Should You Put Your Prices on Your Website? (Yes. Here's Why.)

As a business owner and a consumer, few things frustrate me more than researching a product or service online and not being able to find a price. Not even a ballpark. Just a form asking me to “request a quote” — which I know means sitting through a sales pitch before I get the one piece of information I was looking for.

I publish all my prices on my website. Every service, every plan, every package. I recently wrote about what websites actually cost in Perth — and the fact that I publish those numbers is deliberate. It’s one of the things my clients mention most.

If you run a small business and you’re not showing your prices online, this post is going to explain why that’s probably costing you customers.

What’s the short version?

Your customers want to know if they’re in the right ballpark before they contact you. If they can’t find pricing on your site, most will leave and find someone who does show it. Publishing prices — even a range — filters out the wrong enquiries, attracts the right ones, and builds trust before you’ve said a word.

What happens when people can’t find your prices?

Two things. Both bad.

You attract the wrong enquiries. People who can’t afford your services, people who are just price shopping, people who were never a real fit. Now you’re jumping on calls, writing quotes, and explaining your pricing over and over — to people who were never going to buy.

You lose the right customers. Good clients — the ones you actually want — see a site with no pricing and think “if I have to ask, it’s probably expensive or complicated.” So they don’t enquire at all. They go to the business that just says “website packages start from $1,500.”

Research from the Nielsen Norman Group backs this up. Their usability studies found that pricing is the number one piece of information people look for on a website. When they can’t find it, they go straight to a competitor who does show it. And it’s not hard to see why — hiding your prices makes you look like you’ve got something to hide.

Right now, people are already judging your pricing — just without any information.

The pushback I hear most often

“Every project is different — I can’t put a price on my site.”

This is the most common one. And for some industries, it’s genuinely true that exact pricing is complex. But your customers don’t need an exact price. They just need to know if they’re in the right ballpark.

Because in reality, you know your minimum job size, your typical range, and your premium tier. That’s what goes on the site.

“I don’t want to scare people off.”

What actually scares people off isn’t your price — it’s not knowing your price. When there’s no number on the page, people fill in the gap themselves. And they usually assume it’s more expensive than it really is.

By being upfront about your pricing, you help potential customers understand the value before they make assumptions. You attract people who understand what things cost in your industry. And you stop wasting time on conversations that were never going to go anywhere.

“What if competitors undercut me?”

Your competitors probably already have a reasonable idea of what you charge. And if they know about you, you know about them. This “big secret” isn’t really a secret. All you achieve by hiding prices is making it harder for real customers to choose you.

“I’d rather talk to them first and explain the value.”

That’s a fair instinct. But the way people buy has changed. According to Buzzlytics, the typical buyer has already done the majority of their research before contacting a business. And three out of four buyers say they prefer to educate themselves before speaking to anyone.

They want to feel informed, comfortable, and confident before they reach out. If you force them to contact you just to get basic pricing information, you’re pushing them into a conversation faster than they want — and many will simply leave instead.

You don’t need exact pricing. You need one of these.

There are three simple ways to be transparent about pricing without locking yourself into a fixed number.

“Starting from” pricing. Example: “Website packages start from $1,500.” This sets a floor. People know the minimum. If they’re comfortable with that range, they’ll enquire. If not, you’ve saved both of you a conversation.

Price ranges. Example: “Most projects range between $1,500 and $4,000.” This gives people the ballpark they need. It sets expectations without committing to a specific quote.

Packaged pricing. Example: “Starter — $1,500 / Growth — $2,500 / Premium — $4,000+.” This is the clearest option. People can self-select the tier that matches their budget and needs.

Any of these works. The point isn’t precision — it’s giving people enough information to decide whether it’s worth a conversation.

“But what if my prices change?”

This one comes up a lot — and I think it’s rooted in something people don’t quite say out loud. They think their website is permanent. Like it’s carved in stone.

It’s not. It’s more like a whiteboard.

If your prices change, you update the page. If you manage your own site, changing a line of text takes a few minutes. For my clients on the $59/month support plan, I handle those updates for them — and honestly, a pricing update takes me 5–10 minutes.

Yes, your published prices should be kept up to date. But that’s not a reason to avoid publishing them in the first place. It’s one of the simplest updates you can make to a website.

The AI angle nobody’s talking about

Here’s something worth paying attention to in 2026.

When someone asks ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Perplexity a question like “how much does a website cost in Perth?” — these tools look for pages that directly answer the question. If your website doesn’t include pricing information, you’re not a usable source. You won’t show up in the answer.

This is a shift from how search has worked in the past. Old SEO was about ranking for keywords. The new game — sometimes called Answer Engine Optimisation — is about being the best answer. AI tools extract specific passages from pages that clearly address the question being asked. If your pricing page says “request a quote,” there’s nothing for the AI to extract.

If your page does include clear pricing information, you’re one of the few sources the AI can actually use. That’s a competitive advantage — and it’s only going to matter more as these tools become the default way people research services.

The real shift that happens when you publish prices

When you show pricing on your website, the conversations change.

You stop having calls that start with “how much does it cost?” — where the person is just gathering information and you’re selling from the first sentence.

And you start having calls that start with “here’s what I’m trying to achieve” — where the person has already decided they’re in the right range and wants to talk about their business.

That’s a completely different quality of lead. And it comes from giving people the information they were looking for before they picked up the phone.

You don’t lose customers by showing your prices. You just stop wasting time on the ones who were never going to buy.

Key takeaways

• Pricing is the number one thing people look for on a website — hiding it sends them to competitors
• You don’t need exact prices. A starting point, a range, or packaged tiers all work
• Publishing prices filters out wrong-fit enquiries and attracts people who are ready to talk about goals, not just cost
• AI search tools increasingly skip pages that don’t directly answer pricing questions
• Updating your prices takes minutes — don’t treat your website like it’s carved in stone

Want to talk about your pricing, your website, or both? Book a free 15-minute chat and I’ll give you my honest take.