What a small business website actually costs in Houston
Every agency site you have opened today says the same thing. "It depends on your needs. Book a call."
It does depend. That is not a reason to hide the number.
Here is what you are actually choosing between in this market, what moves the price, and how to spot a quote that is going to cost you more than it saves.
The four ways to get a website
Do it yourself. Squarespace, Wix or GoDaddy. The subscription is real money but small. The cost is your time and the ceiling on the result. If you are the kind of person who will actually finish it, this is a legitimate option and nobody should talk you out of it.
Most people do not finish it. The half-built site sits there for two years looking like a business that closed.
The cheapest freelancer you can find. There is always someone who will do it for a few hundred dollars. Sometimes you get lucky. Usually you get a template with your logo dropped in, no plan for how anyone finds it, and nobody to call in six months.
The real cost shows up later, when you pay someone else to redo it.
A small local studio. One person or a few, working directly with you. You talk to whoever is building it. Expect low four figures for something simple and mid four figures to low five for a full site. That is the tier I work in, and my numbers are on my services page.
A full agency. Account manager, project manager, designer, developer. Real capability and real overhead. Usually starting in the high five figures. If you are doing eight figures in revenue, this is the right call. If you are a four-truck plumbing outfit, you are paying for the account manager.
What actually moves the number
Page count. A one-page site and a twelve-page site are different jobs.
Whether the copy exists. This is the one nobody warns you about. If someone has to write the words, that is real work and it costs real money. If you write them yourself, you save a chunk. If you write them badly, you spend it again.
Photography. Stock photos are free and they look free. Real photos of your crew and your work convert better than anything else on the page.
Booking or payments. Online scheduling, deposits, a customer portal. Each one adds integration work.
Whether it is built to be found. A site that looks good and a site that ranks are two different products. Some quotes include the second one. Most do not. Ask.
How to read a quote
If the number is very low, ask what happens in month three. Who updates it. Who fixes it when it breaks. What you own if you leave. A cheap build with no answer to those questions is a rental you do not know you are paying for.
If the number is very high, ask what the extra buys. Sometimes it is real: research, strategy, custom development. Sometimes it is a layer of people between you and the person doing the work.
Ask to talk to whoever is actually building it. If you cannot, you are buying through a middle layer.
Ask how they will know it worked. A site that looks better and produces the same number of calls did not work. The answer should involve phone calls, forms and where you show up in search.
The cheapest thing you can do first
Before you spend anything, find out whether you need a new site at all.
Open your site on your phone, on cell data. Try to tap your phone number. Fill out your own contact form and see if the email arrives. Search your own business name and see what comes up.
Half the businesses that ask me for a rebuild have a fixable site and an empty Google Business Profile. The profile is free. The rebuild is not.
If you want a second set of eyes, I do a free three point review for businesses in the Houston area. Three things costing you the most calls, in writing, no pitch.
