Should you put prices on your website? The visitor has four tabs open and will not send four emails. Hiding the rate does not protect the margin. It hands the enquiry to whoever published theirs.
For a business selling a service with a known shape, that is most of the answer. The rest depends on what your website is there to do, and on how much your work changes from job to job.
Your visitor is comparing you with the other tabs
Picture the person reading your page. It is late and they have a shortlist, with every business on it open in a tab. Some of those tabs show a figure. Yours asks them to get in touch and wait.
Writing to you means a day or two before they learn if you are within reach. Closing the tab means no wait at all. The business that published its rate has already answered the question they came with, and it is the one they can write to already knowing the figure.
What happens when you publish your rates?
When the figure is on the page, the people who write have already read it. The conversation can start with the work, because the figure is out of the way.
The visitors who leave over the figure would have left anyway. Without it on the page, they leave later, after a call and a written proposal have taken your time.
Owners often worry that competitors will see their rates. A competitor can find them out with a single enquiry. Your customers are the people who can’t, because some of them never ask.
A published figure also spares you the first call where the number has to come up and neither side wants to raise it.
The visitors who leave over the figure would have left anyway.
When should you leave prices off your website?
A law firm handling a dispute cannot name a figure until it has read the papers. A speaker whose rate moves with the event, or a practice that wins its work by referral, may lose more than it gains by printing a number that is wrong for most visitors.
These are sites doing the standing job. The visitor arrives already recommended, and the page is there to confirm the recommendation. A number on that kind of page can start the negotiation before anybody has met.
Leaving the figure off works when a conversation is the normal next step for your buyer. When the figure is what they came to find, a missing figure sends them back to the other tabs.
If you do leave it off, say what the figure depends on and how soon you reply with it. A visitor who knows when the figure will arrive can wait for it. A visitor who sees nothing at all has only the other tabs to go on.
A starting figure works when every job is different
Between a fixed rate and no rate sits the starting figure. It tells the visitor where the smallest version of your work begins, and that the rest depends on what they need.
A starting figure helps only when you say what moves it. Name what changes the total, such as the size of the job and how soon it is needed, so the visitor can place themselves on the scale before they write. Somebody who can see roughly where they sit sends a better enquiry, with the detail you need to reply.
Keep the starting figure true to your work. If almost nobody pays it, the first call opens with a disappointment, and the visitor remembers the page as misleading.
Put the figure beside what it includes
A figure on its own invites comparison with the cheapest tab. Put what it includes right beside it, and the visitor compares what they get.
Northline Works, a coworking space, shows the rate beside every plan. Nia Amani, a coaching website, lays out each service with its investment shown. Both pages answer the first question before the visitor has to ask it.
Keep the words beside the figure short and concrete. Beside every figure, put:
- What is included, in the words your customer uses
- What happens after they pay
- The currency, and whether tax is included
- The button to book or enquire, so the decision and the next step sit together
I publish the investment for every launch
My own Services page shows the investment for each launch, in US dollars:
- A landing page, built in 24 to 48 hours: from $500
- A one-page website, built in 48 to 72 hours: from $700
- A five-page website, over five booked working days: from $1,350
- A larger website, seven pages or more: from $1,750
The written quote confirms the scope and the total before anything is booked or paid. By the time we speak, you already know the figure, so the call can go on your business.
“Alan did a fabulous job on our rebrand and supervised our website work through to launch. He also supported our family business, Planet Lodges, with its branding and rebrand at the same level of excellence. I recommend him without hesitation.”Director and Co-Founder, Good Earth Tours
Questions people ask about prices on a website
Will competitors see my prices?
Yes, and they could find them out with a single enquiry anyway. The people a hidden rate keeps out are your customers.
Should I show a fixed price or a starting price?
A fixed price when the work has a known shape. A starting figure when every job is different, as long as you name what moves the total.
Should the prices on my website include tax?
Say clearly whether they do, and put the currency beside the figure, so a visitor in another country knows what they are reading.
Where should prices go on a website?
Beside what each figure includes, with the button to book or enquire right under it, so the decision and the next step sit together.
