Estimating the cost of a new website in Dubai is more difficult than you would imagine. Why? Well, like many custom produced products, there are a large number of variables that need to be considered. In this article, we'll consider these variables in order to break down the elements which add to the cost.
| Website Item / Feature | What is this? | Impact on the cost |
| Number of pages | A simple metric, but how many pages will your site include? If you have a large number of pages, but all within a very similar template, the cost may be less than if this was not the case. | General rule of thumb: The more pages, the higher the design cost |
| Mobile Optimization | All sites should be mobile optimized by default and if your development agency is charging more for this, they shouldn't be! | No impact on cost unless very specific mobile requirements are specified |
| Content Management System? | If you require a website that you or your team can manage without technical help, you will need a content management system (often referred to as a "CMS") on your website. The CMS will save you money on maintenance and administration in the future. | There will be a cost for the CMS, but this will vary based on other website features and technical difficulty of what is required. |
| Social Media Integration | Would you like your website visitors to share you site's content on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Twitter? If so, this is what you need. | Implementation is much easier than was previously the case. Therefore, any charges for this should be kept to a minimum unless you have advanced requirements other than the sharing of content. |
| SEO Optimized Website | Another element that any good web design and developer will take into consideration when building your new website. There are simple technical elements here that any developer can easily implement and ethically, is something they should do by default. | Don't pay extra for this. What's the point of having a website if it isn't going to be found on the search engines? |
| A Blog | If you aren't thinking about having a blog on your website, think again. A blog is highly recommended by Google and other search engines and if you create quality content on a regular basis, will save you thousands of dollars, dhirams etc by driving quality traffic to your website for free! | The type of blog that is implemented will impact the cost. Either a wordpress blog or a custom created blog is advisable but make sure you can add content easily. Don't pay more than $2,500 for this feature unless you have very specific and highly customized requirements. |
| Content Creation | If you don't have the expertise or resource in-house to create the content for your website, you may need the developer to source this for you. | There will be an impact on the price if this type of service is required and is likely to depend on the quality you require as well as the quantity required. |
| Content Population | If you would like a fully created website that you can launch upon completion and would like the developer to populate the content, then there may be an additional charge for this. | Some developers may provide this for free but this would normally be dependent on the size of the website. |
| Languages | More of a area of concern for international businesses, but if you do need more than 1 language on your website, there will be an additional cost. | If the secondary language you need is similar in nature to the primary language (ie English and French), the cost of adding a new language will be relatively low. If however, you want a differently formatted language such as Arabic (right-to-left formatting of text), the cost will be higher as the developer will need to re-design the pages for this content. |
| User Manuals and Training | This is something that you will obviously need if you are planning to manage the website in-house after handover. | At least one free training session should be provided by the developer, however if you are going to be charged an additional fee for this, ask exactly what you are getting and perhaps suggest a remote training session to reduce cost. |
| Website Hosting | Once ready, your website will need to be hosted on a server to be accessible to the world! | Server fees will vary, but its always valuable to check what you are getting and whether security, backups and maintenance are included. If you need emails as well, there may be additional charges for this. |
|
If you're looking for help and support when building a new website, downlaod our Free E-book here: |
||