In today’s increasingly digital landscape, a website is no longer a common courtesy or nice-to-have contact page—it is a necessity…and if done right, a competitive advantage.
In all honesty, today’s consumers expect businesses to have professional, easy-to-navigate, experience-enhancing websites. And in this era of content management based web building and web management platforms, also known as content management systems (CMS), there’s no excuse not to have one.
Whether you’re planning on building your own website or hiring a web developer, here are five tips for developing a website on a budget:
1. Develop a plan. Before you jump the gun, it’s important to have a plan. Start by jotting down ideas about how you want your site to look. Consider your color scheme, navigation, pages, and tagline. This will save you time and money, especially when it comes to implementing your web design.
2. Purchase a domain name. If you are just establishing your web presence, registering for your own domain is easy. Logon to GoDaddy to purchase a domain; you can register your domain for up to ten years or as little as one year. At the end of the period you will need to renew the domain. [Read: Importance of Owning Your Domain]
3. Make the commitment. Whether you hire a developer or take the do-it-yourself approach, build your site on a free CMS platform—Word Press, Joomla, or Joopk. While each have benefits as a web developer tool, you should first consider your time commitment and skill level when selecting the right tool for you. Essentially, developing your own website can be very affordable. However, if you do not have the time to invest in learning how to use HTML and code, hiring a web developer might be the better solution. Word Press and Joomla are established CMS platforms and have many powerful tools for developers. But for pure performance, support, and ease of use for the end user, we think Joopk is the best CMS on the market today. [Read: How To Choose The Right CMS]
4. Utilize SEO. Search engine optimization can save you a lot of money in marketing and advertising dollars. Use words that have high search engine rankings with free tools like the Google Keyword Tool. These keywords should represent 2 to 5 percent of your total content.
5. Build content. In the past, updating content on your website was costly and/or frustrating if you didn’t have a basic understanding of HTML and cascading style sheets (CSS). With today’s CMS platforms, there are no excuses. Creating a page, article, or blog post is as easy as writing in a Word document, and it’s the most important thing you can do with your website. Why? Because current, relevant content is what both your target audience and popular search engines like Google and Bing prioritize.
Follow these five steps and you’ll have more time to spend on what you love doing—running your business—while staying within your budget!