This is a blog post written by Brett Alan of Start SEO Company.
As the owner of a small business, you’ve probably considered building a website as a way to find more customers online. This is a smart move as more people are using recommendations found on websites like Google and Yelp.com to make buying decisions. Whether it’s finding the right doctor for their kids or simply deciding where to eat tonight, customers want to learn more about your business on the internet.
But getting a small-business website from concept to reality can be daunting if you’ve never done it before. After all, you’ve got a business to run and a limited budget to help it grow.
In this article, I’m going to outline how to get a website built for your small business on the cheap without any knowledge of programming, design skills, or needing to do it yourself. If you’re willing to invest $500 – $750 USD you can get your business online quickly and easily.
Know The Language
Knowing what you want and explaining it in the language of a web designer is one of the best ways to save money on a website. Use the bolded points below to explain to a web designer what you want out of your small-business website:
Domain Name
A domain name is the is the title of your future website. For example, the domain name of Wal-Mart is “www.walmart.com”.
One of the most popular places to register a domain name is GoDaddy.com. It will cost you about $10 to register a new domain name at GoDaddy for one year. Keep the name of your domain short and easy to remember. I also recommend registering the domain name yourself.
Hosting
In addition to a domain name, you’ll need website hosting. Think of website hosting as the place your website data “lives” on the internet.
Website hosting has become very affordable over the years and your web designer should have no problem setting this up on your behalf. I recommend going through GoDaddy.com or HostGator.com for web hosting. These services will host your website online for under $100 per year.
WordPress Template
Using a WordPress template to design your small business website is where you’ll save the most money. WordPress templates save you money because most of the design work is already done. All the designer needs to do is edit or customize the template for your business by adding a unique logo, pictures, and other content.
Before you start looking for a designer, find a WordPress template you like. Remember, your web designer will make edits to this template later and get your website looking exactly the way you want later.
Depending on where you find the template, you may need to pay a small fee. Here are a couple places I recommend you start looking: freewpthemes.co/, www.premiumwptheme.net.
Finding a Designer
Now that you know about domain names, website hosting, and WordPress templates, it’s time to find a designer who can put it all together for you.
You might think that designers are hard to find, but that’s actually not true. There are an abundance of great web designers that can be hired for just a few hundred bucks to customize a WordPress website.
Here are some good places to start looking: Craiglist.org, Odesk.com, local colleges, or tap into your social network.
Before you make a decision on a designer, request the following information: 1.) Ask to see some examples of work they’ve done in the past. 2.) Make sure they know how to customize websites using “WordPress.”
Follow these guidelines and you’ll have an attractive website set up for your business for just a few hundred bucks.This could be the best money you invest in marketing your business this year.