The Cost of CMS Website Design Part2

First let’s define the differences between a CMS (Content Management System) Website Design and an HTML Website Design:

What is CMS Website Design
CMS Website Design allows for easy editing of content such as text and photos without HTML knowledge “On the fly”. Integration of a Blogging system, Newsletter or “Recent News” is already built in to most CMS Website Design Admins. Because CMS Website Designs based on WordPress are W3C Standards out of the box you’ll never need to rebuild the site later unless you want to change how it “Looks”.

What is HTML Website Design
HTML Website Design is a Static website design that you are unlikely to be able to edit yourself without solid working knowledge of HTML(Hyper Text Markup Language), this includes not being able to make text or photo changes “on the fly”. It’s also far harder to integrate Blogging, Newsletter or “Recent Events” options. HTML Website Design is far more costly to build and maintain, and require rebuilds every couple years to keep it Viewable by modern browsers.

Now, some of the things that can effect the cost of CMS Website Design.. With legitimate CMS Website Design firms the design of the site (how it Looks) is part of the deal already.

Blogs / Newsletters / Recent Events
Things that add to the cost of your cms website design are extras such as configuring your Blog, Newsletter or “Recent Events” BEYOND the built in system. Most folks don’t Need anything special beyond what’s built in though!

Cost of Expanded WordPress Gallery
Adding an expanded Gallery can add to the cost of cms website design depending how big your Gallery needs to be. Most cms website designers won’t charge extra if the Photo Count is under about 15 photos in the Gallery. Keep in mind if you have more than about 15 photos YOU can Easily add more yourself after the site is done, saving you the cost. Just let your cms website designer know you plan to add more later so they can make sure it’s setup for you. To add more photos to your Gallery you’ll want to be familiar with at least WindowsPaint so you can re-size them before putting them in your Gallery.

Cost of Flash Installation or Sliders
Adding Flash can Drastically effect the cost of cms website design and is HIGHLY NOT Recommended! It’s Never worth the cost, it can keep people from seeing your website, it can slow down some computers to the point your visitors leave without Ever seeing your website. The Better alternative is called a Slider. It doesn’t bog down any one’s computer, all visitors will see it, it doesn’t require special programming in the Visitor’s computer to see like Flash and doesn’t slow down your page load times meaning better Rankings in the search engines. A Slider will effect the cost of cms website design because it takes time to create the graphics for it but no where Near the cost of a Flash installation.

Cost of Widget Installation
“Widgets” go in the sidebars and/or Footer of your website. Basic Widgets add functions such as showing most recent posts on your Blog/Newsletter/Recent News, Archives of those posts, Website Search functions or any content you want to have on every page of your site. These can effect the cost of cms website design when you want a special Widget. WordPress has listings of 1,000s of Widgets with a vast majority being free but would cost extra for your cms website designer to install and configure.

Cost of Plugin Installation
Special Plugins to add background processing functionality such as Member Logins can add to the cost of cms website design. Most clients find they don’t need special plugins.

Cost of Favicon Installation
Favicons are the tiny graphic next to your domain name in the Address bar of your browser and appears in the visitor’s Favorites list. Using a generic Favicon the cms website designer already have on hand will give you that extra Pun-ash most other sites don’t have without costing an arm and a leg, but having a custom Favicon made can effect the cost of cms website design.

This about covers the major things that can effect the cost of cms website design. If you have more questions feel free to contact us and we’ll be glad to answer your questions with NO Obligation to Buy Anything. Just FREE answers to help you avoid expensive mistakes! Check out our previous Post “How much does a CMS Website Design Cost?” for the Basics.