Having an online presence for your business in 2022 can skyrocket your bottom line and push your seafood company to the top of the food chain as a go-to supplier or service provider. If you’re still not convinced, here’s 10 reasons why your company needs a website or keep reading to understand the cost of B2B websites.
Understandably, not every business owner is also a website designer. This is why our team at Trademodo is here to help you understand the costs of doing it yourself versus hiring a professional web developer. Here are your three options for building a website and the average upfront and ongoing costs in USD associated with them. You can skip to each section by clicking on the options below:
- Build it yourself using a website builder – $80-170 upfront, plus $15-110 per month
- Build it yourself using WordPress – $170-650 upfront, plus $120–650 yearly ongoing charges
- Hire a professional – $3,000-10,000 upfront, plus $500-3,600 yearly ongoing charges
Before we go into more detail about each option, there are a few things you will need for your seafood supply chain website.
Domain name: $1-1,000+ per year, on average around $10-20 per year – some hosting providers offer free domain names
A domain name is the website name and address you choose to represent your company online.
For example, myseafoodsupplycompany.com is currently priced at $5.98 per year at Namecheap, and you can keep that domain name for the duration you have paid or for as long as you keep renewing it.
The first step to selecting your own domain is to perform a free search for different variations of your company or trade name until you find a domain name that suits your preferences. You will also select a common extension, such as .com, .inc, or .org to avoid confusing your visitors or if your desired choice is not available. Do note that desirable and easy to remember domain names often come with higher price tags. The most expensive domain name sold privately for $345 million in 2007.
Our recommended domain registrars are:
Website hosting: $30-180+ per year, on average $2.50-15+ per month for shared hosting or $85-750+ per month for dedicated hosting
Your website name (or domain name) needs a place to exist and be made available for the world to see. This is where you select a website hosting provider. Depending on how much information you plan to have on your website, how many features, and how many visitors you are expecting, the cost can vary.
There are two kinds of hosting: shared hosting and dedicated hosting. Shared hosting is when multiple companies share a web server while dedicated hosting customers secure their own. Most small seafood supply company websites will not need dedicated hosting and can get along very well with shared hosting.
Our recommended hosting providers are:
Click here for more info on the differences between shared vs. dedicated hosting.
SSL certificate: $5-1000+ per year, on average $70-150 per year – depends on what type of SSL certificate
You may have noticed that web addresses (URLs) often begin with either HTTPS or HTTP by default. These letters refer to the system that communicates information between the website and your internet browser. Purchasing a SSL certificate allows you to obtain the S, which stands for secure, and use HTTPS in the front of your URL. Having a secure website improves the searchability of your website on Google, tells your visitors that this is a trusted website, and keeps your customers’ data safe.
The cost of SSL certificates vary depending on which type of SSL you decide to purchase. For your standard business website, we always recommend paying a little extra for security. If you don’t have e-commerce capabilities on your site you can purchase a domain validation (DV) or an organization validation (OV) certificate for around between $70 and $150 per year.
Our recommended SSL certificate sellers are:
Click here for more info on the different types of SSL certificates.
#1 Cost of building a website using a website builder – $80-170 upfront, plus $15-110 per month
- Domain name – $10-20 per year
- Website hosting – $0 included with website builder subscription
- SSL certificate – $70-150 per year
- Website builder subscription – $12-50+ per month
- Optional apps – $3-60+ per month
Website builders offer a free or monthly subscription based service that can help anyone with little to no technical ability get a website up and running quickly and inexpensively without additional help. The free plans come with many limitations, which is why we recommend opting for a paid plan with decent features.
Using a low cost website builder does come with serious pitfalls, they perform poorly and rank badly on search engines, which is why we do not recommend them for your B2B company. If your budget is limited, and you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty, here’s what we recommend and what they cost.
Recommended website builders:
- Wix – starting at $13 per month
- Squarespace – starting at $12 per month
#2 Cost of building a website yourself using WordPress – $170-650 upfront, plus $120–650 yearly ongoing charges
- Domain name – $10-20 per year
- Website hosting – $30-180 per year
- SSL certificate – $70-150 per year
- WordPress subscription – $0+ often included with website hosting
- Premium plugins – $0-50+ per year depending on which features you want
- Premium themes – $50+ upfront and more if you need yearly theme support
- Security – $0-200+ per year
- Professional help – $50-180+ per hour
Building a website using WordPress gives you the flexibility to build and manage a website yourself and bring in a professional if you need it. We highly recommend WordPress for B2B companies and professionals that want a fully customizable and high performance website. In fact, some of the biggest brands in the world use WordPress to build their sites.
It is completely possible to build a WordPress site on your own, however you will need to have moderate technical abilities and have a lot of time on your hands. In our experience, many people will start a WordPress site on their own, only to realize they are not happy with something or do not have the time to continue building it. They will then bring on a professional that may charge $50-180 per hour or simply have the site completely rebuilt.
#3 Cost of hiring a professional – $3,000-10,000 upfront, plus $500-3,600 yearly ongoing
- Upfront cost – $3,000-10,000+ for a standard B2B website
- Ongoing cost – $500-3,600 per year, depends on how many updates you need
Hiring a professional comes with a higher initial investment, but it will save you time and effort. Depending on your needs, a typical B2B supply chain company website will cost between $3,000-10,000 upfront and an additional $500-3,600 in yearly ongoing charges. Complex websites that have many features, integrations, and needs can cost up to $115,000 with an additional $15,000 in ongoing yearly maintenance or more.
Creating a well designed website for your seafood supply chain company will take time and effort. Here at Trademodo, we specialize in creating and establishing digital footprints for B2B seafood supply chain companies. Click on the link if you’re ready to speak with an expert, for a free estimate for your B2B company.Â
