Standards are rules for writing 'good' code which every browser can understand and run in a similar way to get a standard result.

Web sites are written in a language called HyperText Markup Language (HTML). The way web pages look is often controlled by Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). This sounds complicated but it is just simple text interlaced with instructions for the browser and are usually quite easy to understand. For example the html instruction to make something bold looks like <b>and to stop it being bold is </b>. The text files are not saved with a .txt file extension but with .htm or .html.

In the past these files were often badly written and your browser had to work out what it was supposed to do. Different browsers produced different results. Nowadays any good developer knows all the correct standards to follow and writes ‘good’ standard compliant code. This is a bit like being able to write a concise business letter without spelling and grammar mistakes. Unlike humans who can guess at what was meant by a badly written letter, computers still often guess wrongly. That is why it is increasingly important to follow standards.

Not all web pages are written in advance. Often web servers (which store the websites) are asked to make a web page on the fly from a database. This is done by using a computer program or a script and mixing html with information taken from the database. Many different languages can be used to do this. Two of the most common are called ASP or PHP and they often use MSQL or MySQL as a database (SQL means Select Query Language.) All these languages have standards too. Sometimes if standards aren’t followed with these languages the computer can output complete rubbish or nothing at all.

Easy: As much as you want!

If you want a simple brochure site for your start-up firm it shouldn't cost more than a few £/€/$100s. At the other end if you have a great idea for a brilliant web application which is going to take the world by storm, you will probably have to pay lots of clever people to build it for you and others to look after the banks of servers you will need. A well established firm may well pay a little more each year for its website than it does for its printed brochures and paper-based advertising material. It probably depends on its priorities.

It is worth deciding fairly early on if you want to constantly update the site or if you just need a flat HTML site with a few pictures. It is also worth thinking about what message you want to get across. Writing for the web is a bit of an art so you may want help with this.

For a brochure site you need a domain name and somewhere to put the site. You can get perfectly good web hosting from as little as £/€/$10/month, and often you can pay far less. Sometimes these sites come with a free domain name; sometimes you have to pay a token charge for one. You can have lots of domain names all pointing at the same site if you want.

HTML is easy to do and only takes a couple of days to learn. Even so most people will probably find it easier to pay someone to do this. Paying someone who knows about web standards and design is worth the extra, but you still only need to pay (typically) £35/hour.  HTML probably takes your developer between two and five times longer to write than any word documents you may need. Often, for a brochure site, the look and feel can take longer to create than the HTML and CSS. Pictures can be difficult to find and your developer or designer can’t magic up what is in your head.

Most people want to update their site regularly and I would usually recommend they look at open source content management systems (CMS). These are free and easy to set up, but many people, including me, do charge for helping with the initial choice of software, setting them up and customising them. If you are at all technical, or have a very small budget you can easily learn how to do this yourself. It will probably take you a few days, maybe a week and isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some people prefer to pay for online, simple to use, site builder tools – these are usually just an unsophisticated CMS.

Entering text and images into a CMS isn’t really any harder than using a word processor and saving the files to the correct place. Depending on which CMS you choose it will probably take you a day or two to learn. Some do take longer, but I’d advise against these unless you have a particular reason for using one. You may well end up paying £25 for a book although most have free online instructions.

You may not need to go to a firm who charge for sales staff, accountants and project managers, but it is worth paying the extra to get someone who knows what they are doing. However, remember that web developers are not usually sales people and sales staff are not usually web developers. If you go with the good sales pitch you pay for the sales person and customer contact staff as well as the developer. If you go with a nerd you can save money but might have to learn a bit of a new language.

So how much do websites cost? It isn’t an easy question to answer. I’ve worked on multi-million pound sites down to small sites that cost less than £100/year. Some sites take a lot of people a lot of years to build, others, such as brochure sites, take a day or two; maybe a week or two for more sophisticated online brochures. If you want a lot of fun interactive content this takes time and will cost more although good developers will love to do it for you. It is hard to stop them. I guess you have to work out if it adds value or if you will get your money back because of it.