An established B2B business should budget for the information and buying decisions its website must support, not just a page count. Service explanations, product records, case studies, technical documents and enquiry routing create different kinds of work. A focused lead-generation site can be a contained project; a portal with customer accounts, pricing and connected systems is a separate software brief.
The worksheet below turns those requirements into units a supplier can price. Its illustrative £6,000 external budget is a worked scope, not a UK market average or Smartcon Works quotation. It also exposes the internal preparation and ongoing costs that can otherwise disappear from the decision.
Which kind of B2B website are you commissioning?
A focused company website explains who you serve, what you provide and how to start a conversation. It may contain only a few services and selected projects. Its complexity can be modest even when the business itself is substantial.
A broader sales-support website needs more structured information: separate service lines, sectors, case studies, products or resources. The work includes deciding how those records relate, preparing the material and giving editors a consistent way to maintain it.
An integrated platform adds operational behaviour, such as account-specific prices, live stock, document permissions or quotations generated from a system. It needs feasibility work, failure handling and ongoing integration ownership. A “CRM connection” that creates one lead is not equivalent to synchronising customers and orders.
The small business cost guide compares supplier models and standard packages. Here, the budgeting task is narrower: identify the work behind an established B2B company’s more detailed brief.
Information architecture affects the estimate before design starts
List the decisions visitors need to make. A buyer might need to identify the relevant service, establish sector experience, check geographical coverage and send a technical requirement. Each decision needs an answer somewhere; it does not necessarily need a separate page.
Then count content records and layout types independently. Eight service pages may use one layout, but each still needs a distinct explanation. Four case studies may share a template while requiring interviews, permissions and evidence checking. Reusable design reduces repeated build work; it does not eliminate content preparation.
For product businesses, count variants, specifications and documents as well as product pages. Twenty records with approved data are a different assignment from twenty names that someone must research and reconcile. Our manufacturing cost guide examines that catalogue-specific work in more detail.
A scope-based budgeting worksheet
Use a row for each deliverable, its quantity, who supplies the inputs and how completion will be checked. The example concerns an established B2B service business with eight service pages, four case studies and home, about and contact pages: fifteen pages in total.
All figures below are hypothetical and exclude VAT. They illustrate how a budget is assembled; they do not represent a package, rate card or typical market price.
On smaller screens, scroll across to read all columns.
| Work to price | Quantity and assumption | Allowance |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and information architecture | One agreed audience, page and enquiry plan | £900 |
| Design and build | Reusable service and case-study layouts, core pages and 15 page entries | £1,500 |
| Service copy preparation | Eight pages at an assumed £150, based on supplied notes | £1,200 |
| Case-study editing | Four approved accounts at an assumed £100 | £400 |
| Enquiry and CRM connection | One form, one agreed lead destination and failure checks | £600 |
| SEO migration | A small agreed URL inventory, mapping and checks | £450 |
| Acceptance and handover | Agreed browser, accessibility and enquiry checks; operating notes | £350 |
| Defined work subtotal | Supplier work before contingency | £5,400 |
| Client-held contingency | Only spent on approved extra work | £600 |
| External planning budget | Subtotal plus contingency | £6,000 |
This example assumes a supplied brand, usable photographs, approved core-page copy and a relatively small migration. It excludes new photography, a large document library, translation, self-service CMS development, portal functions and third-party subscription fees. A real proposal must replace the assumptions with your actual requirements.
Add internal work separately. An illustrative 24 hours gathering material and reviewing pages at an internal cost of £40 an hour adds £960, making the total planning commitment £6,960 before ongoing costs and VAT. That time is not a supplier invoice, but it still uses business capacity. Do not add it again if already included in another internal project allowance.
Copywriting and technical approval need different owners
“Content included” might mean pasting in approved text, editing notes or interviewing specialists and writing from scratch. Ask which. If a designer is expected to infer product specifications or the limits of a professional service, the brief has left a business decision unowned.
For each content type, nominate the person who supplies facts, the person who writes and the person who approves. A case study may need customer permission; a specification may need technical review; a service page may need input from the delivery team. Include these dependencies in the programme rather than treating them as a final proofread.
A useful pilot is one representative service page and one case study. Complete them before estimating dozens more. The exercise reveals how much material is missing and whether the planned template actually supports the buyer’s questions.
Price the entire enquiry journey
Describe what happens after someone presses Send. Is the request delivered by email, entered into a CRM, assigned to a regional team or held for qualification? What happens if the receiving service is unavailable? Who notices duplicate records or a failed notification?
A basic contact form may be enough. An integration becomes worthwhile when it removes a defined operational problem and someone owns its ongoing configuration. Ask whether the quoted work includes field mapping, authentication, test records, delivery confirmation and documentation. Subscriptions and future API changes belong in the ownership budget.
Technical enquiries can also need document handling. Decide whether files are necessary at first contact or whether a secure follow-up route is more proportionate. Do not quietly expand an ordinary enquiry form into a tender-management system.
Include migration and running costs explicitly
For an existing site, inventory valuable landing pages, downloads and linked resources. Preserve useful addresses and map necessary changes. Google’s guidance on moving URLs includes both preparation and monitoring; those tasks should have an owner in the project estimate.
Keep domain renewal, hosting, licences, technical care and content updates outside the one-off subtotal unless the proposal clearly includes them. Specify how editors will work. A stable custom-coded site may need only occasional developer changes; a busy editorial team may justify a CMS and training. Both choices have continuing costs.
Ask every supplier to state VAT treatment, payment stages, exclusions and the approval process for additional work. A contingency is a reserve against known uncertainty, not permission to deliver an undefined scope.
Make the quotations comparable
Send the same worksheet, representative content and integration description to each supplier. Ask them to mark every row as included, excluded, provisional or client-supplied. If a price is provisional, identify the investigation needed to fix it.
Our proposal comparison guide helps assess those differences. If the first-release scope is still unclear, the B2B redesign scoping guide can help decide what belongs now and what can wait. A budget becomes defensible when the work, assumptions and responsibilities are visible together.