I'll be honest & tell you I'm expensive!
Normally I'd charge £495 upwards for a site
That is not expensive, that is ridiculously cheap.
You should expect to pay about £3k for a decent website, and then extra for any revisions at a later date. A friend of my dad's had their website done (not window cleaning) and it cost £6k, and it looked very slick.
You cannot get a top tontch website for less than £3k, but then it does depend on exactly what you want. Any less than that and you don't get web designers, you get people who have learned a bit of web design and do their best for some pocket money.
Just like everything else, eg flyer design, logo design etc, you get what you pay for. You have to pay good money if you want good design.
That is so wrong mate it is untrue, you can get a very good website for a lot less than 3k we are not in the ninetys anymore when they were expensive.
a website is not just about the look, it is about the message and the marketing to get people to see the message the rest is secondary.
Backlinking can still work if you know what your doing (not a dig at anyone), Nat is spot on about low quality links and natural content has always been king always will be why google is in business it there business model to give the people seraching what they are looking for, simple business model.
Social Media without question is where the marketing should be done it is all about traffic and conversions back to your site.
This is well exciting to talk about but I really better shoot