If you're thinking about building a business website, the anticipated costs may make you anxious. Having your own website is essential for your business, as it can promote your products and attract customers. But will you really need to spend a lot of money on it, right from the start?
Fortunately, there are ways to keep your new business website within your budget. The following are five ways to save money when setting up a new website.
1. Use a free or inexpensive platform
Some businesses promote themselves on free platforms such as Blogger, Tumblr or the basic version of Wordpress.com. It's possible to build a website or blog that looks professional with a free platform. You can attract site visitors with engaging text and beautiful images. Free platforms, however, will restrict how much you can alter the site's design and usually won't allow you to include certain features, such as your own ads.
You can also opt for web hosting that isn't free, but is still cheap. Using a freely installed content management system (CMS) like Wordpress.org or Joomla, you can design your site. Inexpensive hosting also places some limits on your site, particularly on bandwidth and storage capabilities. However, especially if you're starting out or don't expect huge volumes of traffic, inexpensive hosting can serve as a good solution and help you save on website-building costs.
2. Consider building it yourself
If you have experience, you can try building your website on your own. The more you know about website development, the greater flexibility you'll have with your site's appearance and features. Even with less experience, you can start working off of professional-looking templates and widgets offered by a free CMS.
3. Create your content internally and provide it to the website developer
Some businesses ask their website developers to produce much of the content for their site as well. One way to save on costs is to create the content on your own. Take high-quality photographs, write and organize the text for your landing pages and design the header for your site. If you opt for this route, you'll benefit from experience with design programs such as Adobe. You may have to still buy some of your content, such as a graphic or a background design that you can't create on your own. Helpful resources include inexpensive online design programs such as Canva.
4. Don't customize with special features
There are some features you may need to pay for on your website, such as an SSL certificate. A recent article from Search Engine Journal points out how SSL certificates are important particularly for sites that serve as an e-commerce platform. These certificates assure customers that you're keeping their personal information safe, and they can also increase your search engine rankings.
However, there are other site features that you can skip for now. These features include design elements that you think would enhance the beauty of your site, but that you don't actually need at the moment. You can still start with a more basic business website that looks attractive and professional. If at some point your budget increases, you can redesign your site and add more to it; in general, business websites undergo some degree of revamping every so often (once a quarter, once a year, etc.). You don't have to rush to put everything on your site to begin with.
5. Less is more (when it comes to pages)
Maybe you envision a business website that serves as a huge, powerful resource for customers with dozens of pages they can scroll through for information and products. Chances are, you don't need a site of that size, especially not from the start. You can succeed with a site that has only seven or eight pages at most. If you want to add fresh content to your site, you can make part of it a blog, where you post updates about your business, highlight new products or services or offer your customers advice.
Don't hesitate to contact Milwaukee marketing agency, Accelity Marketing, for further advice on cost-effective website-building. You can enjoy a professional site without having to make a substantial dent in your budget. Keep in mind that no matter what you start with now, your site can always continue to grow and develop with your business.
