Changing a published price without a mess

The main argument against publishing prices is not competitors, it is maintenance. A figure on a page is a promise that has to be kept current, and the businesses that struggle are the ones that never planned for the update.

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Review published prices on a schedule rather than when somebody notices, change every place the figure appears at once, honour the old price for anybody who enquired before the change, and keep the wording consistent everywhere. If you cannot maintain figures, publish the drivers instead.

Put it on a schedule

Prices go stale quietly. Nobody notices until a customer quotes your website back at you, which is the worst way to discover it.

Pick a rhythm that matches how fast your costs move, twice a year for most businesses, and put it in the calendar. A scheduled ten minute check prevents the whole problem.

Change every instance at once

Prices appear in more places than people remember: the pricing page, service pages, an old blog post, a downloadable document, the structured data in the code, and occasionally a third-party profile.

Search your own site for the figure before you change anything, so the update is complete rather than partial. A page still showing the old number is the one a customer will find.

  • The pricing page and any service pages.
  • Blog posts and guides that mention a figure.
  • Downloadable brochures or price lists.
  • Structured data in the page code.
  • Directory and marketplace profiles.
  • Automatic email templates.

Honour what people saw

Anybody who enquired based on the old figure should get the old figure, within reason. The cost is small and the alternative is starting a relationship with a disagreement about your own website.

Where a project has been quoted, state the validity period on the quote itself so the boundary is clear without anybody having to argue about it.

Do not announce a rise in advance without meaning it

Warning that prices rise next month can produce a rush of enquiries, and it works. It is also a promise: if the rise does not happen, or happens and quietly reverses, you have taught customers not to believe your pricing.

Only announce a change you have decided on. Manufactured deadlines are among the fastest ways to lose the trust of the careful buyers you most want.

Explain a rise if anybody is likely to notice

Regular customers and anybody comparing against an old quote will see the change. A brief, unapologetic explanation, such as materials or wage costs having moved, is enough.

Do not over-explain. A long justification suggests discomfort with the decision, and customers take their cue from your tone more than from the figure.

When to stop publishing figures

If you find yourself unable to keep prices current, that is useful information rather than a failure. It usually means scope varies more than the format allows.

Switch to publishing the drivers and what a typical engagement includes. Those stay true for years, and they give readers what they actually needed, which was orientation rather than precision.

How Licheo keeps this consistent

The work continues after launch, which is when most pricing information starts drifting away from the business it describes.

For our own site the rule is simpler: no figure appears anywhere, including in the structured data, so there is nothing to go stale and nothing to contradict a conversation.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of The pricing page. The other parts:

Questions people ask

How often should I review published prices?
On a schedule matched to how fast your costs move, twice a year for most businesses. A scheduled check prevents the situation where a customer discovers the stale figure before you do.
Where do old prices hide?
Service pages, old blog posts, downloadable documents, structured data in the code, directory profiles and automatic email templates. Search your own site for the figure so the update is complete.
Should I honour a price somebody saw before I changed it?
Within reason, yes. The cost is small and the alternative is beginning a relationship with a disagreement about your own website. State validity periods on quotes so the boundary is clear.
Is announcing a price rise a good tactic?
Only when the rise is real. It does produce a rush of enquiries, and a rise that never happens teaches customers to disbelieve your pricing, which costs far more than the enquiries gained.
What if I cannot keep prices current?
Publish the drivers and what a typical engagement includes instead. Those stay true for years and give readers the orientation they actually wanted, without a figure you cannot maintain.

Keep the page true

Scheduled reviews, every instance updated together, and drivers published where figures cannot be maintained.

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