Meet Tina. She runs a lawn care crew and got three quotes: $500, $2,400, and $6,800. All three said "professional website." None of them said what that actually meant.
She almost picked on price alone. Instead she made a checklist of what a $500 website should include.
Use it on any quote you get.
1. A mobile-first build, not a "mobile-friendly" one
Roughly 60–70% of small business traffic is on a phone. Affordable small business website work should be designed for the phone first and the desktop second — not built wide and squeezed down.
Ask to see one of their live sites on your own phone before you pay anything.
2. Hosting handled, and a domain you own
Ask two questions: is hosting included, and for how long? And whose account is the domain in?
Plenty of cheap builds leave hosting as a surprise bill later. It should be stated up front, not discovered. And the domain should be in your name — not the designer's — so you can take it anywhere.
3. A direct way to reach you, right on the page
At this price, keep it simple: a tap-to-call phone number and your email, both visible without scrolling. That's what converts on a one-page site.
Forms, booking calendars, and email opt-ins are real features, but they're upgrades — and any quote that throws all of them in at $500 is telling you something. Tina added a plain text-us link and it became her most-used contact method, because her customers are outside all day and don't like typing into forms.
4. Local SEO set up, not just promised
Not a full campaign. The basics: a real page title, a meta description, your city on the page, proper headings, and your Google Business Profile claimed and connected.
That's the difference between existing and being findable. Ask specifically whether Google Business Profile setup is included — a lot of quotes skip it.
5. Written terms for what happens after launch
How many rounds of revisions are included? What does an update cost six months from now? Is there a refund window?
Tina's $500 quote spelled all of it out. The $6,800 quote did too. The middle one didn't, which is why she crossed it off.
A $500 website should include a mobile-first build, hosting handled, a domain you own, a direct way to reach you, local SEO actually set up, and written post-launch terms. Small, fast, findable, yours.
Price isn't what makes a website cheap. Vagueness is.
That leaves one more question worth asking: is a $500 website too cheap? And if you're still weighing scope, start with whether a one page website for a small business covers what you need.
