Need a Website Team?
Many years ago, waaayyyy back in 1996 and, quite literally, not too many years after the internet thing showed up, my husband and I started Sundog Media designing template-based websites for Realtors at $85 a page. Back then, domains cost $75 a year and Network Solutions was domain registrar in town. Animated .gifs were really cool and flash was still around the corner. As you all know, a lot has changed in the website design and development process since then. Yet, the process of sharing company stories online is very much the same and we continue to serve many small Alaskan businesses just as we did in the old days. We are grateful for each and every customer who has honored us with their trust and patronage. Our focus is responding in a prompt, timely, professional manner ensuring the websites we host and help maintain are relevant to those who are searching the web for a service our clients provide and are as up-to-date and useful as possible.
We choose to focus on offering the highest quality products and service possible. And, although we would like to be able to use our God-given talents to their fullest serving up more websites, the truth is that there is only so much time in the day as one of Sundog’s highest goals is that all our team can put family first. The challenge is to provide top-quality customer service to all the clients we serve while still allowing our team to make a reasonable living and have quality family time. Sometimes that means we just can’t take on a project, even though we would love to.
So, if you have an HTML or WordPress site that you’d like us to assist with, you are likely asking yourself:
“WHAT ARE YOUR WEBSITE OPTIONS, AND HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?”
Here are some things you should consider when looking at your website.
1. IF IT’S NOT BROKEN, YA DON’T HAVE FIX IT 🙂
Cars without airbags still get you from point A to point B. We have Annual Website Service plans for all our customers that include hosting and some content maintenance. An older website can still be relevant and useful. You may be penalized for not being mobile friendly but it does not mean you will completely drop off the search engines. Sure, a modern website often makes it easier for visitors but quality content is important as well. Your search engine ranking, visibility, and interest level are multi-factored. Certainly, having the newest look and feel and being mobile-friendly is very helpful in garnering internet traffic but the content also matters. If you’re happy with your site, we can make updates to your HTML or outdated website. Fill in our Get Started form to see if migrating your site is a viable option. You’ll need to locate your login credentials to where you renew your domain ownership and where the current site is hosted for us to take a look under the hood if & when you want a free estimate from us.
2. CONVERT YOUR HTML SITE TO WORDPRESS
Your old site may have relevant content but let’s face it, the website world has changed and your site is overdue for a mobile-friendly WordPress conversion. Custom-designed, mobile-friendly and responsive WordPress sites are Sundog’s niche so we just might be a fit. Fill in our Free Estimate form and let us know a few sites you like and why so we know what you’re looking for. As you probably can guess, estimating cost with no knowledge of a sitemap, complexity, content relevance and traffic is almost impossible but to give a very rough estimate, a conversion website could likely begin at:
Cost: Starting $5,000, many projects range $8,000-15,000 depending on complexity. Annual Website Service Plans start at $1600, many range $2400-3200/year
Typical Timeline: 2-5 months.
Have a look at some recent websites in our Portfolio
3. NEW TO SUNDOG? MIGRATE YOUR WEBSITE
You like what you have you don’t have a team that helps with the maintenance you need? Our team can take a look under the hood for your. Our migration service package is tailored to meet your needs and is based upon our free website audit. Our migration services can include:
- Optimize website speed
- Full security check and fix/clean issues found
- Review SEO and make possible tweaks/improvements
- Review to make sure working well on all mobile devices
- Update Plugins / Theme
- Add our Pro version plugins if needed
- Remove un-needed plugins/themes
- Accessibility review through Web Aim to ensure no serious issues
- Compress all images to optimize page-loading
- Update any text content (especially needed if your previous team was hard to work with)
- Update/add photos
- Ensure Google Analytics 4 is installed and tracking
- Test forms
- Setup daily backups, daily security checks, and 5-minute uptime monitoring
- Setup SSL certificate
- Add Akismet Spam Protection
Before you fill out the form let’s talk ballpark costs.
1. There is a one-time fee of $2,000-$4,000 for migration time and any fixes or improvements performed.
2. Your website will be served with a $1,600-$3,800 Annual Website Service Plan once it has been migrated.
So, if this all sounds great, fill in our Free Migration Estimate form here.
4. YOUR SITE IS WORDPRESS BUT COULD USE A FULL RESPONSIVE CONVERSION
This option is for sites that still have a fairly strong design but need a fresh start for about everything that is under the hood as well as a few design improvements.
- For WordPress customers only, this option will address Google’s Mobile Friendly requirements
- HTML5
- CSS3
- Configure viewport to scale the website to the correct size for mobile browsers
- Create separate responsive views for desktop computers, landscape tablet, portrait tablet, mini tablet, and mobile phones.
- Increased Font Size
- Better Padding and Line Spacing
- Larger photos & Slide Show Images Where Applicable
- Responsive Google Map and Forms
Cost: Starting at $4,000
Typical Timeline: 6-8 weeks
5. BRAND NEW CUSTOM RESPONSIVE WORDPRESS WEBSITE
Many websites designed well over a decade ago are still up and running but let’s face it, it is time for a brand new website. Sundog’s primary focus these days is custom-designed, mobile-friendly/responsive WordPress sites.
Cost: Starting at $7,000, typical projects range $10,000-$15,000
Annual Website Service Plans starting at $1600. Cost will vary depending on the size of the site, content, complexity and traffic.
Typical Timeline: 3-5 months start to launch
Have a look at some recent websites in our Portfolio
6. SOME OTHER OPTIONS
Nearly all business owners have a fear of losing customers, not only from a standpoint of the financial loss, but more importantly to us is the fact that we care about the folks we serve and have built our business around. We understand that we may not be the best fit for managing your web brand. This said, I want to make a few more suggestions.
One… Find a local, smaller web shop that is a fit for you both financially and in skill set. There are many wonderful Alaskan web teams that would appreciate your business. We hate to see you leave but we will do our best to make the transition as smooth as possible.
Two… Although they have some limitations, there are a few do-it-yourself national website companies that offer a low cost approach to creating a mobile friendly website.
Sure, we’d love to redesign your site if it’s outdated but you should consider:
- Cost and skill set
- Mobile Responsiveness
- Do you need payment processing
- Will it have SSL certification
- Will SEO be addressed with meta tags, custom page URLs, meta tags and page descriptions
We hope Sundog is the perfect match to take that next step with your online website marketing. We want to thank each and every one of you, our customers, for believing in us over the years and trusting us with your business.
If you are interested in any of these options and would like to chat by phone, Zoom or over a cup of coffee, just let me know and we will get it scheduled.
Sincerely,
Cathy Law
