“How much does it cost to build a website in Nigeria?” It is a question that I’m asked quite often by potential clients. I have addressed it here for the benefit of all.
Building a website is like building a house. The type of building you construct depends on several factors, e.g. your budget, taste, the quality of your building materials.
So in this article, we’ll list few items to add to your budget. However, it is important to note that the cost of building a website depends on the complexity of its implementation. For example, a simple 5-page business website will usually cost much less to build compared to web applications like eCommerce websites, a social network sites, or betting websites.
This means that there is no fixed cost for building a website. The cost of building websites vary widely. One may cost 100,000 Naira ($280) to build while another could cost up to $1 billion.
When building your website, you need to consider several factors. Let us look at what goes into the cost of building a website in Nigeria.
1. Cost of Web Hosting & Domain Name
A website needs to be hosted on a server connected to the internet. You need to pay a web hosting service to house your website on the web.
You can also buy your own server and run things in-house, however this is very expensive and only recommended when absolutely necessary.
For most people securing the services of a web hosting company is the only way to go as it is more cost effective. Payment is billed monthly but you can also pay every six months or annually.
Web hosting is a recurrent cost. Your web designer may incorporate the hosting cost for the first year in the initial cost of designing the website. So, you have to budget for hosting every year.
What you pay for a website depends on the resource requirement of the website like number of expected visitors, CPU usage, RAM requirement, etc. For example, hosting this blog costs around $503 per year (about ₦191,000) including cost of CDN.
2. Cost of Content Creation
Before the actual design of the website, you need to think long and hard about why you want to build the website. This will enable you determine what you want to share with the world.
Do not expect the web designer to tell your story for you. You know your business better than anyone else. So, you should be some how involved in the process.
Though, you know your business well, you may need a professional copywriter to help craft a compelling message. Depending on what you need, you could get a copywriter for as little as $5 per hour to over $1000 per hour.
In Nigeria, you could get a copy written for 5000 Naira to 50,000 Naira per page, depending on what you want and the level of skills required.
However, sometimes, when building a website (especially business/company websites), the web designer will incorporate the cost of copywriting in the quote.
Content creation also include the media that will be on the website like the logo, images, animations, and videos. You may need to hire professionals to help you out with some these services or you could rely on your web designer to handle them at a cost.
When you get a quote from your web designer, it is a good idea to find out if content creation is included in the cost and if yes which ones.
However, you need to be involved in the process. You need to supply materials needed for the content creation. There may also be a need to interview you to understand your business. This will enable the copywriter to write a more compelling message.
Here are a summary estimate of cost of content creation
- Copywriting – $10 to $1000 (per page)
- Logo Design – $20 to $300
- Marketing Video – $10 to $1000
- Animation Videos – $20 to $5000
3. Cost of the Web Design Work
If you are using a web designer, you should have to budget for the cost of the web design service. If you do not have a logo already, you also need to budget for a logo design.
This can be done for a fee by the web designer or you can pay a graphic designer to design a logo for your website.
Then you need some initial content on your website. The web designer can do this for you or you can do it yourself, or you can employ a copywriter or/and an SEO consultant to write compelling web copies for your website that will be search engine friendly and draw sales to your business.
An SEO will also ensure that the structure and layout of your website is search engine friendly as well as help you develop strategies that will increase website traffic.
Some plug-ins may also be required to add some unique features you are demanding. So, the more features you want on your business website the steeper the cost of design and development.
Note that a web designer will have in his team or experts network, professionals who can help in all the components of web design enumerated here. So, you can rely on your web designer for these services.
Cost of web design for a standard 5-page website can range from $500 to $5,000. In Nigeria designing a 5-page business website should cost you from 350,000 Naira.
4. Cost of Website Promotion
This one is ignored by most businesses. Some businesses think that once they design a website, the millions of people on the internet will just start trooping in.
Well, as at September 2020 there were at least 5.29 billion pages in the indexed web according to worldwidewebsize.com. All these pages are seeking the attention of the 4.5 billion people who currently have internet access according to internetworldstats.com.
You need to allocate some budget for website promotion. For example, you can use search marketing to promote your new website on search engines (like Google Adwords).
You can also use social media marketing to promote your website on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp. You can pay an SEO and/or SMM consultants to help with these. Offline promotions are not out of place.
You should also allocate money to update your business cards and other printed materials to include your new website. This simply depends on your budget.
You can decide to ignore it completely, but it could be a big mistake. We recommend allocating at least $100 (45,000 Naira) per month to this cost component.
The beauty of online promotions is that you can easily track performance. This will enable you experiment to see what works and what doesn’t.
5. Cost of Website Management & Maintenance
This is another cost component ignored by some businesses. Building a website is not a one-off thing; you need to allocate money for its management and maintenance.
You need to connect your offline business to your website. So, any change in your business like new products, price updates, job vacancies, business expansion, etc should be reflected on your website.
This also means that after the initial web design you still need to update your website when necessary. You can do this yourself, employ someone else to do it for you, or outsource the service to the web designer or a copywriter.
If your website includes a blog, you may even need updates more often. Similarly, you can employ the web designer, a blogger or a copywriter to help out, or you can do it in-house.
A website at some point will need to be redesigned or upgraded. For example, you can start with a static website, but with plans to upgrade to a more versatile website with CMS in some months or years. You may just want to change the layout or structure to reflect your new brand status.
6. Cost of SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is part of the ongoing maintenance of your website. I decided to give it its own heading to emphasis its importance.
It is all about making your website rank better on search engines like Google. SEO is one of the most important ways to drive traffic and visitors to your website.
SEO is a recurrent cost. It cost you anywhere between $250 to $10,000 monthly to get SEO services. Part of the services will include regular SEO Audit, as well as technical SEO, link building, and keyword research.
So, What is the Cost of Building Websites
I am sure you came here looking for a specific price, but the cost of building websites differ widely as each website is unique in its own way. While one may cost $1000 dollars, another may cost $3000.
My recommendation if you are planning to build a website is that you allocate at least $300 for the initial design and $250 per year for annual maintenance. Or if you are in Nigeria, ₦150,000 for initial design work and ₦50,000 annual maintenance cost.
The cost guideline above is for the simplest of websites. If you want to add some bells and whistles, be ready to pay more.
Note that the annual maintenance cost will not include items like marketing, SEO, content updates, etc
Note that these are the rock bottom prices for the most basic of websites in 2021. The actual cost will depend on the type of hosting your website requires and the skill level of the professionals you wish to engage in the project.
