Online exposure is a significant element in a business' success. Commercial websites are now as standard as printing business cards. Some commercial websites are nothing more than an online presence, directing traffic to the brick and mortar businesses. Other commercial websites are stand alone businesses, handing sales and dealing with clients online.
Domain
A commercial website must obtain a domain name which can be purchased for less than $10, and will need to be renewed each year. If a business purchases an existing domain name, the price can be hundreds or thousands, depending on the desirability of the domain name.
Hosting
The commercial website needs a server to host the finished website. A small commercial website can purchase hosting for less than $200 a year. If the business needs their own server or has a website that receives an excessively high traffic, hosting can cost hundreds or thousands a year.
Webmaster
A business must hire someone to build the website, or do the job in-house. A webmaster's fee for creating a website can grange from under $200 to over $30,000. Popular website creation software can be purchased for under $400.
Features
Additional features on a commercial website can increase the overall cost. Additional features would include such items as chat, shopping carts or credit card services.
SEO
When building a commercial website one goal is to get traffic. To accomplish this you need to optimize your website for search engine optimization (SEO). Some webmasters charge extra to do this, or an outside SEO expert can be hired to improve the traffic to the website.
