The question most people want answered first, but realistically you need to know answers to every other question first before a quote can be close to accurate.

A better way of asking is “what’s your website worth to your business?”.

A website’s worth is severely limited if it’s not integrated with your online and offline business. So “building a website” is a somewhat futile process unless the people who build it “know” business well, especially your business.

Think about what you spend in marketing and advertising costs – how much does it cost you to get your print advertising message spot on? And yet so many people think a website costs a few thousand dollars and it will magically start pushing never-before-seen levels of sales inquiry to you. It just doesn’t work that way.

The “smarts” are in the approach and the strategy and the sales process – a beautiful site is useless if it misses its intended market.

And you need to understand this isn’t a “build it and they will come” exercise. After you’ve built the site you will need to continue to work on the business case and measure and refine just like any other ad/marketing medium.

Of course, using a professional firm like Kook means you will get to that end a lot faster than a cheaper solution, but nevertheless you should be prepared to roll up your sleeves for the long-term because there’s no silver bullet.

Is your website 2 years or older? Here's some important information on how soon you should be looking to have it redesigned.

While the industry standard in website development is to update your website design every 2 to 3 years, there really is no hard and fast rule. Some website designs last far longer than 3 years, and some seem outdated within a few months of being published.

There are 6 questions to ask if you’re unsure if your website should be redesigned.

1. Is your website a positive for your brand?
   Does it show your brand off in the best light? Does it have confidence triggers and key messages that reflect the best attributes of your business?
2. How easy is it to update and maintain your website?  Is your content management system (CMS) easy to use? Does your site require lots of updates to components like themes and plugins? If you’re finding it difficult to keep your website updated, it may be worth considering redesigning the site as you also redevelop into a more modern content management system that is easier for you to use.
    
3. How well does your website rank organically for your most important keywords? Can you find your website in the free search results on Google?  Your site’s development environment may cause SEO issues that are difficult or expensive to solve in its current setup. Redesigning your website and setting it up in a new development environment may kill two birds with one stone.   
    
4. How well does your site convert? Do visitors to your website result in enquiries / phone calls / transactions more often than not? Does it seem like you’re sending paid traffic to your site only to see it go to waste? Redesigning your website with an intention of improving the conversion rate (the rate at which a website session results in an important action) may be the best way forward.
    
5. How forward thinking is your website design? Does the site look like it was designed recently, or does it stand out for all the wrong reasons? How does it look on newer mobile devices, tablets, laptops or big screens? All of these are important factors in determining if your website will still look good years from now. 
    
6. How does your website compare to your competition? Do any of your competitors have cooler, slicker looking websites with more modern features? Your website is a direct reflection of your online reputation, and your competitors can easily take advantage of an outdated or poorly designed site.

If you’re unsure if your website needs to be redesigned and are looking for some recommendations on website redesign, contact the website design experts at Kook for a free assessment of your website.

This is something that is relatively easy to nail down. It will usually be somewhere between $200 and $600 per year and depends largely the amount of traffic your site has, technologies used and hardware. However the big difference between providers is the level, and type, of support you receive.

It is paramount that the platform you choose has the ability to evolve as your business evolves. The import questions are: how scalable if the platform for growth, how easy is it to customise, does it have the ability to integrate with other business systems and what are the likely ongoing costs for the platform (eg security patches).