This is a question I’m often asked, and it’s not an easy one to answer without understanding the specific requirements of the website and the scope of the project. A website consists of various components, each with distinct processes and timeframes, which together impact the overall cost. Please see this article I put together for a comprehensive breakdown of that’s involved.

If you’re tech-savvy, you could easily create your own website using a DIY platform like Wix or Squarespace, or even WordPress.com, but often many critical steps are left out of the design and development phases.

Here are the pros (as I see them) to utilising the services of a skilled and experienced website designer/developer:

• You will have a polished, custom-designed website that incorporates current trends and accurately represents your brand.
• Your website will be designed with usability and user experience in mind.
• Your website will load faster, as an experienced designer will use compressed images and minimal plugins to optimise performance.
• A professional developer will ensure your website is secure from hack threats as far as possible (potentially saving you expensive future cleaning and restoration costs).
• A professional developer will ensure your website follows GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act) guidelines.
• A professional developer can assist you with advanced functionality and customisations you might find difficult to integrate.
• Your website will be fully mobile optimised and tested.
• Your website will likely be better optimised for search engines.
• Hiring a designer/developer can end up saving you a lot of time!

Hosting, in the context of websites and the internet, refers to the service of storing website files and making them accessible to users on the internet. It’s essentially renting space on a server to host your website’s content and ensure it’s available for online viewing.

There are many different types of web hosting which are outlined here. Most standard websites will use shared web hosting as they don’t require a great deal of server space or dedicated resources.

For an indication of hosting costs, see my article How much does a website cost?

A domain, in the context of the internet, is a unique address that identifies a website or a network service. It’s what users type into their web browsers to access a specific website, such as “google.com” or “example.com”.

For an indication of domain registration and renewal costs, see my article How much does a website cost?

Your domain name is a crucial part of your email address, as it determines the part of the address after the “@” symbol. A custom domain email address (e.g., yourname@yourdomain.com) strengthens your brand identity and provides a more trusted, professional image.

Most hosting packages will include several email accounts you can create for departments or team members. You can create multiple addresses for departments or team members

A domain transfer is the process of moving your domain name from one registrar to another. A registrar is the company you bought your domain from (like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Xneelo, etc.).

Domain transfers don’t affect your website or email, as long as DNS settings are handled correctly.

Your domain can be purchased from the same company you have your web hosting package with, or it can be registered elsewhere and point back to your hosting server via changes to the DNS settings.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, a protocol that encrypts communication between a web server and a browser, ensuring that data transmitted between the two is private and protected from eavesdropping or tampering. SSL certificates are crucial for websites that handle sensitive information like online payments, login credentials, or personal data. Websites with an active SSL certificate can be identified by having HTTPS preceding the web URL (instead of plain HTTP).

Having an SSL certificate active on your site is also good for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Google penalises websites that don’t have an SSL certificate by marking them as “Not Secure” in the address bar, and blocking cookies from such sites, which can affect website performance. Furthermore, websites without HTTPS may experience lower search rankings compared to their secure counterparts.

WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace are all website platforms, but they differ in how they’re used, their features, and who they’re best suited for. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that’s highly customisable but requires more technical knowledge and setup. Wix and Squarespace are website builders that offer drag-and-drop interfaces, making them easier to use for beginners, but with less flexibility and customisation options. These platforms can also carry higher monthly costs for use, as opposed to using WordPress’ open-source files from the WordPress.org repository, which is free.

WordPress.org is free, open-source software that you install on your own web hosting, giving you full control over your site, while WordPress.com is a hosted blogging platform where you create a site without installing anything, offers managed hosting, and has some feature limitations unless you upgrade to a paid plan.

A plugin is a software component (like an add-on, app or extension) that adds new functionality or features to an existing application or system— especially websites, browsers, or content management systems (CMS) like WordPress.

A website theme is a collection of files that dictate the visual design, layout, and functionality of a website. To a large degree, it controls elements like colours, fonts, and overall structure but allows you to alter these elements through customisations. Essentially, a theme is the foundation upon which a website’s design is built.

Website themes define the overall design and functionality of an entire website, while templates are specific layouts that control the appearance of individual pages or sections. Think of a theme as the foundation for your website’s look and feel, while a template is like a specific section within that foundation that can be customised.

A child theme is a theme that inherits all the functionality and style of another theme, called the parent theme. It allows you to customise the parent theme without directly altering its code, ensuring your modifications won’t be overwritten during updates.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a set of practices designed to improve the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic search results on sites like Google, Bing etc.

Google Search Central is a great place to start to learn more about SEO. You can also check out resources like Moz.com, Yoast and Hubspot.

Spam comments on your website are typically generated by automated bots and spammers seeking backlinks or to promote malicious content. These bots often use software to submit comments containing links to their websites or products. To combat this, you can implement various measures like enabling comment moderation, disabling trackbacks and pingbacks, integrating antispam add-ons, or disabling comments altogether.

There are many aspects that can affect website performance, from the hosting environment and competition to resources on shared servers, to bloated themes with inefficient code and a large number of plugins firing excessive HTTP requests. Unoptimised images with large file sizes can also greatly affect web loading speed.

Website speed and performance can be improved by optimising the website code where possible, compressing images and uploading them in .webp format, using a CDN (content delivery network), increasing your hosting package and integrating a caching plugin.

Most images on the web are protected by copyright in the same manner as any other creative work, even if there’s no watermark or warning. There is no guarantee that an image is legally available for re-use just because it is freely accessible on the internet. Using them without permission could get you a takedown notice, a copyright infringement fine or even legal action.

Images you can use legally include:

• Your own photos (or images you paid for or commissioned)
• Stock images (licensed) from sites like Unsplash, Pexels or Pixabay (free but may require attribution) or Shutterstock, iStock or Dreamstime (paid).
• Creative Commons (CC) images which are free to use with certain rules (like attribution or non-commercial use).

• Check out: Creative Commons Search

Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by Google that provides insights into how users interact with websites and apps. It helps businesses track and analyse website traffic, user behaviour, and other key metrics to understand their online performance and improve marketing strategies.

Find out more with the free Google Analytics training course on Skillshop.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google Analytics, replacing the previous Universal Analytics. It’s a next-generation analytics platform that collects event-based data from both websites and apps, enabling a more comprehensive understanding of the customer journey across different platforms.

Google Search Console is a free tool that helps website owners monitor, maintain, and improve their website’s visibility in Google Search results. It provides data on how Google crawls, indexes, and serves your site, allowing you to identify issues and optimise your site for better search performance.

When a website is ready to launch, I use this tool to submit the sitemap to Google to let the platform know there’s a new site waiting to be indexed.