How much should you pay for a martial arts school website?

You just launched your martial arts school and are looking to set up a website, or your current website is outdated and needs revamping.

The question is, "How much should you pay for a good martial arts school website?"

It's a simple question with a complex answer, and here's why.

Many articles out there will tell you that an average website costs anywhere between $2,000 to $10,000, $3,000 to $5,000, or $800 to $5,000.

While these are pretty average for small business websites, of course, you have other alternatives that can be drastically cheaper. But these prices are meaningless as they don't answer the most important question.

What exactly do you want to get out of your website?

Is it more leads? More sales? Brand exposure? Or just having your friends and family tell you how great it looks?

Hiring a web development company to build an aesthetically pleasing website is completely different than hiring a development company that knows how to build a website that generates more business for you.

Not that you cannot have a beautiful website that also converts, but rather it is very difficult to find a website design/development team that can do both.

The reason is that developing a website that attracts, captures, and converts more students for you is a completely different set of skills than just developing a website.

You'll need someone who knows how to design and then have a developer work those designs into a website. Once that is done, you'll need an SEO expert to optimize your website so it can rank on Google and other search engines. Finally, after all that, you need to hire someone who knows how to optimize the website for conversion and not just for looks.

So, with that in mind, let's go over all your available options and price points when it comes to developing a martial arts website.

1. Free DIY (Google & Web Hosting Companies)

Some hosting companies, such as HostGator, GoDaddy, and even Google, will provide you with a free website builder as long as you use their hosting. Google's service is 100% free, but it also has the most limited range of templates and design features.

I think you should only go for this option if you don't have any budget at all.

Pros

• Free other than paying for hosting
• Has some templates that you may like.

Cons

• Big learning curve, most people underestimate how long it takes to learn how to develop even using a web builder.
• Tied to your hosting company.
• Most of the templates aren't that great.
• Have to figure out how to integrate everything yourself.
• Can be slow.
• Have to figure out how to do all the technical setup yourself such as connecting a domain.
• Not optimized for SEO.
• Not conversion optimized to get you more leads & students.
• No automation or lead nurture system built in.
• You don't own the website

2. Paid DIY (Wix and Squarespace)

One step above free websites is using web builders such as Wix and Squarespace. This can start from as low as $16 per month, but realistically, you need to spend at least $27 per month since the Lite plan is very limited in features.

It's a great place to start, but keep in mind that oftentimes, because of the learning curve, you'll likely still end up hiring a Wix developer and paying them $500 to $1,000 anyway.

Pros

• Highly affordable
• Lots of great templates to work with
• Has free plugins that you can add for certain features.
• No need to worry about integrating your domain
• No need to pay for additional hosting.

Cons

• High learning curve takes up a lot of time.
• Usually end up with something that looks nothing like the template because you don't have the right text, photo, or design knowledge.
• Not easy to integrate with third-party software if it's not already part of the Wix ecosystem.
• Will likely still have to pay $500 to $1,000 or more to hire a developer to build the website.
• While Wix provides you with SEO tools you'll likely not have a fully optimized website for ranking on Google and other search engines.
• No automation or lead nurture system built in.
• You don't own the website.

3. Low-Cost Freelancer (Fiverr)

You can go to Fiverr or any other freelance platform and hire a website designer/developer for between $500 to $5,000. Fiverr isn't a bad place to look for a website developer; you'll likely end up spending roughly the same for a decent web developer as with any other mid-end web design agency or hiring someone for between $500 to $800.

The problem is that cheap freelancers will often do a terrible job, but you won't even know it. Most of them will just use some kind of free WordPress template and employ a dozen different plugins to get your site working.

It will not be responsive (meaning it won't work on all screen sizes), it won't be SEO optimized (because they don't know how), and it won't be conversion optimized (because they don't know how).

Worst of all, you will likely not end up with the design you want anyway because since you're not paying them a lot, they will tell you it cannot be done or try to cut corners.

Most of these freelancers on Fiverr are not designers or developers. They just know how to work with a template and stick a bunch of plugins to make something work.

If you do choose this option, in my opinion, you are better off just paying someone to design and develop your Wix or Squarespace website. At the very least, you know they have to follow Wix guidelines.

Pros

• Affordable
• You do own the website
• It is custom-designed for you.

Cons

• Not SEO optimized to rank on Google
• Not conversion optimized to get you more leads & students.
• Will not likely integrate well with third-party CRM or tools you need.
• You do need to buy your hosting plan (not expensive)
• May not end up with the design you want.
• No one to tell you to maintain it after.
• No automation or lead nurture system built in.
• Can be slow.
• Have to figure out how to do all the technical setup yourself such as connecting a domain.
• Can take 1 to 2 months.

4. Mid-End Web Design Agency

This is your standard web design agency that would charge you anywhere between $2,000 to $10,000 for a martial arts school website. I have nothing against them; the challenge is finding the right one that will do a great job.

It's tricky because if you want a great website that captures and converts more students for you, then you'll need to hire one that has a good designer, a good developer, someone who knows SEO optimization, and someone who knows conversion rate optimization.

Pros

• Still affordable in my opinion
• You do own the website
• It is custom-designed for you.
• They will likely integrate with your CRM
• They will set it up on your hosting for you.
• You will get a good design website (if chosen the right agency)

Cons

• May or may not be SEO-optimized.
• Not conversion optimized to get you more leads & students (it could be but unlikely)
• You do need to buy your hosting plan (not expensive)
• You need to know how to vet the web development agencies.
• They will likely charge you $200 a month for maintenance.
• No automation or lead nurture system built in.
• Can be slow (yes most web developer companies won't know or won't optimize your website for speed)
• Have to figure out how to do all the technical setup yourself such as connecting a domain.
• Can take 1 to 3 months.

5. Renting Website

There are a few companies out there that will rent you a website that they have built and resold to many other martial arts schools. This isn't a bad option and usually costs $300 per month.

However, while some of them will optimize the website for conversion, most of them won't optimize your website for SEO unless you pay them more. But I do think this is a good option if you don't want to break the bank and get a good website that is done for you.

Pros:

• Affordable.
• Completely done for you and set for you.
• No need to pay for hosting.
• Maybe conversion optimized.
• Will maintain the website for you.

Cons

• The website is not customized and designed for you.
• Usually, not SEO-optimized for you.
• No automation or lead nurture system built in.
• Can be slow (yes most web developer companies won't know or won't optimize your website for speed)
• You don't own your website.
• Can take 2 to 4 weeks to get up and running.

6. Monstro

While we are at it, I'm going to throw ourselves into the mix since we offer a website with every one of our plans. Yes, it is rented like the option previously mentioned but we provide a lot more perks at the same price point ($299 to $499 per month).

Pros:

• Affordable.
• Premium design ( I promise we have the best designer )
• Completely done for you.
• No need to pay for hosting.
• Fully optimized and tested to capture and convert more students for you.
• Fast-loading website (we optimize for speed).
• SEO-optimized website (Yes we optimize the website with best SEO practices)
• Will maintain the website for you.
• Integrated with our CRM and AI that will follow up with leads for you to increase new enrollment. So you don't have to do anything to get your online presence up and running.
• 7 days turn-around the time.
• Lifetime updates, yes we will continuously update your website to whatever is currently working best.

Cons

• The website is not custom designed for you.
• You don't own your website.

7. High-End Web Developers

High-end web development companies will gladly charge $8,000 to $100,000+. There is no end to this; you can create that perfect, award-winning website, and you will never need it.

High-end options are for brands that want to distinguish their brand and be unique. I once had a client with a conversion problem who wanted more leads from their website. I made some suggestions, but they decided to spend $50,000 to create a really beautiful custom-designed website because they wanted to differentiate themselves from their top competitors.

Did it get them more customers? Of course not. Their conversion didn't improve at all. The point is, you need to know your goals. Do you want to have the most beautiful website with fancy animations, or do you want more students? They usually don't go hand in hand.

Pros

• Could win you an award
• You own the website.
• Lots of people will tell you how awesome your website is.
• They will integrate with most third-party CRM or tools since you're paying so much (I hope).

Cons

• Very expensive
• Likely not optimized for conversion
• Likely not optimized for SEO (ranking on Google)
• Waste of money.
• Still have to pay for your own hosting.
• Can take 3 to 6 months.

What should you do

You’re free to choose what you want when it comes to designing and developing your martial arts school website. The only thing to keep in mind is to know your outcome.

What exactly do you want your website to do for your business?

1. Get more leads and students.
2. Win an award.

If you want leads and students, I recommend working with Monstro or a company like Monstro. As they likely have industry inside, you get the working website that will convert traffic to lead for you, if you don’t have at least $8,000 to $10,000 to invest to hire a development team, hire a SEO consultant, hire and CRO (Copy & Conversion Rate Optimization Expert) or spend months learning all of these and do it yourself.

These are in my opinion your best options.