How much did it cost you to get a bilingual website designed? Thread poster: Vivien Green
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I'm in the process of choosing a company to create a website for me but just wanted to check that their quotes aren't extortionate. I personally thought they were competitive until speaking to someone who thought it should cost far less. Essentially, of the two I'm most interested in, one is around £1000 and the other is around £1300. Both would be for the creation of a bilingual website with the design of custom logos etc. included as well as SEO optimisation etc. Does this sound about right?... See more I'm in the process of choosing a company to create a website for me but just wanted to check that their quotes aren't extortionate. I personally thought they were competitive until speaking to someone who thought it should cost far less. Essentially, of the two I'm most interested in, one is around £1000 and the other is around £1300. Both would be for the creation of a bilingual website with the design of custom logos etc. included as well as SEO optimisation etc. Does this sound about right? Both companies seem to have excellent reputations and I'm happy to pay a little more to get a good result. I'm in the UK if it wasn't obvious from the currency. ▲ Collapse
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It depends what you want and what you compare it to. With none of the specifics of either, then it becomes quite a tough exercise that is not that likely to be very helpful to you.
[Edited at 2018-10-27 15:01 GMT]
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Fair enough. There's so much information from each of them as to what's included I don't think anyone would have the time to read it to be honest.
| | | | | These are quite big sums of money | Oct 28, 2018 |
First of all, you don't need a company to do this, because, all in all, your website won't be something like Amazon or msn.com.
You can hire a freelancer at Upwork, for example. What you get in this case is:
- personal approach to you project, and
- lower fees, of course.
There are plenty of people there.
Or, to cut the expanses drastically, you can buy a generic theme for your website and have someone help you upload your content there... See more First of all, you don't need a company to do this, because, all in all, your website won't be something like Amazon or msn.com.
You can hire a freelancer at Upwork, for example. What you get in this case is:
- personal approach to you project, and
- lower fees, of course.
There are plenty of people there.
Or, to cut the expanses drastically, you can buy a generic theme for your website and have someone help you upload your content there.
[Edited at 2018-10-28 07:55 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:16
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| | Very expensive quotes | Oct 28, 2018 |
Vivien Green wrote:
I'm in the process of choosing a company to create a website for me but just wanted to check that their quotes aren't extortionate. I personally thought they were competitive until speaking to someone who thought it should cost far less. Essentially, of the two I'm most interested in, one is around £1000 and the other is around £1300.
Since the 2 quotes seem really expensive, you have to factor in if this expenditure is going to lead to more traffic and consequently, hopefully, more work and what type of work, agencies or direct clients. Do your maths well as the amounts quoted seem astronomical and so, the returns expected will have to be worthwhile too Maybe you can build a website yourself -use Webnode for example(www.webode.com)- and see if it brings you more traffic first while you could make do with a website which is either free or costs less but which will still bring traffic and work. I am under the impression that most people who ask for advice on websites here are told that having a website did not help them at all so be careful, consider this factor too before spending all this money.
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 07:16
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| On doing it yourself | Oct 28, 2018 |
Vadim Kadyrov wrote:
You don't need a company to do this, because, all in all, your website won't be something like Amazon or msn.com.
Web design is a multidisciplinary task. Although you might find freelancers who can do all the tasks involved, and who can do all those tasks very well, you're more likely to get good quality work if each person on the team is specialised in what he does. Specialists can sometimes also deliver the same quality faster -- this depends on the type of work, but web design does involve some tasks that a skilled operator can do faster and better, e.g. logo design or making small adjustments to layout and graphics.
You can hire a freelancer at Upwork, for example. What you get in this case is:
- personal approach to you project, and
- lower fees, of course.
The fees are not necessarily lower. They just look lower to people who haven't done the calculations yet. People who don't work in a field tend to underestimate the amount of work involved in a job.
For example, translators' fees can also seem quite low to clients who are new to buying translations, until they do the math. 25c per word sounds fairly low, until they discover that their 3-page document is not 100 words long but 1000 words long. And even after they've discovered that their document is 1000 words long, most of them tend not to do the actual math until right up to the point of hiring (1000 x $0.25 = probably around $20 or so).
The biggest problem with Upwork, however, is finding someone who is an actual web designer. Most people who come up in a search for "web designer" are simply people who "also do web design", in the same way that some typists "also do translation".
Tom is referring to website builders. Website building websites have come a long way since the early days, and many of them are quite user-friendly and intuitive. If you don't want custom graphics (e.g. logo design and logo integration), they're a nice way to create your first web site. There are many reviews about them, e.g. this Google search, though it must be said that learning to use one is like learning a new CAT tool: even if you're familiar with the concepts, it's a learning curve.
As for the original question, I can only tell you what I found on Google, and GBP 1000-1500 seems quite affordable/cheap.
| | | | ahartje
Portugal
Local time: 06:16
Member (2006)
German to Portuguese
+ ...
| It depends... | Oct 28, 2018 |
...on what you need and want to offer on your website.
As a mother of a graphic designer and webdesigner I have seen, how much works it takes to get a specific design of your website, including a logo (normally an extra, well paid task), forms for direct contact and project submission etc.
The mentioned values seem to be quite realistic to me.
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| Think carefully over whose attention you want to attract | Oct 28, 2018 |
I don't have a website at all myself, but if I were starting out now, things might be different.
Over the years, however, I have seen some fairly useless websites, where professional designers have had a field day with graphics and visual images THEY thought might fit, but which probably did not attract the kinds of people who are seriously looking for a translator. The actual content was very superficial, with no real selling point.
Whoever you choose to set up your w... See more I don't have a website at all myself, but if I were starting out now, things might be different.
Over the years, however, I have seen some fairly useless websites, where professional designers have had a field day with graphics and visual images THEY thought might fit, but which probably did not attract the kinds of people who are seriously looking for a translator. The actual content was very superficial, with no real selling point.
Whoever you choose to set up your website, go for sober content, and, as you mention, SEO. You have to be found, first of all, in the vast sea of freelancers, translators, bloggers and everyone else with websites. (That is why I don't bother - people find me in other ways.) You have to get to the top of the hit list.
When you are found, keep off flickering flags and gimmicks. You are largely aiming at the B2B market, and want to come across as professional. I would go for a limited palette of clear, light colours (not dingy beige, though in the right way, you could pick up a little beige from the CIoL badge - let the art folk think about that).
Make a point of your specialist subject areas, because that is where you can stand out.
To me the prices you mention sound like an awful lot of money. If I spent that, plus the cost of keeping the website up to date, on networking, attending seminars and workshops, and face-to-face contacts, I would reckon to harvest some really good jobs along the way, and it would all be useful in my work. However, I work in less widespread languages in a small world, and French is very probably more competitive.
Just a few thoughts… and good luck! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Between 500 and 1,000 EUR | Oct 28, 2018 |
I can’t remember exactly as I have my own website since 1998 but it should have been in the 500-1,000 EUR range including designing, developing, building, logo and domain name registration as well as translation into EN, FR, ES, IT and DE. Website hosting costs me 30 EUR each year.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 07:16
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| The value of SEO | Oct 28, 2018 |
Christine Andersen wrote:
Whoever you choose to set up your website, go for ... SEO.
I would not bother with anything but the most basic SEO. One day, about a decade ago, translation agencies discovered how to play the SEO game (a very expensive game, I might add), and my position in Google searches dropped from position 10 to position 1000. Then Google changed its UI so that it no longer showed the top 100 results but only the top 10 results. And to top it all, these days Google puts sites at the top of the search results even if they don't even contain the keywords the user searched for.
SEO is a waste of time and money for freelancers. If you want to market your web site, you'd have to do so via other channels. My opinion about freelancers' web sites is that you should think of them as online business cards. Don't expect anyone to find your web site via Google of Bing. Your web site is for people to whom you give the web address, or people who find your details in a directory (e.g. ProZ.com) or on some web site where you mentioned your web address.
[Edited at 2018-10-28 13:15 GMT]
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:16
Member (2008)
Italian to English
It's pointless to have a website unless you regularly update it with new stuff (or people will never come back to it). A static website is no good to anyone.
Will it load quickly? Does it have annoying "features" (pop-ups etc.) that will put people off? Does it use those horrible stock images of happy people standing dynamically in an office with skyscrapers outside? Does it have symbols of the world that suggest it's being run from someone's bedroom? etc.....
And here... See more It's pointless to have a website unless you regularly update it with new stuff (or people will never come back to it). A static website is no good to anyone.
Will it load quickly? Does it have annoying "features" (pop-ups etc.) that will put people off? Does it use those horrible stock images of happy people standing dynamically in an office with skyscrapers outside? Does it have symbols of the world that suggest it's being run from someone's bedroom? etc.....
And here's some technical stuff you should know about
https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/why-users-leave-a-website/ ▲ Collapse
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Thank you everyone for your advice. Lots to consider. The point about SEO optimisation in particular was something I was thinking about as I haven't come across any freelancers at all on google's first page for any of the searches I've done in my language pair. So maybe it's a waste of time and money buying this. But then again I only did general searches and maybe this might be worth it for more specific searches? I'm tending to agrere with Samuel though in thinking it will effectively just be... See more Thank you everyone for your advice. Lots to consider. The point about SEO optimisation in particular was something I was thinking about as I haven't come across any freelancers at all on google's first page for any of the searches I've done in my language pair. So maybe it's a waste of time and money buying this. But then again I only did general searches and maybe this might be worth it for more specific searches? I'm tending to agrere with Samuel though in thinking it will effectively just be an online business card if you can't spend the vast amounts that large agencies can spend.
I can also do all the copywriting myself and will pay a translator to do the French version. Although I need to figure out how to make the site bilingual. technically. So I suppose it's the design work that will ultimately be useful and maybe it would be more cost effective to pay a good designer and use a website builder myself (although there seems to be varying information on how much it costs to set up a website using WordPress on your own - one of the companies who gave me a quote say it's around £650 for initial DIY set up but the WordPress website itself seems to suggest it's free and you just pay the hosting costs. Unless they've hidden the real cost somewhere?).
There are various other features the people I've got quotes from have listed but maybe these come as standard with any WordPress website? For example
Auto updating website security engine - so you don't fall behind on critical security updates
Mobile responsive - so your site can be accessed from any device
Social Media integration with sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Expert technical help, support and training ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 07:16
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Making it bilingual | Oct 28, 2018 |
Vivien Green wrote:
Although I need to figure out how to make the site bilingual, technically.
Nothing can be simpler. The main page is bilingual (i.e. contains text in both languages) and from there on you just add the pages and make sure they are linked to each other in a sensible way.
(What you might not be able to accomplish on your own is to make the web site automatically display a French version to French visitors and an English version to English visitors.)
| | | | | If a job's worth doing... | Oct 29, 2018 |
... it's worth doing well.
Paying someone who knows what they are doing is usually a good tactic. So, paying someone to do a good website for you is probably the best way to go. As the outlay is from upwards of 1K€, obviously you want to be sure that it's worth it. Note that you may also have a monthly hosting fee. If your business structure enables you to deduct expenses, you will be able to deduct the cost. If not, and in either case, you will no doubt want to be pretty certain ... See more ... it's worth doing well.
Paying someone who knows what they are doing is usually a good tactic. So, paying someone to do a good website for you is probably the best way to go. As the outlay is from upwards of 1K€, obviously you want to be sure that it's worth it. Note that you may also have a monthly hosting fee. If your business structure enables you to deduct expenses, you will be able to deduct the cost. If not, and in either case, you will no doubt want to be pretty certain that you will recover this cost, over time, in attracting more business. You need to do some realistic calculations. You also need to consider how you are going to use the website and what you are hoping to get out of it. Are you expecting potential clients to find you via a Google search? Are you expecting to do regular updates yourself? Are you going to use it as a business card? If the idea is to increase your visibility and hopefully attract new clients, then judging by what others say here, there are a number of things to take into account for that to happen.
You may also consider using LinkedIn and Facebook page. A large number of potential clients use these sources and many others the business pages of the telephone directories. Since becoming a "traductrice/interprète assermentée", I have been a fair number of clients via the official lists of certified translators, although one third of those do not require a certified translation.
What would be helpful here is for those who do have a website to give an idea of how much of their business comes via their website. If they have no way of knowing, then I'd be wary of putting 1K€ and monthly hosting costs on the table.
[Edited at 2018-10-29 09:49 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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