7 tips for cost-effective web design

A typical business website can generally cost around thousands to hundreds of thousands, depending on the size and features that come with it. Big corporations can easily adapt a functioning site without too much fuss regarding the hefty price tag. Yet for small budding companies, the high upfront costs of creating a site essential to business can be discouraging.

However, a great website doesn’t have to drain a business’ funds. You can still get a professional-looking website while working with a tight budget. Here are some tips you can consider in designing a cost-effective but highly functioning online site.

1. Develop a clear goal

First off, you need to have a clear, realistic vision of what you want. Before you try designing your website or hiring a web design expert, you need to discover what you want and need from an online page.

Not having a clear goal for your web design can be costly. Without a comprehensive direction of your web design path, the hours spent in web design can quickly add up. Hours wasted is money wasted.

So, make sure to think of your goals and needs and consolidate all of them into a single list. You need to consider everything from your audience to the site technicalities like the website sitemap and responsiveness to the visuals and online page themes.

Having a clear goal and path for designing your website means less time dabbling in the dark that helps streamline the whole process to reduce the cost of hours spent.

2. Use an existing template

One of the best tips to keep your website cost in control is to take advantage of pre-made templates.

Using an already available template or theme can reduce or completely eliminate the time that a web developer or designer needs to create a new look for your website. Hence, costs and the time spent to complete the project are greatly reduced.

Fortunately, there are hundreds to thousands of web design companies out there who offer website templates for all kinds of business, particularly for the more popular platforms. In fact, you can choose from thousands of free templates.

3. Take advantage of free stock photos

Another way to keep your web design cost down is to use free stock photos for your content.

It’s believed that most websites use stock photography for their content. Stock photos look clean, professional and sometimes cost you only a few bucks. It’s a better option instead of hiring a professional photographer to create your website photo.

You can choose to buy stock photos from professional photographers or you can find free stock photo websites online.

If you want more unique imagery for your website, you can use your own images and photo. Not only can you save many, but by using your own photos, you can add a touch of authenticity to your sites and improve site experience. This way, you can allow your users to see the real you while saving money at the same time.

4. Take advantage of free fonts

A lesser-known way to cut back on your web design bills when building your site is to use open-source fonts on the web. Open-source fonts are licensed to be used on any commercial or personal projects at no cost. You don’t have to purchase or rent open-source fonts for use on a web server, thus eliminating the added long-term financial commitment for your website.

This can be done by choosing fonts that come with your chosen website template. You can also load fonts from free sources or look through the rich choices that don’t charge users even a single cent.

5. Remove unnecessary website features and pages

The number of features and pages of your website can influence the cost of web design. After all, every website feature and pages you build will take time and money. If left unchecked, it can easily spiral into unnecessary spending. Even if it’s a secondary or tertiary page, you’ll need to choose an image, write a copy and populate the page.

It’s recommended to check your site’s contents, features, and the like. Assess which ones really matter and align well with your site’s goals. These extra features and pages may seem interesting, but are they really necessary?

If you really want to add another page, tool, and others, consider adding it at a later time or when your website has reached a significant milestone that requires scaling. This should give you budget flexibility to grow your site project over time.

6. Plan to manage your own content

To cut on professional service costs, take the time to learn about your site and manage the content on your own. You can ask your web designer to give you some basic training in managing your website.

While it’s a good idea to have a professional manage the technical updates and tweaks to your website, you can take it to yourself to update blog content or add new items to your online store.

Having the ability to make even the smallest content adjustments can save a lot of your limited resources in the long run. You can manage the more mundane content creation work and leave the more confusing one to a website professional moving forward.

7. Utilise the power of the cloud

Storing web files on an external hard drive or your computer can take up space and fast. Instead of investing in extra storage space by purchasing hard drives regularly, move your web content to the cloud.

In general, these storage solutions are just a fraction of the cost of external hard drives. Plus, cloud storage is said to be more convenient and easier to access from any mobile device via an Internet connection. This allows you to easily update your website as you go.

Conclusion

Your website is your brand’s face in the digital world. Unfortunately, for most small businesses, creating a website doesn’t fit on their small budget. Nevertheless, with the above-mentioned tips, we hope that you become more equipped in building and designing a cost-effective website.

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Article by Pankaj Shah: DCP London Web Designers