Do you have a website for your cleaning business? If you don’t or maybe are considering updating your current site you might be wondering how much should you pay for a website for a cleaning business. The price of a cleaning business website can vary greatly depending on the design and what is included. In this post, we’ll cover some key factors that can influence the price of a new cleaning business website, and what features you may want on your website, and why.
Do you own the website?
If you are currently working with a website designer or marketing agency, one thing to consider is if you own the website or not. Unfortunately, one thing we commonly run into with cleaning business owners is they’ve had a website developed by someone in the past and they don’t actually own their own website.
Whenever we work with a client on a new website we make sure that they own it, not us. You don’t want to be in the situation down the road where you try and alter or change your website only to find out you don’t actually own it and have to start from scratch.
Some developers may own the rights to certain themes or high-end plugins that they use on your site. In this kind of situation, you may need to pay for those things if you move your site, but you still own your website.
You may be able to get a website done for cheap if you don’t actually own it, but this means down the road you might have to pay more to get another website built. In most cases, it’s better to pay more upfront for a site you own, instead of paying for your website twice or more in the future.
Using template websites like Square Space or Wix
Another thing to consider is using a templated website builder like Square Space or Wix. While these sites can be cheaper to set up and often are somewhat user-friendly, they do have some limitations.
For example, one thing we run into is frequently is cleaning businesses that get stuck overpaying for a website designed on one of these platforms. If you aren’t familiar with website design you might think these sites are a good option, but end up overpaying for a site made on one of these platforms.
While they can be created quickly and usually at a low cost, their lack of functionality may cause you to need to redesign your site again in the future. Typically these sites have no way of adding useful plugins that can help improve tracking, analytics, and more.
Also if you want a design that doesn’t match their cookie-cutter templates you may be out of luck. Typically we recommend using a WordPress-themed website as they tend to be the most universally used by website designers, they have advanced features, and they can scale your website with your business as it grows.
Is it a WordPress website?
Using a WordPress-based website design is typically what we recommend for most cleaning business owners. Building your website on this kind of platform, or having a developer do it for you, may be a bit more expensive, but it can help future proof your website.
Designing a website can potentially be a big investment for your cleaning business, so if you spend the money on it, you don’t want to have it become obsolete in a few years. With a WordPress website design, your website will be using one of the most common content management systems in the industry.
This will be helpful if you ever need someone to do technical work on your website because most designers and marketing agencies are familiar with working on WordPress websites. Another benefit to using a WordPress website is that it is usually better optimized to be recognized in search by search engines.
This can allow you to quickly optimize your site’s SEO, which can help you get more exposure and targeted traffic to your website. In addition to those benefits, with a WordPress website, you also can install high-end themes.
Do you have a basic or high-end website theme?
Your website theme is one of the first things people notice about your website. Having a quality theme can make your design look professional but also functional. A quality theme can’t make up for poor content, but it can make people think twice about hiring your cleaning service.
The look of your website can make people stick around and explore your site, while some can make them leave quickly. A quality theme can make your website run quickly and look professional. A poor theme could slow your website down and hurt your chances of ranking well because of it.
Website themes can range from being free to costing an annual fee. Factor this in as a part of your overall website design costs. Also depending on the theme of your website it may be easy to quickly make new pages, while others may be more of a hassle. This could increase the cost of future design changes to your website. It may even make some updates and changes impossible.
Try and find a website theme that balances professionalism with functionality to get the most from your cleaning company website.
Are you using free plugins or paid plugins?
Another aspect that can impact how much you should pay for a cleaning business website is the plugins that are installed on the website. There are thousands of potential plugins you can install on a website.
Some plugins are free and others cost money. There are also many plugins that may have a basic version that is free and an advanced version that costs money. Depending on how advanced you want your website to be, your site may require you to purchase some higher-end plugins.
Typically you don’t need to invest in these plugins immediately, but some could be worth having to make future improvements on your site easier. One plugin for example that many designers use is Thrive Architect. This plugin can help you create professional-looking landing pages on your site, which can be very helpful if you decide to run paid advertising for your cleaning business.
Another plugin worth getting is Yoast SEO. This plugin can help you to optimize the SEO on your website, which can help you attract more targeted visitors to your website. The good news is that typically you can start with the free version of this plugin, but depending on how much time and money you want to invest into improving your SEO, the paid version could be worth getting as well.
Does your website have a lot of custom coding?
If your website has custom coding as a part of its development, it could also cause the price to go up. Depending on the developer, custom coding might be how they create many of the pages on the website.
This style of website design has additional benefits, but it also may cause problems when you try and install various plugins or edit content in the future. For example, when you use custom coding it gives you the ability to design your website to look and function in ways that a general templated site cannot.
The downside to this additional specialized coding is that it can cause the price of development to grow significantly and it can make changing pages in the future more difficult.
For example, if you have minimal coding knowledge you may not be able to make website edits without messing up other aspects of your site. Simple changes may be very difficult or outright impossible without getting a developer involved.
This can lead to an increased website development fees and maintenance fees in the future. It could also cause problems if you want to change developers in the future because a new developer or marketing team may not know exactly how the previous code was written and functions. Keep this in mind for determining how much a website should cost to create for your cleaning business.
Is someone doing regular updates and backups?
One thing you want to make sure that you have set up on your cleaning business website is someone who will do regular updates and backups for your website. Most plugins and themes routinely come out with updated versions on a regular basis. You need to make sure that someone updates these parts of your website or you run the risk that parts of your site could break.
Backups take a snapshot of your website, content, and settings, on a regular basis and allow you to restore your site back to that point if something should go wrong. This is an important aspect to include in the setup and ongoing maintenance of your website.
Without backups in place, you run the risk of your site becoming useless after updates or adding new plugins or features to your website. Obviously, this doesn’t happen often, but if it ever does and you don’t have backups in place you could potentially lose years of work on your website overnight.
However, when you update your site regularly this is even less likely to happen. Plus with regular backups, if anything were to happen you can quickly restore your site to a recent functional version and lose little to no data from your website.
Often you can either have the website hosting company, website developer, or marketing agency you work with do this for you for a fee if you aren’t doing it yourself. Many developers and marketing companies tie this service into the setup cost and ongoing fees associated with your website.
Does your website design include additional content pages?
The price of your website design can increase based on the number of pages included. Some website developers create a 1-page website that includes small sections covering aspects like your service area, services, and a form to request an estimate.
Certainly, you want to have those sections on any website, but you typically want to create a unique page for each one of those topics. By doing so you can optimize each page for your ideal target keywords and this can attract more visitors through SEO.
Another thing we often see is that cleaning businesses will hire a website designer and they make content pages that have 500 words or less. It’s better than nothing, but the reality is that content pages that have a word found that small rarely generate traffic.
Google and other search engines look for pages that are much more comprehensive than a few hundred words. Not only do search engines look for comprehensive content so do potential customers.
When people visit your website they want to see that you know what you are talking about. One way to display this expertise is to have comprehensive content around the services you offer, and industries you serve.
Writing quality content that is optimized for SEO takes time and requires a specialized skill set and knowledge. It also helps to have content made from a developer or marketing agency that knows what they are talking about. Many companies can make a nice-looking website, but writing relevant content is another story.
The amount of content included and the quality of content can raise the price of getting a website for a cleaning business.
Is ongoing maintenance included?
Technical support can be extremely time-consuming and can potentially be very expensive as well. Ongoing maintenance and technical support could increase the price significantly of a website if it is included in the price.
Some website tech support specialists can charge up to $100 an hour for their services. Depending on how challenging an issue you may encounter these service fees can add up quickly. Knowing you have someone to support any technical issues on the back end of your website can give you great peace of mind.
If tech support isn’t included for your website you run the risk of trying to hire someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. Hiring the wrong person could make the issue worse. You may even hire someone you think can fix the issue but find out they can’t, and you’ll have to hire an additional person to try and fix your site.
These additional fees can add up quickly raising the cost of a website for your cleaning business. When calculating the cost of a website, be sure to include the potential hidden fees when using a website developer without tech support included.
Does the website package include marketing?
A final thing to consider is if the website package you are buying includes marketing. Having a quality website isn’t enough to attract a flood of new customers to your website.
You need a combination of a quality website and marketing to really create an effective online presence for your cleaning business. Look at your website like a racecar and marketing like fuel.
You could buy the fastest car out there, but without the fuel in the tank, the car isn’t going to go anywhere. It’s the same with your online presence. Having a great website helps, but if no one comes there or the right people don’t come, it isn’t going to lead to new cleaning clients.
Some developers only offer a website, while others offer both a high-quality website and marketing. Our philosophy is to get the proper professional-looking website in place as a foundation, and then to drive targeted traffic to it with marketing.
Using this combination we are able to help clients build a professional online presence that also converts into new leads and cleaning clients. Understand that if you just want a website you can do that, but without a solid marketing plan to promote it, you likely won’t see the kind of results you are hoping for.
If you don’t have an effective cleaning business marketing plan, we recommend hiring an agency that can develop your website and handle marketing.
Conclusion
Overall, there are several factors that can increase the cost of a cleaning business website. Most people don’t realize all that actually goes into the design and creation of a quality website for a cleaning business. Knowing what features you want to include and what ones aren’t a priority for you can determine the overall cost of your website.
When building your website try and avoid template builders like Squarespace or Wix. If possible go for a website that is WordPress-based. Also, consider if your website is going to have a lot of custom coding or not. This could raise the price of your website as well.
Themes and plugins included in your website are other things to consider that can raise the price of your website. Depending on how professional and how functional you want your website to be, can help determine what theme and plugins you’ll include in your website design.
Also, ask yourself how much content do you want on your new website? Content marketing is a powerful strategy to grow your cleaning business so having that built into your website design can help your business grow faster.
Something else you may want to look for that could increase the cost of a website is having someone to do regular backups, update plugins, and provide ongoing maintenance and tech support. This can be essential to keep your website running smoothly, and is often worth the added cost.
Finally, decide if you want a website package that includes marketing or not. While this can increase the price of your website, it will also maximize your results. Having a website isn’t enough you also need targeted visitors to come to your site. This is where marketing comes into play and is essential to your long-term success with your website.