How to Order a Website: 9 Things to Know Before You Start

Ordering a website often starts like this: "We need a website, how much will it cost?" One company quotes 300, another 5,000. Both say "website", but they are offering completely different things. The choice ends up being made on price, and a year later the website gets ordered all over again.

We've put together the key things to know before you order a website. They will save you both money and time.

1. Start with the goal, then the type of site

"Website" covers very different things:

• A landing page is a single page for one product or service. Ideal for ad campaigns and a quick start.
• A corporate website presents the company, its services, projects and contacts. It is the main tool for winning customers from search.
• An online store means a catalogue, a cart, online payment and order management.
• A portal or customer account is a system that customers or staff log into and work in.

The most useful question is: "What result should the website deliver?" Calls, online sales, trust, or automating your team's work? The answer will define the type of site and the budget for you.

2. Write a short brief

You don't need a huge technical specification; one page is enough. Write down what the company does, who your customers are, which sections you need, in which languages, 2–3 websites you like and why, and what visitors should do on the site (call, send a request, buy). Even a short text like this makes quotes from different agencies comparable.

3. What drives the price

The cost of a website depends on several things:

• design: a ready-made template or a custom design for your brand;
• number of pages and content: who writes the copy and prepares the images;
• features: online payment, calculators, customer accounts, filters;
• integrations: CRM, accounting software, banks, delivery services;
• languages: every language means separate copy and separate SEO work.

A very cheap offer usually means a template, empty pages for you to fill in, and no SEO at all. When comparing offers, look at what is included, not just the price.

4. Timelines should be realistic

A simple landing page can go live in a few days, a corporate website in about two weeks. Online stores and portals with customer accounts take from a few weeks to a few months depending on features. Most delays come not from developers but from preparing copy and photos. Get your content ready early and the site will launch sooner.

5. You should be able to edit the site yourself

If every new price or news item means emailing a developer, the site will go stale fast. When ordering, ask: can we change pages, products, news and translations ourselves in an admin panel?

6. Don't leave SEO for later

A beautiful website that can't be found on Google won't bring customers. Technical SEO should be part of development: fast loading, correct headings and meta tags, clean URLs, a sitemap and hreflang for language versions. Fixing it later always costs more. And if you want the site to bring customers from search consistently, there is a separate SEO service.

7. Speed and mobile

Most of your customers will open the site on their phone. If it takes more than 3 seconds to load, a large share of visitors leave without waiting. Ask the agency to show Google PageSpeed results for its websites; you can check this yourself in a minute.

8. What to check in the contract

• Whose name the website, domain and hosting are registered in. The right answer: yours.
• Whether you get the source code and admin access.
• What's included: design, copy, SEO, analytics, training.
• Whether payments are tied to milestones.
• Support terms after launch.

9. Launch is not the finish line

After launch, analytics shows where customers come from, which pages they read and where they leave. Based on that, the site is improved and new articles and pages are added. That is how websites that actually bring customers are made. If you'd like to add a chatbot or AI assistant to the site later, we cover that in our article on AI integration costs.

The bottom line

A successful website order starts with a clear goal, a short brief and comparing what's included in each price. Focus on the result, not the price: the site should be fast, show up in search, be easy for you to edit and lead customers to get in touch.

We build custom corporate websites, landing pages and online stores: landing pages from 5 days, corporate websites from 2 weeks. Send us your brief and we'll estimate the price and timeline.