Build a Website
Small and even medium sized businesses may not have the capital to invest a $20,000 + website design and development project. That’s okay. But just because you don’t have a big budget does not mean you have to sacrifice design and layout. Here are a few tips to help you design and build your own website.
1. Determine your budget
Whether you are shopping around for an agency/web design company to build you a site, or you are going to embark on building your own website, it is important to first determine your budget. If you are trying to get bids from credible agencies, that is one of the first questions they should ask you. Don’t be intimidated if your budget is low. Agencies like ours will do our best to work within your budget and give you a website that fits the needs of your growing business.
2. Research Website Platforms
If you don’t have a large budget, it is best to look at some of the open-source website platforms available. There are three open-source platforms that you should at least familiarize yourself with before beginning your website project. WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal. These three platforms are reliable, offer customer support, and are great for backend management. When working with clients with small budgets, we generally lean towards building a template on WordPress because of its flexibility and because the backend systems can be easily managed by clients who don’t have a lot of website experience.
3. Determine Your Content
Coming up with content then organizing the content into a meaningful layout is tough. But providing content to an agency prior to the start of your project will save you money. If you are building your own website, you will need to determine what pages you want to have (Home, About Us, Work, Contact, etc.) and what content will go into those pages. Working with an agency that has experience organizing content so that it is meaningful to the user is beneficial. Content may be king, but if your user gets confused and frustrated when they are on your website, it doesn’t matter what content you have because they are going to leave your website.
4. Organize Media
You are most likely going to want to use photography and video to help sell your business to your user. You have 8 seconds to capture your user’s attention, and if there isn’t some sort of graphic or image that interests them, then you run the risk of having them leave your website. If you are going to have graphics, photography, video, or any kind of media, collect those files prior to starting your project. If you are working with an agency, they will help generate media for you (again, depending on your budget), or they will help you select images that fit your brand and the goals of your business. Avoid stock photography and cheap images as much as possible.
5. Find a Web Host
There are many companies out there that specialize in website hosting. If you know your budget, you will know how much you can afford to spend each year on hosting. What type of website host you will need is depended on several factors. One is how much traffic your site will receive at any given moment of the day. If your businesses is small, chances are you won’t have huge spikes in traffic initially and you can get away with paying less for a hosting package. We recommend using a hosting site that is either local, or a company that has excellent customer service. Read customer reviews and look at how often they back up and what their down times are like. An agency may also be able to recommend web hosting solutions for you as well.
6. Find a Theme and Start Designing Your Site
Designers build and sell themes for open-source templates. You can use free themes, but you run the risk of other sites looking identical to yours. Sites like Theme Forest and WooThemes have inexpensive and customizable templates that you can purchase. Purchasing a theme gives you a great foundation to organize your content. If you are working with an agency, they can also further customize a template to make it reflect your brand and business. This is a much more cost-effective solution then working with an agency to build a website template from scratch.
7. Start Building!
Once you get to this point, don’t be afraid to start building your website. It make take time, but if you are working with a reliable open-source system, you should be able to work through building your website. If you are having trouble getting started, talk to an agency and see if there are pieces they can help you with. Agencies have experience and staff who are experts in the field of website design and development, and can help design and launch your site in your desired time frame, and can help build a website that will help your business grow and make money.
To see an example of a website that we build in two days for a client on a limited budget visit: www.parsonspdx.com. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like a bid on your website design and development project.