General Discussions

**VirtuosiMedia** · 08:50 PM

I'm trying to do a little research about what the going market rate for professional website critiques as I'm looking at offering this as a service. I haven't been able to find any prices online because no one lists their prices, so I decided to ask here (I can move this thread if you can think of a better-fitting forum).

Here is a general overview of what the critique would cover:

Design
Usability
Accessibility
Performance
Security
Conversion factors
Website copy
On-page SEO factors
Social media integration
Competitive comparison

A site would be evaluated extensively for each one of the above topics and written recommendations would be made for improvement for each area. In all, over 100 different factors would be examined. You could probably expect at least a 10 page report.

What would you expect to pay for a service like that per website? What would you be willing to pay for a critique like that for your website? Also, if you know of any websites that offer something similar, could you please point them out?

**dvduval** · 05-16-2009, 09:33 PM

A couple of things...

It would help if I could see an example of a critique so I could have an idea what I would be receiving for the money. It would also be helpful to know who is doing the critique, and how I would benefit from the critique, or how others have benefited. I would probably pay at least $100 if I felt I was receiving expert advise, and felt it would lead me to improvement of my site.

**VirtuosiMedia** · 05-16-2009, 10:05 PM

Thanks, dvduval, you made some good points. Having a sample or at least a partial sample is something that I was considering. Testimonials would also be good, as would listing some benefits.

**Giselle** · 05-16-2009, 11:47 PM

Hello VirtuosiMedia,

As potential client, I would be interested in your credentials and the amount of time you be be spending on critiquing my website. The amount of time would determine the amount of money I would be willing to pay.

**theguru** · 05-17-2009, 02:16 AM

It really depends on the credentials and reputation of the person giving out the critique. I can get a whole bunch of pretty good critiques from my contacts as well as free resources such as forums. Unless I have heard your name in a bunch of places, I wouldn't pay for such a service in all honesty.

**Brian07002** · 07:29 PM

I hope you don't think the Critique is going to do this one time and that's all. In fact, I know of critiques that get more than 60,000 per website. Of course that is over a year of critique time...But I was just trying to tell you that people do this for a living, so in case you were looking for someone to just critique your site one time, that's not where I was going with this. What

Hth,
-Brian

**VirtuosiMedia** · 05-24-2009, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian07002

I hope you don't think the Critique is going to do this one time and that's all. In fact, I know of critiques that get more than 60,000 per website. Of course that is over a year of critique time...But I was just trying to tell you that people do this for a living, so in case you were looking for someone to just critique your site one time, that's not where I was going with this. What

Hth,
-Brian

That's an interesting point as well, Brian. Do you think you could point me to some of those companies that give critiques like that?

**VirtuosiMedia** · 05-24-2009, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giselle

Hello VirtuosiMedia,

As potential client, I would be interested in your credentials and the amount of time you be be spending on critiquing my website. The amount of time would determine the amount of money I would be willing to pay.

Well, I'll have to do a few to see how long it actually takes, but it will be very thorough. The way that I'm looking at now, it's a lot longer than I originally was considering. It will probably an illustrated report and action plan for a website, between 70-100 pages long, depending on the website. To me, though, it isn't how much time it takes but what value it holds for the website receiving the review. It will be focused on making the website more profitable.

**Giselle** · 05-26-2009, 01:02 PM

First of all VirtuosiMedia I feel this new business venture is a great idea! Over the last few days I have thought about your new business venture, it truly is a good idea and definitely worth pursuing.

Here's where I came up with time, if this took 15 minutes of time and Dvduval mentioned $100, my thoughts were that could be a bit high for charging. If a website had a few pages against a bigger website with numerous pages, there almost would have to be different pricing.

Right now I can't research this for you myself, I completely crashed the other night, so my mind is on motherboards and cpu's. This is the other computer

, uh oh, I better shut up and be thankful I can use it!

When I am operational I will do some researching, my curiosity is peaked.

**willcode4beer** · 05-26-2009, 01:10 PM

Assuming the issue of credentials and validity of the reviewer are out of the way.
I think a thorough one, as you've described would be worth between $1500 - $3500 depending on the site.

A small site with little interactivity would be less.
A larger site with lots of forms or various ways for the user to interact could go for much more. A really large one, would probably have several full-time employees dedicated to the function (my employer does).

**ranter** · 05-26-2009, 01:47 PM

Give me site and I will trash it free of charge

**Giselle** · 05-26-2009, 09:35 PM

Here are two links that might help with pricing and what they are offering:

http://www.websitemarketingnow.com/m...ite-audit.html

http://www.inexpensivewebsitecritiques.com/

**willcode4beer** · 05-26-2009, 11:12 PM

Giselle, it looks like those two site are in dire need of critique themselves

**Giselle** · 05-27-2009, 11:43 AM

with Paul! That's the best one yet!

The first link has 76 Errors, 23 warning(s), the second link has no errors. No I didn't check the url sites for coding errors, mainly I was interested in pricing and what kind of checking and reporting they were offering. The second link was the one I was more partial to, because the gentleman was upfront as to who he is, how he got into the business, what exactly he will be checking and what he won't be checking. If you want your pages validated that would be an extra charge.

However, now I am looking at this in an entirely different light. I did a Google search, these links were on the first page of the search, I went to the second page of the Google search, didn't see anything worthwhile. Possibly I could have missed something on the first page, perhaps someone else could find something better. Right now the way I feel, this is the competition, such as it is.

**VirtuosiMedia** · 05-28-2009, 04:50 PM

Thanks guys. The links and the advice help give me a better idea. I've already written the marketing copy for this but it won't go live on my site until mid-July because I'm in the middle of a major and much needed redesign. It's a little long, but if you're interested, I can post it here, otherwise I'll just update this thread when it goes live.

**Giselle** · 05-28-2009, 08:32 PM

I would be interested in reading you marketing copy here.

**VirtuosiMedia** · 12:23 AM

Okay, so I just found the attachment button. I thought there was one, but it always escaped me for some reason. I uploaded it as a word doc, but if you have trouble reading it, let me know and I'll do a different format.

**Giselle** · 05-29-2009, 01:22 AM

I was able to save the document and now I am going to read the document offline, VirtuosiMedia.

**VirtuosiMedia** · 05-29-2009, 04:13 AM

Thanks Giselle. I'd give you Talkupation points, but it looks like you have it disabled, so I'll just say that I appreciate it a lot. Any comments, questions, or suggestions would also be welcome.

**Giselle** · 05-29-2009, 02:23 PM

I was going to ask you VirtuosiMedia if you wanted comments on the document.

I read the document over several times last night, a huge warning bell went up on with the 30-day risk-free money back guarantee, and it was questionable for me at the end with the word free with the free quote button. I understood everything you explained in the document. I read the document over again this morning. I thought perhaps another opinion, my husband, who really isn't a webmaster but a business owner, but not a complete dope when it comes to web pages.

He understood everything in the document except the words Cross-Site Scripting and SQL injection attacks. He has a sense of humor that never quits, so as a smartie pants he thought SQL meant a squirrel in abbreviation who was being injected with a shot of penicillin. But overall he understood all the information you conveyed in the document, outside of the squirrel issue.

We both are in agreement on the 30-day risk-free money back guarantee, no way on that issue. We feel people would wrongfully take advantage of that statement, have the information and before 30 days demand their money back with some kind of a lame excuse, only to use the information to their advantage after the fact. As a footnote from my husband, there are people who pay millions of dollars for advertising, whether television, billboards or a telephone directory, whether the business does well or not there are no refunds or any kind of guarantees, at least not in the advertising business. Here's another thought on a critiquing web pages, no matter how perfect the pages are, one doesn't know what kind of reputation the business owner has, a loss of business or no business could depend on their business practices, which has nothing to do with you. That's why we don't see a money back guarantee, but these are our opinions, you have to do what is best and works for yourself.

The free word just didn't sound right to me, but husband said the free word needs to be there, because some companies do charge for a quote and everyone does like something free.