The answer is that this can vary widely from £499 all the way up to £8k plus, so I would suggest doing a bit of research before you hire a website designer, speak to more than one about their services, and then make a decision on who to work with. 

In this blog post, I’ll dive into the factors that will influence how much you pay in total for your dog trainer website, so you can weigh up the options that are right for you. 

It depends on the experience of the designer 

Generally, the more experience a website designer has, the more they will charge. 

They will have:

• nailed their design skills, so can bring your vision to life more easily. 
• be creating a custom design for you, which is more expensive than editing a template.
• nailed their client process so this means that they will help make the process smooth and easier for you. 

That’s not to say you wouldn’t have a fab experience with a newer designer too though. Take a look at their portfolio, and if it fits with your budget and you like their designs, arrange a call with them. 

Take me for example. 

I have 5 years experience at building websites, so I charge higher prices than designers in their first year. But if I add a platform to my experience, and I want to attract my ideal client, I may offer my service at a reduced rate. 

At the time of writing this (May 2024) I am charging £3000 for a 2 week website design. 

£500 for all dog trainers on Squarespace builds in June, July, and August 2024.

Schedule a free call here. 

Most designers list their prices on their websites 

If they don’t, email them and they should be transparent enough to tell you their approximate prices before they ask you to schedule a call with them. 

If not, for me this would be a red flag (huge warning sign). I would want to know if a designer was within my budget, before a consultation call, so I know I wasn’t wasting my time chatting to someone who was out of my budget. 

Be aware of hiring cheap website designers and what to expect

Yes, there are website designers out there who will give you a quote on Fiverr for £100-200. What this means is that they deliver you a website, in the shortest amount of time they can build it in. 

If you are only paying £100-200, it quickly becomes unprofitable work for them. 

It means they won’t be thinking too deeply about what your brand imagery should look like or spending any time teaching you how to edit your own website. 

Take a look at what package the designer is offering you 

Every designer will recommend a website design package they feel is right for you. Take a look and compare the services, asking yourself these questions. 

• Will they support you to gather all the text, images and legal docs they need? 
• Have they listed the extra options and costs of these? 
• Will they spend time with you listening to what goals you have for your website? 
• Will they listen and understand your vision for your brand? 
• Will they give you opportunities to review designs and give feedback on them? 
• How many revisions do they build into their packages? 
• Is the website build based on customising a template or is it custom built? (Custom builds are more expensive) 

Don’t be afraid to ask questions to clarify

If there’s anything you don’t understand, don’t be afraid to ask them questions as you are about to make a huge investment in your business and you want to make the right informed choice for you. It may be the difference between hiring one designer over another. 

Bigger dog trainer websites mean bigger cost

If you already have a website for your dog training business and you have a few pages, and a blog that needs transferring, this will cost a lot more than a 5 page starter website for a new dog trainer. 

The amount of pages and transferring blog pages can be time consuming for the designer, so they will charge accordingly. With this type of situation particularly, I always recommend speaking to the designer on a call, as they will be able to advise you of the options available. 

It can depend on your website goals too

A 6 page website is generally the standard sized website project that I quote £3k for. 

So over 2 weeks you would get: 

• Consult call at the beginning of the build (1.5 hours)
• Fully customized and mobile responsive site up to 6 pages
• Website built on Squarespace
• Site wide search engine optimisation
• Domain connection
• Social media and email marketing system connection
• Training call so you can edit your own website easily. (1.5 hours)

But if one of your goals was building a small shop on the website, or having a training session booking software that takes payments, integrated into the website then this would be an optional extra that I would quote extra for. (Bolt-ons) 

The price for your dog trainer website may depend on how fast you get it 

Some website designers will charge you £3k +  and have the website done all in a day for you. So if your goal is to have your website up and running fast, then you may pay a premium,but it cuts out the long timelines of traditional website design projects that can last 2 – 3 months. 

The total price for your dog trainer website (including copy and images) depends on a few factors. 

Now we’re looking at TOTAL price for your website. I wanted you to be aware also of the options for things like the text on the pages and the images you include. 

Text (copywriting)

This can add to the total overall cost of your website, depending on what you decide to do. 

Scenario A – You take my help documents I supply you when you pay your 33% deposit and you write the text for your website yourself. 

Cost = nothing extra 

Scenario B – You opt to hire a copywriter to write the text for your website as you know you don’t have time, and you have some budget set aside for that. The cost for a copywriter for a full website can vary but plan for £1-3k. You let me know this is what you are doing and we schedule the website design build for a month later as the copywriter will likely take a month to complete the project. 

Cost = potentially between £1k – £3k extra to website build 

Images and brand photography 

This also can add to the total overall cost of your website, depending on what you decide to do. 

Scenario A – You take my help documents I supply you when you pay your 33% deposit and you source the stock images for free. 

Cost = nothing extra 

Scenario B – You opt to hire a brand photographer to take photos for your website.The cost for a brand photographer can vary but plan for £750 -2k. 

You let me know this is what you are doing and we schedule the website design build for 6 weeks later as the brand photographer has given you the dates when the photos will be ready. 

Cost = potentially between £750 -2k extra to website build 

In conclusion 

When you’re looking for the perfect website designer to build your website, take into account your approximate budget and work out whether you have reserves for brand photography and copywriting too. From there take a look around at who is within your budget (some website designers like me offer payment plans too) and narrow your search down to around 3 who are transparent with there prices and whose designs you love! 

Speak with them, check out their proposed packages, and figure out your timeline if you are having a brand photoshoot or hiring a copywriter. Finally, book a date for your website design.  with the designer you felt would create your vision for your website, and include you in the process too. It needs to be a great experience for you too!