Ways to Create a Website on a Budget

The companies or entities that most stress over creating a top website against a limited budget are usually smaller ecommerce companies. Larger companies can simply afford it while non-commercial entities such as blogs and hobby sites do not really need to have a good website to avoid going under. For this reason, we will focus on ecommerce – specifically the smaller businesses – as it is here that this advice is needed most.

First thing’s first – a great website does not have to be expensive. In fact, for smaller businesses, website cost-cutting is a quite common practice. Nevertheless,it is the ones that still manage to create a great website that are most likely to succeed. These companies exist, and pulling this off is indeed possible.

When to Outsource?

Outsourcing web design is a matter of time and money. You can learn the rudiments of website design.Or you might have started the company with an expert in this field,which means you could potentially handle this in-house. However, let’s be honest – how many businesses begin with expert web designers on their team right from the start?

Accordingly, web design should go into the budget as a priority, and you should outsource this before many other things that are typical milestones in a company’s growth, such as outsourcing fulfilment or expanding inventory.

Website design services company Azola Creative say that this can be priced according to density of pages, bandwidth, and hosting capabilities. By going a bit cheaper on any of these, you can free up funds for employing top website design expertise where you really need it.

The Essentials

If you want a successful website, there are a few design essentials that need to be conformed to. It is not so much that you can or should budget for these, but that your website is unlikely to perform without them.

Easy Navigability

Which, in practice, means a website that leads clearly from the landing page through a series of options and towards what the visitor is looking for. No page should be more than three clicksaway from the landing page, and you should generally try to limit the number of pages.

Aesthetically Consistent

This means aesthetic conformity with your brand, logo, and even products. Your company should look like what you sell, and this should be clear on the website.

Budget Web Design Tips

So, you are crossing off the basics and saving money where you can – here are some more potentially helpful tips, although bear in mind that much depends on you specifically.

Set Goals

Ask yourself what you want your website to do and which of these is the most important. Is it product information, presentation of inventory, and easy check-out, or is it CTAs in order to reduce bounce rate? Pick one or two things and see how you go achieving those with your budget.

Use a Theme or Template

But be careful, as this can leave your website looking generic or, worse still, very similar to other websites out there. Do your research and perhaps consider investing in themes rather than using free ones. This will still work out cheaper than designing a website from scratch.

Have Website Content Ready

It isn’t only products; website blogs and marketing materials can also be factored into the budget. By having this all ready to go, the content can, for a while, pick up the slack for the website design.

Ultimately, you might have to accept that your dream website lies a little further down the road. Nevertheless, you can certainly avoid looking like an amateur – right from the start.

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