Creating a quality website isn’t something that has to cost you a small fortune. In fact, you can achieve professional-looking results with just a few pages and a small budget.
Are you ready to build a personal website? If so, you’re in the right place. Keep reading for some tips that will help you get started and ensure you don’t spend too much.
Being informed is the best way to create a quality website on a budget.
Choose a Host
Some people think a website just exists in the ether. However, the truth is it lives on a computer.
The host you choose is the person that owns the computer your site lives on.
In some situations, when you use services like the Best Website Builder to design your site, you will have hosting built-in. But this isn’t always the case.
If the hosting service is not built-in, it will be up to you to find one that suits your needs.
Determine Your Goals
What are you creating a website for? It doesn’t matter if you are creating a portfolio or if you are building a website for your new startup company; knowing what you want to get out of it can help you plan and manage it better.
When you set goals for your website, it will also help you plan a possible ROI for creating it and develop a budget for the project.
You can think of your goals like this. For personal or informational websites, a blog is all you need. However, for selling something, you need to ensure your users can sign up for an email list or to receive more information.
Create Content Yourself
Now that the website framework is in place, you can fill it with engaging content and visually appealing images that people will love. The question is – how do you do this on a budget?
In the past, website owners have used stock content for images, graphics, and videos. However, this is expensive and less genuine than if you created this yourself.
You can find countless tools to create professional-looking media.
Some tools to consider using include Adobe Spark or Canva. These make it easy to create nice-looking visuals in just seconds. You can also create things like pop-up ads, web banners, and hero images.
Another option for saving money on content is by taking pictures to use as images on your website. You can do this with a camera or your phone.
This strategy is going to help you get authentic images and save money.
Eliminate Unnecessary Features
The more elements you have on your website, the more costly the design will be. For example, if you aren’t selling anything online, why do you even need e-commerce features?
Try to eliminate any unneeded features. If you believe you may want something, later on, talk to someone about adding them.
Use Free Fonts
Another way to reduce costs when you design a website is by using open-source fonts found online. You can do this by using fonts available with a website template or loading them from other free sources.
Even Google Font offers open-source font options for you to choose from.
Many Google Fonts have been optimized for use online, and the catalog provides offers published under licenses that allow your brand to use the font on your website at no cost to you.
Manage Your Website Content Yourself
Take the time to learn as much as you can about your website so you can manage the content on your own.
While it is smart to hire someone who knows what they are doing to handle updates and changes to the actual site, but you can probably handle adding new blog content.
You can also probably add new items to your online store, as needed, add events, and update email addresses.
When you make these smaller adjustments on your own, you can save time and money. If you don’t know if you can handle these tasks, ask your designer to show you how to handle these things. While you will have to pay for this training, it will be worth it.
Use the Cloud
Keeping web files on your external hard drive or computer can take up space quickly. Rather than buying more storage space, think about moving your content to the cloud.
There are several storage solutions to consider, and they are offered at a fraction of the cost of using external drives. While this is true, they will allow you to retrieve and view web files from any connected device.
With this feature, it means you can update and manage your site no matter where you are.
Now You Know How to Build a Personal Website on a Budget
As you can see, there are more than a few tips and tricks you can use to create a professional-looking website without overspending. You can choose to hire a professional for help with this but doing so will cost you more.
Building a quality website does require time and effort. While this is true, it will be well worth it in the end. Having a well-built website can help you create an online presence for your brand and make a great impression on potential customers.
Are you searching for more web-related tips and information? If so, take some time to check out our other blog posts. We cover everything from content creation and SEO to blogging tips and more.