“How much does a website cost?” is the first question most owners ask, and the hardest one to get a straight answer to. Here is ours, with real numbers, plus what actually drives the price of a small business website and what to watch for wherever you buy one.
The short answer: our prices
At Operation Buildup in Oxford, a website is a one-time build price plus one monthly plan:
- Standard website: $2,495 one time, for up to about 10 pages.
- Pro website: $3,995 one time, for 24 to 35 pages: every service, every town, question pages and a full FAQ.
- Care: $149 a month, required with every site unless you choose Growth. It covers hosting, security and updates, backups, small changes and a local person to call or text.
- Growth: $399 a month instead of Care. Everything in Care, plus local SEO: every finished job becomes a post, your Google Business Profile kept current, 2 new service or town pages a month, review alerts with drafted replies and a plain-English monthly report.
So the first 12 months of a Standard website with Care comes to $4,283 ($2,495 + 12 × $149). And before any of that, the preview is free: we build a working preview of your new site from your public info and text you the link, so you can see it before you decide.
What drives the cost of a website
1. How many pages it needs
A site with a home page, an about page and one services page is a different job from a site with a page for every service and every town you work in. More pages means more writing, more structure and more to keep current. That’s the main difference between our Standard and Pro websites.
2. Who writes the words
Writing is often the slowest part of a website project. If you have to write every page yourself, the site waits on you. We write the first draft from your current site, your listings and what you tell us, and you approve every word before anything goes live.
3. Whether it’s set up to be found
A page that looks good but can’t be read by Google is a brochure. Search setup means real page titles and descriptions, Google business markup, a sitemap, Search Console set up at launch and old addresses redirected so you don’t lose the links you already have. For AI search, it means plain-English quick answers, FAQ markup, described photos and a summary file for AI tools.
4. What happens after launch
Hosting, security updates, backups and small changes are ongoing work. Some quotes leave them out, and the cost shows up later. We put them in one monthly plan, Care, so the full cost is clear up front.
5. Where your leads go
A form that emails a request into a busy inbox is easy to miss. Connecting the site to a CRM, so every request lands as a customer record with the page it came from, is worth planning for. Many CRMs accept website forms; we check what your account allows before promising, and ours comes connected if you don’t have one.
What to watch for when you buy a website
- Who owns your web address. It should be registered in your name. Ours always stays in yours.
- The monthly fee nobody mentioned. Ask what hosting, updates and backups cost after launch, in writing.
- Ranking promises. No one can honestly guarantee a Google ranking or an AI mention. Be careful with anyone who does. We never promise a ranking.
- Fake reviews. Bought or invented reviews put your business at risk. Real reviews only.
- Seeing it before you pay. You should be able to see what you’re buying. That’s why we build the preview first.
- Who approves the words. Nothing should go live that you haven’t read. You approve every word.
The bottom line
For a local small business in Alabama, the honest answer is a one-time build price plus a monthly plan that keeps the site running. With us that’s $2,495 or $3,995, then $149 a month for Care or $399 a month for Growth, every price in writing before you commit. The quickest way to know if it’s worth it is to see your own new site first.
Ask for a preview of your new site, or call or text 256-624-7313.