A Guide to Website Expenses Part 1: Upfront Costs

Building a website can be intimidating, especially when you don’t know what you need to budget for. There are many options available at different price points, so how do you know which one to go with? Do all options cover the full cost, or will you get hit with surprise expenses you weren’t expecting?

Understanding which parts of a website build have associated costs will help you budget appropriately and make the right choice for your business.

Upfront costs are one-off or infrequent investments to budget for to get a website up and running. If you choose lower-cost options, they will often require a greater investment of your time.

Domain Name Registration

Your domain name is the unique address people use to access your website and email. It can also be beneficial to have multiple domains registered.

Outsourcing registration and management of your domains does increase the cost you will need to pay but provides peace of mind that there won’t be issues, and you can focus your time and energy on your business.

As of 2026 our domain registration and management fee is $66+GST for two years. Enquire today about registering your domain.

Initial SEO Setup

To get the most out of your ongoing SEO you need to put thought into the setup and structure. Doing an audit of your current website and analytics – and comparing it with competitors’ websites – can help point you in the right direction.

DIY options

You can use tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, and Ahrefs to get the raw data about your website’s search results. This can be useful if you’ve worked with SEO before – or are willing to put in the time to research what everything means. This can help you identify which keywords to focus on moving forward.

Once you have an idea of what you’re ranking for and what your customers are searching, you can start to plan an SEO-focused sitemap with pages and content that make sense to your audience. Include content like page titles and meta descriptions in your planning.

Paid options

Agencies offering SEO will have a product where they provide a full SEO audit of your site and industry with a detailed report explaining their findings in plain language. It will include recommendations for you to follow based on who your audience is and what they’re looking for. A full report can be completed before you even get a quote for the website design and build as it can inform functionality and number of pages.

Your web design agency then uses the report and its findings to put together the sitemap and website plan. Choosing an agency that has prior experience with your industry is beneficial as they will already have some knowledge about your audience and more relevant suggestions.

Our SEO setup options include information hubs targeting focused keywords, an SEO action plan, and a site wide linking strategy.

Website Design & Development

Costs vary based on complexity, how much development work is required, as well as if you need extra modules – eCommerce, booking systems, or membership systems.

Low-cost range

These are template sites built by you using a DIY website builder. You may choose a free template, pay for a premium template, or use a platform with a subscription model and more ongoing costs.

You will likely spend between $0-$500 on template cost but your main upfront investment is the time spent putting it together and learning what you need to do.

Additionally, many of these templates have extra code or pages that you don’t need because they’re trying to accommodate as many people as possible. This excess code can affect page speed down the line and extra pages can affect SEO.

Mid-cost range

These are informational or basic eCommerce sites built for you by a professional web design team using a content management system (CMS). They might use templates or create a customised design based on your needs. All modules used will already exist without the need for customisation of function.

You can expect to spend between $2,000-$7,000 on the design and development with the exact price being dependent on the number of pages and what functionality you want the site to have.

High-cost range

These are websites with specialised functionality or large amounts of design required. If you have a vague idea about the goal of your website but need help fleshing out how it will come together, we recommend getting a functional specification done first. This allows you to plot out what you need the website to have and can organise the website development into stages.

Membership systems, booking systems, and complex eCommerce websites all fall under this price range due to the number of moving parts and personalisation required.

Websites in this range are $7,000+ towards the design and development cost with many being around the $15,000+ mark.

Content Creation

You can’t have a website without any content – text, images, videos, and documents. At minimum you need text, and some images.

DIY options

You can invest more of your time to plan and create content yourself. Writing out text yourself has no monetary cost but can be time-consuming, and taking your own photos can require purchasing appropriate lighting and backdrops. You can also find images you want to use online, but you need to ensure they are licensed under Creative Commons.

AI-generated images are getting more popular and are accessible to the public – but they can be incredibly controversial with some people avoiding your business altogether if they notice an image used is AI. If you choose this route, we recommend avoiding it for any of your product images because it degrades trust in the quality of your products if you don’t have any real photos.

Paid options

If you’re happy to trade time spent for monetary cost, you can hire a copywriter, purchase stock images & video, or hire a photographer.

Copywriters

Website copywriters work with online content every day and already have a good understanding of how to write for your audience and what information is important to include, both for user experience (UX) and search engine optimisation (SEO). We offer copywriting services as an addition to your website build with costs based on time.

Stock Images

These are professionally created photos, videos, illustrations, and icons that are made available for many people to purchase. These can be purchased individually or through a subscription model that gives you access to download a set number of assets over a period of time. Our website design cost covers the use of stock photos from our access library.

Photographers

Hiring someone to take photos of your team, products, or services gives you the best results that line up exactly with your business. Having high quality photos of your team puts faces to your names and increases trust potential clients have in you. This is particularly useful for niche industries where they may not be as many stock image options for you to use, as well as businesses that create a visual final product – like builders.

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The initial costs required to get a new website live depends on the type of site, the functionality required, and its size. There are cheaper DIY options for each expense, but you pay more in your own time spent and a good agency brings experience and expertise to guide you through the process. You can choose to manage your budget by doing a mix of paid and DIY options, or asking your web design & development agency if you can use a payment plan.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where we explore the ongoing costs you need to think about for when your site is live including: hosting, domain renewal, maintenance & security, updates, SEO & marketing, and third-party tools.

Contact us today to discuss your business and its website needs for a quote.

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