Structuring a pricing page

Whether to publish at all

Publishing filters. It loses the people who were never going to afford you and it keeps the ones who can, which for most small businesses is a better trade than a higher count of enquiries that go nowhere.

Not publishing loses people too, and invisibly. Somebody who cannot find any indication of cost assumes it is expensive or assumes you are hiding something, and both assumptions send them elsewhere.

Where a figure genuinely cannot be given, publish what determines it. That answers the real question without committing you to a number you would have to qualify.

Explain the variables

The number on its own creates questions. What makes a job cheaper, what makes it more expensive, what is included and what is extra. Those four turn a figure into information somebody can use.

Give an example if you can. A typical job of this size, with these conditions, came to roughly this, is far more useful than a rate, and it is a statement about your own work rather than a promise.

Be careful with the wording. Our page on pricing claims covers what creates an obligation, and a figure presented as fixed when it is not is the usual source of disputes.

Ranges, from prices and packages

A range communicates uncertainty better than a single figure with a caveat, because the uncertainty is in the number itself rather than in a sentence people skim past.

A from price is legitimate when the bottom of the range is a real job you actually do. Where nothing is ever done at that price, it is a claim that will not survive the first quote.

Packages help where the work is genuinely standardized. Where it is not, presenting bespoke work as three tiers creates an expectation the quote then contradicts.

What a pricing page must contain

The list below is what turns a pricing page from an anxiety into an answer. Most pricing pages carry the figures and leave out everything that makes them meaningful.

• What the price includes, itemized
• What is not included
• What makes a job cost more or less
• Whether a visit or an estimate is chargeable
• How and when payment is taken
• Whether the figure is fixed or indicative
• A date, or a note that figures are reviewed

Reviewing the figures

A pricing page is the fastest-ageing page on a business site, and the one where staleness costs most. A customer who arrived because of a figure and is quoted a different one starts the relationship suspicious.

Review it on a fixed schedule rather than when somebody notices. Our page on keeping content current covers the routine, and pricing belongs at the top of the list.

Say when the figures were last reviewed. That single line lets a reader judge the age of the information and protects you when costs have moved since.

What the page must not do

Hide the total. Anything that appears only at the end, such as a compulsory fee or a minimum charge, has to be visible where the price is stated rather than discovered later.

Use urgency that is not real. Our page on deceptive design covers countdowns that reset and offers that never end, both of which are treated as deceptive practices.

And compare against a figure you cannot evidence. Was and now pricing carries rules about what must actually have been charged. Nothing here is legal advice.

Ending the page

With the next step and what it costs. Somebody who read the pricing page and is still there has largely decided, and the page should make acting on that as easy as possible.

Say whether the first conversation is chargeable. Ambiguity about that stops more enquiries than any figure on the page, because people will not risk an unexpected bill for asking.

Our page on quote requests covers what happens next, including the difference between a quote and an estimate, which matters more here than anywhere.