Web Design Services and Budget

So you would like a website and you would like to be top ten in the search engines, but you want it cheap. What could you expect for say....400.00. A 5 page site at an average of 80.00 per page ? A 40 page site at an average of 10.00 per page ?
So why does one company say it will cost $400 and another says $900 ? There are many reasons but optimization alone could cost $400 on a 5 page site.

Web Design Prices - What is the difference ?
Possibly that $400 guy doesn't edit meta tags, uses an out of the box, paint by numbers template and uses a mass submission tool rather than submit to select directories. You must supply him every image and blocks of text. Not a single image has an alt tag. $900 guy uses a search engine freindly CMS or script and edits titles and meta data for each page and uses alt tags for images. They may also write copy for you and souce material for your site
Simply wanted a website but did'nt find it simple ?
If you already have a domain name chances are you probably do not even know who your host is, what the password is, or how much you are paying. It is very common. Many businesses jumped on the idea of a website, registered their domain but got confused as how to actually create it. Some even paying for hosting accounts they have'nt developed. Many thought that the 20.00 a year they paid for registration was including the hosting. Mainly because they did not understand that a domain name and a place to view it are 2 different things. Disovering that it actually costs 20 amonth for basic plans on the most reputable hosts. You may have tried the online website wizard creation tools, and got frustrated because it was supposed to be easy, simple, and you still couldnt do it. Don't worry, they can make them as simple as possible but tther will still be confusing elements in the process, so don't feel bad. If you are a business owner you probably do not have the time to be learning how to do this ot that. It is more efficient to hire someone to manage it for you.