How much does a website cost?
Anyone who quotes you before they know what your site has to do is selling a package. Here is what actually decides the cost, and what to ask before you sign. Every site we make is custom built, custom quoted and fully supported.
Six things decide what a website costs.
What the site has to do
A five-page site that gets a phone to ring is a different job from one that books appointments, takes payments or lists hundreds of properties. Features, not page count, move the cost most.
Custom design or a template
A template is cheaper on day one and costs you later in speed, search and how much it looks like everyone else. A custom build is designed around your business and your customers.
The words and the pictures
Someone has to write the pages and shoot the photos. If you have them, the job is smaller. If you want it done properly, copy, photography and video are part of the plan.
Search from the first page
A site built for Google and AI search has its structure, speed and local signals designed in from the start. Bolting SEO on afterward costs more and works worse.
Moving an old site
If your current site already ranks, every page it has earned needs a home on the new one. Redirect maps and careful migration protect what you already have.
Who keeps it running
Hosting, security, backups, updates and changes are where most of a website’s life happens. A site with no one at the wheel is the most expensive kind.
Six questions to ask any agency.
Including us. The answers tell you more about what you are paying for than the number does.
- Who designs and builds the site, and where are they?
- Is it custom, or a template with my logo on it?
- How fast will it load on a phone, and how will you prove it?
- What happens to the pages I already rank for?
- Who updates it after launch, and how fast do changes come back?
- Will someone who knows my business pick up, or a ticket queue?
Or hand it all to us: your Chief Web Officer.
Website, hosting, search, AI visibility, campaigns, photo and video, run by one team with Ben on the account.
About cost
How much does a website cost?
It depends on what the site has to do, how much is custom, who writes and shoots the content, how much search work is built in, whether an existing site is being moved, and who runs it afterward. At MCG every site is custom built, custom quoted and fully supported, so you get a number for your business, not a package.
Why don’t you publish a price list?
Because we don’t sell packages. Every site we make is built around one business. A price list would either overcharge the simple jobs or undercharge the complicated ones.
Is a cheap website builder good enough?
For some businesses, for a while. They tend to cost more later, in speed, in search, and in the rebuild when the business outgrows them. Our How We Build series goes through the major platforms honestly.
What does ongoing support include?
Hosting, security, backups, speed and updates, handled in-house. Changes come back in 12 hours on average, and nobody bills you per request.
Will I have to pay for a whole new site in a few years?
Not with us. We don’t launch and leave: we keep the site current and redesign it when it starts to show its age. J. Riley Roofing, Serenity Salon and Pizzeria New York have been with us since 2020, and each of their sites has been redesigned and rebuilt three or four times since.
Can one team handle the website and the marketing?
Yes. That is Chief Web Officer: our full retainer, where we run the site, search, AI visibility, campaigns and content.
We don’t launch and leave.
We stay on after launch. We host it, keep it fast and secure, make your changes and redesign it when it’s time, so your site never looks like it was built years ago.
With us since 2020, the year we started
Each of these sites has been redesigned and rebuilt three or four times since, by the same team that built the first one.
Client since 2020 J. Riley Roofing Family-owned roofing and exteriors in Pickerington, Ohio. 
Client since 2020 Serenity Salon Full-service hair, nails and skin salon in Old Pickerington Village. 
Client since 2020 Pizzeria New York New York style pizza from a family recipe dating to 1969, in Pickerington and Blacklick. Built to win. Kept winning.
See Hosting and SupportGet a number for your business.
Tell us what the site has to do. We’ll give you a straight answer and a quote to match.
Ben McGinnis, founder — my name is on your account