have no standard delivery or consistency. Furthermore, there are horror stories for aggressive payment chasing - this example is one of many. Always check the provider's references and reviews in detail before agreeing to any service, and get the maximum cost per month in writing, so there is no misunderstanding.
Summary
- There are three essential ongoing costs - domain name renewal, website hosting and an SSL certificate.
- Everything else is optional. The more effort you put into your website, the greater the results.
- Many Australian businesses have begun to run Google and Facebook adverts. Unless done correctly with expert targeting, the campaigns risk being a huge waste of money with no returns.
- Our guide explains ten ongoing costs to be aware of. While most are optional, they still have benefits if taken up.
We cover:
Warning: Australia has many self-proclaimed 'experts' when it comes to SEO, running online adverts and other marketing efforts. Business owners all over Australia are routinely taken advantage of due to the fact a lot of online services have no standard delivery or consistency. Furthermore, there are horror stories for aggressive payment chasing - this example is one of many. Always check the provider's references and reviews in detail before agreeing to any service, and get the maximum cost per month in writing, so there is no misunderstanding.
Monthly Costs
Other than website hosting, most of the costs below are optional, but many business owners consider them despite the high costs. We explain what you need to know before going ahead with any service.
1. Website Hosting
- Background and estimated cost: For your website to be accessible online, it must be ‘hosted’ on a server. Hosting companies provide this service and charge anywhere between $10 and $100+ a month for most Australian small businesses websites. If you’re using a website builder such as Squarespace or Weebly, your hosting will be included in the monthly subscription fee.
- More information: Our guide to website hosting in Australia reviews all the major hosting providers. Websites developed by Small Business Web Designs are hosted exclusively on our server. This gives you 24/7 access to edit and update your website with a simple interface that’s as easy to use as email or Word.
2. SEO
- Background and estimated cost: SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ and is a specialist service that helps a website appear higher up in Google. Of course, a good website will appear on Google on merit.
- Still, many Australian businesses consider SEO a must-have expense to boost the visibility of their website and generate more leads. Costs start from around $1,000 + GST per month, and many specialists require an upfront commitment of 3-6 months.
- More information: Our guide to SEO has 10+ DIY tips to help your website perform well in Google without the need to engage a separate service. We also recommend talking to a specialist provider such as (INSERT), to who our team refers clients given their track record of delivery.
3. Newsletter Apps
- Background and estimated cost: Email newsletter apps like Mailchimp charge a monthly fee which grows as your email list size grows. If you’re looking to engage with your customers more by email, these services are a perfect way to do so in a time-efficient way.
- Your website is a perfect place to gather signups from browsers, and any web designer will be able to integrate a signup form into your website’s code. A monthly fee should start at $0 but can quickly climb to $100+ if your list grows to several thousand addresses.
- More information: There are free options and paid options, both with pros and cons. We suggest reading this helpful review of current newsletter services to give you an idea of the features and the cost.
4. Social Media Marketing
- Background and estimated cost: Many Australian businesses are embracing social media to promote their products and services at a low price. Of course, the time investment to set up can be significant, and there are a few nuances to understand to get it right, but the ROI can make it worthwhile in the long run. It's difficult to estimate the costs and we suggest reading the guides listed below to understand what's required.
- More information: The best way to learn what to do is by following this guide about setting up social media for your business, with Facebook explain in detail.
5. Google Adwords and Facebook Adverts
- Background and estimated cost: These costs need to be budgeted if you plan to advertise to bring people to your website. Google charges you every time someone clicks on an advert that appears in their search results. This can be a few cents or several dollars, depending on what you’re advertising and what keywords you’ve targeted. For most business owners, Google Adwords is unfamiliar.
- Facebook adverts follow a slightly different model and focus on the demographic or audience rather than keywords.
- To make any measurable impact on sales, you'll need to commit to at least $500 of advert spent a month to see results.
- More information: Our guide to Google Adwords explains how it works. It’s not without its risks – this story from the SMH explains how business owners can invest thousands and not get one sale.
- Know this: Unless you plan to rely on free traffic from Google and Facebook posts, you’ll need to budget for per-click or per-impression costs. If you need an external agency to run it for you, there’s an additional cost involved.
6. Apps (appointment booking, shipping etc)
- Background and estimated cost: Many businesses use apps on their website, such as booking/calendar services. These are usually charged as a monthly subscription and need to be paid upfront to keep the app functional on your website, and start from around $15/month for a simple setup.
- More information: We’re currently preparing a guide to optional apps covering what’s currently popular for the Australian. In the meantime, we suggest looking at a review for Timely and Ovatu, which are both popular appointment bookings apps.
7. Payment processing fees (for eCommerce websites)
- Background and estimated cost: Australian businesses primarily use Stripe or PayPal for online payments. The fees are around 2% to 3% of your transaction, which means if you sell something for $100, you’ll receive around $97 in your bank account. Unfortunately, there’s no way to avoid this cost (unless you limit payments to bank account only), and it needs to be budgeted for in your pricing.
- Know This: Helpfully, these payment apps deduct their fee upfront during each sale, so you don’t need to provision to pay a bill at the end of the month.
8. Website editing (if you’re hiring a third party to do it)
- Background and estimated cost: Many Australian businesses despair at the high costs of engaging their web developer to update their website. For this reason alone, it’s best to have a website that gives you or anyone at your business self-management access. This way, you have full control over making updates, creating new pages and everything else you want to change on your website.
- Too often, a web developer moves on, retirees or stops supporting their clients, which means frustrating delays chasing updates. Furthermore, if your web design agency controls access to the website, updates will be charged at an hourly rate. This can be as much as $150/hour (or more) for the simplest tasks, which we think is unfair to hard-working Australian businesses.
- As an alternative, self-management access to a website is guaranteed to protect your business from unplanned costs, delays and hassle. You log in, make the edits you need and publish the changes whenever you like without any costs or hassle.
- More information: Our guide to self-editing indicates how simple it is to use a drag-and-drop style website tool. Furthermore, we’ve had not an insignificant amount of clients who have previously had bad experiences with their old web design agency when it comes to organising edits. In the interests of full disclosure, our approach is always to give clients self-management access and an optional paid editing service should this be preferred.
9. Business email hosting
- Background and estimated cost: If you want an email address connected to your domain, for example, [email protected], it's a separate service called business email hosting. There are free services, but most cost around $5+ per month per email address. If you need a few email addresses, the costs can quickly add up per month. For example, if you need six email addresses, that's a cost of at least $360+ a year.
- More information: Our guide to business email website hosting in Australia reviews all the major email hosting providers and outlines their features, costs, pros and cons.
Annual Costs
Beyond the monthly costs (of which many are optional), there are some essential annual costs:
1. Domain name registration and renewal
- Background and estimated cost: Your domain is essential to your website and needs to be protected by being renewed year after year. A .com.au domain can cost between $20 and $75 per year per domain. We always suggest an Australian domain for an Australian-focused business, even if it’s more expensive than a .com or .net address. You can register a domain for between 1-5 years, although the pricing is rarely discounted if you buy multiple years.
- More information: Our guide to domains explains everything you need to know about choosing a domain, optional add-ons and what to do when it comes to renewal.
2. SSL
- Background and estimated cost: Google prefers websites that display as HTTPS rather than HTTP, and to have that, your website needs an SSL certificate. These are usually sold by your domain registrar or hosting provider and cost between $45 and $200 per year.
- More information: Our guide to SSL explains everything you need to know about our SSL service. Google also publishes some easy-to-follow guidance around SSL and why they prefer websites that have it. Specifically, their statement "we encourage you to adopt HTTPS in order to protect your users' connections to your website, regardless of the content on the site" makes a strong case to adopt SSL.
Frequently Asked Questions
I was quoted $50 a month for hosting, but I see I can get it for $10. What's the difference, and what should I get?
Most small and medium-sized Australian businesses use shared hosting to keep their website online for a Sydney web design. Shared hosting is the cheapest, and it's perfectly suitable for a website that gets between 1-500 visitors a day. Hosting companies may suggest you get a dedicated server or pay for superior service. Still, the reality is that for most businesses, this is a waste of money when shared hosting services are perfectly sufficient.
Our guide to website hosting has more details about what's on offer.
Our guide to website hosting has more details about what's on offer.
Can I get a domain for free?
Yes, but it will usually be a .com and provided by a paid hosting package. Very few companies offer free .com.au domains, so this means free domains aren't traditionally offered to Australian businesses. Our guide to domain costs outlines pricing and inclusions in Australia.
Can I get free business email?
Yes - Zoho offers a free service, but there are limitations. If you're prepared to pay around $5-10 monthly, many other options have responsive support and added features.
Our guide to business email hosting has more details about what's on offer.
Our guide to business email hosting has more details about what's on offer.
If I pay for SEO, am I guaranteed top results in Google?
No - and be careful with anyone who tells you they will deliver #1 results. SEO takes time, dedication and there are no guarantees.
How much should I pay for SEO?
The answer depends on what you want to achieve and what industry you operate in. Unfortunately, we can't answer this with any pricing information given the complexity. Hence, we suggest contacting 2-3 SEO providers, explaining your goals, and comparing the quotes and service before making any decision.
