However, having built websites for more than two decades, we know that basing a decision on published web design pricing is dangerous and should be avoided.

Why is this the case? The problem is, without first establishing your website requirements, looking at the price for website design is meaningless. Web design fees are a function of project scope, and no two project scopes are identical. Before any agency can give you a meaningful cost for website design, it must first understand all of these 20 scope-related issues.

• Number of pages on the new site and complexity of sitemap
• Amount and complexity of new textual content
• Need for a product catalog, and if so, the number of products
• Amount of migration of content from the old site
• Existing pages
• Blog posts
• PDF and other non-HTML formatted content adds cost
• Amount and production cost of imagery and photographs
• Amount and production cost of video and audio content
• Number of unique design layouts (e.g., home page, category pages, sub-category pages)
• Complexity of site navigation
• Branding objectives
• Need for branding creative such as new logos
• Existence/non-existence of documented brand standards
• Lead generation objectives
• Online revenue objectives
• Other strategic objectives
• SEO requirements
• Hosting requirements and options
• Site functionality needed, especially:
• Interactive careers section
• Password-protected file repositories
• Interactive map with locations/find a rep
• Custom calculators
• Third-party integration with CRMs, marketing automation software, proprietary platforms, etc.
• Project timeline (short timelines usually drive up the cost for web design)
• How much discovery time and collaboration will be necessary to button down the preceding issues and execute the project