How Much Should You Budget for a Website Optimisation Service?
Budgeting for a website optimisation service is a nuanced process. Not only will you need to consider the number of changes that must be made, you’ll also have to decide which type of provider you’ll work with.
Is a solo freelancer right for you? A consultant? An agency? Or an in-house resource? Read on for a breakdown of the website optimisation service options that are available to you:
Types of Website Optimisation Services
When selecting a service to provide website optimisation, you typically have three main choices. You can hire:
- A freelancer or consultant
- An agency
- An in-house resource
Bringing on an in-house resource can be a good choice for businesses that anticipate heavy, ongoing UX requirements. But if all you need is website optimisation support, the financial commitment associated with hiring regular workers may not make sense when you take their full salary and benefits into consideration.
Next, while a freelance UX designer or website optimisation consultant may offer you some valuable skills, they will be somewhat limited in what they can offer you — as they’re likely to specialise in just one or two main skills. Additionally, many optimisations will require the skill sets of both a UX consultant and a developer. Freelance ‘unicorns’ that can do both are virtually impossible to find!
If you anticipate needing to complete complex optimisation work, an agency with a larger bench of talent that can support multiple project aspects at a high level is often the better choice.
An agency can help you strategically plan an optimisation roadmap, as well as be able to deliver on all of those activities with the same team, at the same time. In this way, they provide far greater capacity than you’ll get from an individual freelancer, which is especially important if you have a lengthy list of UX projects in mind.
Further, if your agency team includes someone in a Project Manager role, you can count on your website optimisation work to be properly sequenced and executed according to your strategic goals. This increases your odds of achieving the goals you have for your optimisation projects.
Types of Website Optimisation Service Offerings
Typically, website optimisation service offerings are structured as project-based work or retainer agreements.
More straightforward projects, such as those with smaller websites or fewer issues to resolve may work best when structured as a one-off, single project.
Larger websites with a larger number of problems, on the other hand, often benefit from an ongoing retainer agreement that allows for consistent, continual improvement in line with the needs of a larger team or higher volume of content.
Questions to Consider When Choosing a Website Optimisation Service
Keep the following questions in mind when evaluating potential website optimisation partners:
Do I have a website optimisation plan?
Has your team already developed a strategic optimisation plan? If so, a solo freelancer or independent consultant will be able to get up-to-speed more quickly.
On the other hand, if you haven’t undertaken this type of strategic work, an agency that can assist with project roadmapping (or even identifying issues in the first place) can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your optimisation work.
How many pending issues do I have?
If you have more than a few pending issues to resolve, it’s important to determine whether the person or agency you hire can actually resolve them in a timely manner.
Generally, the bigger the team you have at your disposal, the faster critical bugs and usability issues can be rectified. Some agencies may provide 24/7 support for critical issues, but ask about wait times, as larger agencies may have a required onboarding period that delays your start.
In any case, the agency you’re considering should be able to provide you with a ‘Service Level Agreement’ (often referred to as an ‘SLA’) which defines your rights and responsibilities.
Do I have any in-house optimisation capacity?
If you already have some in-house optimisation capacity that can work on your optimisation project, you’ll require less of an outside team to assist. This may help reduce your budget, and may influence the type of provider you need.
For example, you may have someone internal who’s able to handle updates to page copy and metadata content — activities that require subject matter expertise, but that don’t require the technical ability to implement things like accessibility best practices. In this case, you can lower your costs by handling copy and content work in-house while sourcing developer support through an agency.
How close are you to rebuilding your website?
At Sitback, we generally recommend that all websites get rebuilt every 3–4 years to keep up with changing trends and consumer demand.
If you anticipate needing to rebuild your website soon, it’s best to not invest too heavily in project work at this time. A freelancer or consultant can help you resolve pressing issues until your rebuild, or you can partner with an agency that can help you work towards a rebuild whilst getting to know your organisation.
This is a situation we commonly encounter. We’ll inherit a legacy platform, get to know the company, and support urgent issues while we plan and build the replacement platform. Not only does this make for a stronger relationship, it allows us to learn from the existing platform and even test MVP ideas on the existing platform while building the fully-fledged version on the new site.
Sample Fees for Website Optimisation Services
To help with your budgeting, General Assembly reports that freelancers who specialise in UX design charge day rates between $400-$1000 AUD. Calvary data puts freelance UX designer rates between $365-$805 AUD per day.
At Sitback, we tend to structure our Support & Optimisation services on a retainer basis, as longer-term partnerships ensure clients who need the services of an agency get the results they need to work steadily towards their larger goals.
Given huge variability in terms of the hours included, the number of websites involved and additional services needed, our retainer fees range anywhere between $1500-$11,000 per month. Often, our clients find that working with our Support & Optimisation team provides the best overall ROI — because the work is locked in every month, we’re able to offer the lowest hourly rate to engage with our internal experts ranging from UX, to Development, when compared to project work or block hour purchases.
Would you like a more exact quote for your website optimisation service needs? Learn more about our Support & Optimisation offering, or get in touch for personalised guidance.
An earlier version of this article was published on the Sitback blog at: https://blog.sitback.com.au/blog/how-much-should-you-budget-for-a-website-optimisation-service
