Why the Price Tag Is Only Half the Story

Why the Price Tag Is Only Half the Story

When businesses start looking for a new website, the first question is almost always the same: What is this going to cost?

Fair question. But the answer most agencies give only covers part of the picture. You get a quote for design, development, maybe some copywriting. You sign off, the project gets built, the site goes live. Done.

Except it is not done. Not even close.

Over the past five years, we have built more than 100 websites. And the most common source of frustration we see is not bad design or slow development. It is the moment, usually three to six months after launch, when a client realizes the website needs more attention and budget than they planned for.

This article breaks down where those hidden costs come from, which ones you can plan for, and how to think about your website budget in a way that actually reflects reality.

The Build Is the Obvious Part

Let us get this out of the way first. Yes, building a website costs money. Depending on scope and complexity, a focused landing page might start around a few thousand euros. A full corporate website with custom functionality, CMS integration, and strategic consulting can range well into five figures.

Most businesses understand this part. They request proposals, compare agencies, negotiate scope. That is normal and healthy.

The problem starts when the build budget is treated as the entire budget.

Where the Real Costs Hide

Content Creation and Maintenance

Your agency can build the most elegant website in the world. But if the content is outdated, generic, or simply missing, the site will not perform.

Here is what we see regularly: A client launches with solid content. Six months later, half of it is outdated. Team photos show people who left. Case studies reference products that no longer exist. The blog has not been updated since launch week.

Content is not a one time deliverable. It is an ongoing responsibility. And it almost always stays with the client. Most agencies, including us, will help with image editing or minor adjustments. But we are not copywriters, photographers, or videographers. The substance has to come from your side.

Budget for it. Whether that means an internal resource, a freelance writer, or a quarterly content review on the calendar. Treat it as part of the website cost, not as an afterthought.

Legal and Compliance Requirements

Cookie consent, privacy policies, imprint requirements, accessibility standards. These are not optional extras. They are legal obligations that vary by region, change over time, and can result in real fines if ignored.

We build the technical foundation into every project. Consent management, proper imprint structure, GDPR-compliant forms. But the actual legal content, the specific wording of your privacy policy, the details of your data processing, that is your responsibility. Usually with the help of a lawyer.

And this is not a set-it-and-forget-it situation. Regulations evolve. What was compliant two years ago might not be today. Plan for periodic legal reviews as an ongoing cost.

Evolving Business Requirements

This is the big one. And it is the hardest to predict.

Your business six months from now will not look exactly like your business today. New services, new target audiences, shifts in strategy, a product that gets discontinued, a market that changes direction.

When that happens, the website needs to follow. Sometimes that means small adjustments. A new page, updated messaging, a rearranged navigation. Sometimes it means more significant work. A new feature, a different conversion flow, an additional integration.

We offer retainer models for exactly this reason. Some clients book a weekly development contingent for ongoing changes and extensions. Others just need us to swap out an image or update a text block once a month. The range is wide, and it depends entirely on how actively a company uses its website as a business tool.

The important thing is to expect this. If you budget zero for post-launch development, you are planning for a website that stays frozen in time. And frozen websites stop working.

SEO and Discoverability

Building a technically sound website with clean structure and fast load times is a good start. We handle the technical SEO foundations as part of every project, and we also factor in GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) to make sure your content is structured for the way search is evolving.

But SEO is not a one time setup. It is an ongoing discipline. Keyword strategies shift. Competitors publish new content. Search algorithms update. The content that ranked well at launch might need refreshing a year later.

Some of this we support on an ongoing basis. But for companies serious about organic growth, working with a dedicated SEO partner is often the right move. That is an additional cost, and it should be part of the plan from the beginning.

Monitoring and Maintenance

Websites break. Not dramatically, not with error screens and sirens. But quietly. A form stops sending emails. A third-party script slows the page down. An SSL certificate expires. A link points to a page that no longer exists.

We include monitoring as part of our service. We watch for downtime, performance degradation, and broken elements. Maintenance in the traditional sense, like server updates and security patches, is minimal with Webflow since hosting and infrastructure are handled within the platform.

But someone still needs to pay attention. And when something does need fixing, or when a small improvement becomes necessary, having a partner who already knows the project saves significant time and money compared to starting from scratch with someone new.

A More Realistic Way to Think About Website Costs

Instead of thinking about your website as a project with a start and end date, think of it in two phases:

Phase one: The build. This is the upfront investment. Strategy, design, development, launch. It has a defined scope, timeline, and budget. This is the number most agencies quote and most businesses plan for.

Phase two: The lifecycle. This is everything that comes after. Content updates, legal reviews, feature additions, SEO work, monitoring, and the inevitable adjustments as your business evolves. This does not have a fixed number because it depends on your ambitions and how central the website is to your business.

Companies that plan for both phases make better decisions. They choose the right scope for the build, they allocate realistic ongoing budgets, and they treat their website as what it actually is: a living business tool, not a finished product.

The Question That Saves You Money

Before you request your next website proposal, ask yourself one thing: What do I need this website to do for my business twelve months from now?

Not what should it look like. Not what features sound impressive. What business problem should it solve, and what will it take to keep it solving that problem over time?

If you can answer that, you are already ahead of most companies we talk to. And you will end up with a website that is not just well built, but well planned.

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