Is anyone here familiar with the oh-so-popular Spiderman pointing meme? You know the one – two separate drawings of Spiderman pointing at each other in comical fashion. This meme is perfectly applicable for demonstrating the similarities between the word expensive and starting your own business. There is no two ways about it – starting your own business is going to cost you a pretty penny. This is due to the many bases you must cover to bring your idea into the real world. From the required legal filings to product development, and branding, there is no shortage of financial necessities. Though, speaking of branding, you might be able to save yourself some money here if you use your noggin.
The construction of your website is where this becomes most possible. This is for many reasons but more on that later. Hopefully, you understand the reasons why a well-functioning and highly appealing corporate website is vital. Author Seth Godin had a unique summary of this, “The only reason to build a website is to change someone. If you can’t tell me the change and you can’t tell me the someone, then you’re wasting your time.”
Assuming you have fully realized your corporate reasons and goals for building a website, you can begin to look at all the possibilities for saving money while accomplishing this. To get you headed in the right direction, you will find a few tips below.
1.Free is better than you think
Assuming your returns would be equivalent, free anything trumps paying any amount of money. The list of reasons for this goes on and on. To be blunt – saving money is good for a business. Supposing you are in the market for website creation, you may want to turn your attention to the online platforms that allow you to feel like you are the next great web designer. While the “super” editions of such platforms are incredibly cheap, you can create a free, fantastic website on more than a few platforms.
“Do yourself and your company a favor by becoming familiar with a self-service, website creation site,” said Brett Estep, COO of Insured Nomads. “There’s certainly a learning curve but if you put your nose to the grindstone your website will stand out.”
Spend a little time visiting the web sites of as many companies as you can. You will quickly find that you are up against a noticeable level of competition. Standing out against these is no easy business. Though, if you know to look for it, you may find the name of the website hosting service at the very bottom of these sites. This act of digging could point you towards more free website creation solutions than you thought existed. And, they are immensely powerful as seen on the websites where you found them.
“Free website creation can rival the best stuff in some instances,” said Justin Olson, Chief Marketing Officer at Fast Pace Health. “That is, if you know what you’re doing and on the right engine. At the end of the day, if your site is user friendly, you’ll do just fine.”
2. Reasonably priced templates
Maybe the idea of designing your site from the ground up is overwhelming even with the assistance of a great platform. After all, not every one of us has an eye for snappy design. Should you find yourself in this hypothetical boat, there is no reason to break the bank in pursuit of a solid website. The internet has been around long enough to where digital literacy is a normalcy rather than a skill. This means that more people than ever are creating websites on a daily basis, some of which you can purchase.
“The website template has served many companies well because it’s almost like a plug and play solution,” said Benjamin Earley, CEO of Holt. “You do have to personalize some aspects but it’s much better than doing something from scratch.”
There are entire services dedicated to the sale or rental of website templates. In fact, this area of commerce is so chock full of options that niche businesses can find exactly what they need without looking too hard. For you, this means the world of website templates is your oyster. No matter what your business does on a practical level, there are more than a couple of options out there which will suit your needs.
“My company was able to save more money than I thought possible when we were creating our website simply by using a template,” said Omid Semino, CEO and Founder of Diamond Mansion. “It didn’t even feel like we cut corners once it was up and running.”
3. Do not create more than necessary
The current landscape of the internet may cause you to believe that your company needs to have the largest online presence possible. You have likely heard the phrase ‘Content is king’ as a result of this. But what the people who live by this phrase fail to communicate is that content is expensive. The more web pages you intend to have, the more money it will cost you in the early stages.
“Generally speaking, one of the most sure fire ways of saving money is by cutting back,” said Chris Coote, CEO of California Honey Vapes. “This applies to when you are launching your website – don’t create a bigger site than you need.”
Despite all that’s been mentioned, building your website can be incredibly exciting! In some ways It is the culmination of your efforts to get your business going. As, once that site goes live, you should hopefully have customers rolling in. But curbing this excitement with a dose of reality is maybe the best thing you can do for your efforts. How do you go about this? Some pre-planning steps are in order.
“When people talk about website design you might picture the physical process of putting the web pages in place,” said Dr. Michael Green, Chief Medical Officer at Winona. “But the most effective and money-conscious design starts with analyzing what your website needs are.”
4. Do not forget about SEO
As stated earlier, you may have some familiarity with the phrase ‘Content is king.’ But what you are missing is the most important word of this phrase – good content is king. Achieving this in your website construction begins with the strong foundational support of search engine optimization. A beautiful website can only be useful if visitors find it. If you have not made SEO part of your site, this will never happen.
“SEO and your website is a relationship that you must always be in tune with,” said Gigi Ji, Head of Brand and Business Development at Kokolu. “Otherwise, the site will just get lost in the depths of the internet.”
What would happen if you were to ignore or forget the SEO portion of your website as you build it? Unfortunately, the worst case scenario calls for a complete remodel of your existing site. Seeing as a remodel of any kind will result in an eye-popping price tag, working to avoid this outcome is the best move you could make on behalf of your company. All this to say – SEO needs to be part of every stage of construction.
“I cannot stress enough how important the presence of thoughtful SEO is for your website to thrive,” said Kirin Sinha, CEO of Illumix. “Without it, your website may as well be invisible.”
5. Think simple on every level
As you are covering the many bases required for your company to get off the ground, it may be tempting to use the ‘Go big or go home approach.’ After all, you want to make a lasting impression with your content to the point where people spend money. Seeing as this is difficult in and of itself, why make this entire process more arduous than it needs to be when creating the content initially ? Keep your website design simple.
“Your website can look like a dream all it wants but if it is not functional you’re really just paying people to stay away from your brand,” said Michael Burmi, Chief Investment Officer at Compound Banc. “Even the smallest hiccup is enough to push could-be customers out the digital door. So make sure every little detail is functional.”
You might be asking, in what ways does this help me save money? Well, think about the construction of a house – the smaller the house, and the simpler the house, the cheaper it is across the board. The same is true of website design. You can pay out the nose for all the bells and whistles but do you really need them? Are they worth the return on investment?
“I know companies who have sunk a sizable amount of their budget into building their website and were not happy with the end result,” said John Sarson, CEO of American Crypto Academy. “To me, as long as the website is visually appealing and quickly gets the customer from point A to point B, then you’re doing just fine.”
All this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to building your website. If you set aside the time to challenge yourself to find more ways, you will certainly do so. This is thanks to the power of the internet. Though, you must remember the words entrepreneur and keynote speaker Jay Baer, “No one comes to your website to be entertained. They have questions they think you can answer. Content answers questions.”
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