Good, Fast, or Cheap, you can only pick 2.

This is the reality facing all in the business world. Entrepreneurs and the small business owner almost always have to choose cheap which eliminates fast.

Cheap does not mean cheesy and you can build an affordable website on a tight budget if you follow the tips below. Read on to learn more.

The 7 Steps to Creating Affordable Websites

If you are just starting to think about your website, keep the following questions in mind as you read.

• What is the total budget for a website?
• What does your website need, e.g. do you need to have a shopping cart?
• What is the vision you have for your website? Checking out competitors can help you to find ideas and better understand your competition.

Now to create your affordable website.

Step One – Find a Host

We suggest starting with WordPress. Many, less expensive website designers, like Wix or GoDaddy, use a drop and drag process. Although that is easy to design it ultimately these hosts may limit your sites ability to expand.

In choosing a host make sure that they easily integrate with other products, and that you are not obligated to purchase expensive add-ons or upgrades to keep your site running.

WordPress encourages scalability and provides much more opportunity for customizing and growing, often at low or no cost.

WordPress has powerful themes that generated by Virtual Composer. This allows you to use the drag and drop process but you also have the benefits of customization and scalability. 

In this step, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Websites can be moved from hosts but this takes more time and possibly more money. Choose wisely.

Paid or Free Themes

This is a decision point. Free may sound good but there are more options in paid themes. Paid themes also provide the benefit of access to a support team for questions.  

Step 2 – Website & Content Design

In this step, you will learn about the design components.

Keep It Clean and Focused

Your website has to be visually appealing. Shaun Cronin, a freelance web designer, explains:

“If there was one word I would use to define ‘clean’ design, it is refinement. Every individual element should look like it belongs and should benefit and complement the design as a whole. The overall design needs to be balanced to allow the information to flow and be easy to consume.”

As you design your website, keep it clean with Cronin’s tips:

• Pixel perfect details: Think about the minor elements, like borders and textures.
• Spacing: Use plenty of white space using wide margins and padding, and let each element stand out on its own.
• Alignment: For example, large bodies of text should be left aligned. Cronin suggests: “Left-aligned text produces a solid line and creates easily distinguishable columns of information. Centrally aligned text, on the other hand, creates an uneven edge on either side and can be difficult to read in large columns. Save the central alignment for short lines of text.”
• Typography: Choose a font that’s easy to read.
• Color: Opt for neutral, white, light colors. 

High-Quality Images Are a Must

Again, work within your budget but be sure to use high quality, visually appealing images.  Sites like Unsplash, Pexels, and PixaBay are great sources. 

If you have a keen eye, take the pictures yourself and edit them to improve their impact. Again the quality is key so you need high pixel counts. This way takes time. The upside is taking your own pictures may allow you to redirect some of your website budget to other uses. 

Step 3 – Optimize Site Navigation

Use categories, pages, clear titles to optimize the user experience. If customers have to search high and low for information they will most likely go someplace else.

According to the web performance experts at Gomez, 88% of consumers said they wouldn’t return to a website after a bad site experience. 

Focus on Free Plugins

Plugins increase the functionality of your website. A common plugin allows visitors to share content from your site on social media.

Free plugins are your best friend. Use a plugin to help optimize navigation. A word of caution, don’t go overboard with plugins too many slows down your site loading rate.

Step 4 – Analytics

Websites have a plugin that will out you to monitor the business side of your site. For example, the WordPress Google Analytics Plugin will help you understand the number of daily visitors, where they are coming from, this will help you to gauge the impact of your social media or advertising.

Step 5 – Consider Freebies

To build your audience consider having high-quality downloads related to your industry. You can choose to make these available to anyone who visits your site or just people who purchase items from you. For example, if you sell underwater camera mounts, every customer that purchases is sent an automatic email with an ebook on how to take great underwater pictures.

Step 6 – Must-Have Pages on Your Website

Be sure to include these pages:

• Contact Us
• About Us
• List of Awards or Recognitions
• FAQ
• Calendar of events you are attending or sponsoring if appropriate.

Last Tip

Reach beyond your website. Blogging or using sites like MailChimp can easily help you build your following, and increase sales. expand the reach of your website and increase 

Look here for more info and ideas about how to build a powerful and affordable website.

Ready to Get Started?

There you have it how to create your affordable website. 

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