Every cent counts, especially for a small business. This is especially true when building your first website. Most small businesses start out with limited budgets, which are stretched thin by all sorts of unexpected spending. The bad news is that creating a website is one of them. Yes, compared to your overall investment, your website and hosting are not that huge of a spend. Still, you need to allocate a lot of time and effort to build your website and make it effective.

So, before we get started, let’s make one thing clear. We won’t talk about how you can cheap your way through building a website. This is not an effective way to run your business. A business, even a small one, needs an investment, and your website is definitely one of the most important investments. So, being stingy over it will only become more expensive in the long run.

Instead, today, we will give you 7 extremely valuable tips on building your website cost-efficiently. So, if you are ready to invest your money where it will bring value, let’s start.

Find The Best Hosting and Domain

Before you build your website, your first and foremost task is to find the best hosting provider and choose a suitable name that will bring you the most value in the long run.

Hosting

The first is quite easy. All you need is HostArmada. We are the best cloud hosting provider and offer outstanding prices for new clients. We have various plans that will accommodate almost any need. Still, even shared cloud hosting will suffice for a small business.

Now, if you expect rapid growth or have a retail business, you need to think ahead. In such cases, going for a Cloud VPS Hosting will cost a bit more but will bring you the most value in the long run. So, don’t just look at the prices when choosing your plan. Consider your 3-year plan and see which will be the most cost-efficient plan rather than the most affordable.

Domain

This is the easy part. Now, it’s time to choose your domain. The good news is that with HostArmada, your domain name will be free for the first year. But you still need to consider the costs after that. So, check what the renewal price will be in a year. You must allocate some budget for that. Luckily, the prices are not that steep, usually around 15-30 dollars. Still, some TLDs may cost a bit on top. So, choose wisely.

Moreover, avoid falling into the trap of looking for a specific name with a .com extension. Most .com domains have already been taken, and many have been resold for mind-altering prices. You don’t need that, especially since you don’t have an already established brand.

Finally, consider the extension itself. If you can get a free .com domain, go for it, regardless of the comparatively higher renewal price. There is a reason why about 46% of websites use a .com TLD. The next best option is using the .net extension. It also costs a bit less than the .com extension, but it is considered less trustworthy without any specific reason.

Now, if you operate a specific business in the educational industry, you may use the dedicated .edu extension. However, don’t use it unless you are such an institution. Otherwise, it will simply confuse the users. The same goes for the .io extension. If you are a tech, crypto, or gaming business, this extension will instantly tell online users what to expect. Still, the .io TLD is a bit more expensive – around $60.

Finally, if there is no industry-specific TLD and you can’t find a suitable name with .com or .net, try your country TLD – .us, .ca, .de, etc.

Once you’ve registered your domain, it’s time to start building.

Allocate Maintenance Budget

Of course, before you explore the countless possibilities of building your website, you need to prepare for when it is done. A huge misconception is that websites are a one-time expense. They are not. Along with the annual (or tri-annual, in HostArmada’s case) hosting and domain bill, you must account for the maintenance of your website. Indeed, along with great hosting and a memorable domain name, maintenance is a cornerstone of an effective website. If you’re starting a business with a limited budget, factoring in these ongoing expenses is essential to avoid surprises later on. Indeed, along with great hosting and a memorable domain name, maintenance is a cornerstone of an effective website.

A smoothly running website will guarantee you will never lose customers or, even worse, your audience’s trust. Just imagine what a user will feel and think about you if your website crashes right after they’ve sent you their money. Sure, even if they get their product or service, the stress of everything going dark (metaphorically, of course) after they’ve clicked the “pay now” button will instantly tarnish your reputation and cause you to lose that client forever. And as you know very well, retention is the cornerstone behind small business success.

This will be your first more significant investment. Now, you can always find a couple of freelancers who will cover your website from afar. However, there are more cost-efficient ways to go for it. Even if they are from a country with lower living standards, and you pay far less than you will at home, finding these experts is still a tremendous hustle. So, a better solution is to dedicate this task to a professional maintenance platform like SuperbThemes or WPBuffs. This way, you will get professional maintenance for just $150-200 a month. Just do your research and find the best maintenance services out there. In the long run, it will be far cheaper than doing it all yourself.

Use WordPress

Now, this is the place where you can be cheap. Many website builders and CMSs promise the world and the stars if you just pay them for their services. And true, many of them will offer outstanding service. However, when we are talking about cost efficiency, there is no reason to stray from the best. The best, of course, is WordPress. It’s hardly surprising that over 43% of all websites globally are built on WordPress. When it comes to the CMS market, WP is even further ahead, as it holds a 62.7% share.

To make this even more obvious, WordPress, unlike other CMSs, is entirely free to use. In other words, you don’t have to spend a dime on building your website if you don’t want to. Of course, you will have to pay for other things, but having the best and most efficient CMS in the world for free is a significant cost reduction.

The best part is that if you get HostArmada hosting, you can seamlessly and directly integrate WordPress into your website. So, you don’t even have to have any previous website development or any other knowledge. It’s as straightforward as opening your door.

The WordPress builder hardly needs an introduction. The iconic dashboard has become the standard for CMS platforms and website builders. Plus, with the help of the seemingly infinite library of plugins, you can integrate any functionality into your website, regardless of how niche your need is. If there is a market, there is a plugin.

So, don’t waste time even browsing around. You have the best for free. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Build Your Own Website

Another huge advantage of WordPress is that it allows you to build a website alone, regardless of your previous experience. Now, if you have the budget for it, we strongly suggest hiring someone with UX expertise to build your design. And you should definitely plan on this expense in the near future. However, for the time being, you can save this money until your business takes off.

Working with WordPress is so easy that you can create a stunning website. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some tricks you need to know. You must familiarize yourself with some of the best designer, marketing, and content practices. This is a significant effort. However, as a business owner, it’s worth knowing these aspects of the online business anyway. They change constantly, and you should be on top of the trends, regardless of whether you will build your website or not. So, as you will learn these aspects of the business anyway, creating your first website is a small leap further. One that you can make with ease.

Of course, you won’t be alone in this effort. WordPress offers a significant number of outstanding website builders that offer a drag-and-drop interface, allowing you to see what you are creating as you go.

Still, once your website takes off and your audience grows, it would be a good idea to invest in a professional WP website developer. They will help you clean your website and optimize it for speed, SEO, and everything else.

Don’t Hesitate To Buy Templates and Plugins

Starting a website from scratch is intimidating. Especially if you never had the opportunity to play around with a website builder. When your business is on the line, experimenting may seem a bit careless. That’s why we suggest using templates for all your essential web pages. Or you can go a step further and use an entire theme.

Many free templates seemingly would do the trick, but they have their limitations. So, if you find the perfect theme or template for your website, don’t hesitate to buy it. The investment is relatively small, but the value you receive is immense. Instead of wondering how to do something and if it will be user-friendly, you have a professionally built page or an entire website that only needs content. It’s the perfect solution for a quick website building on your own while at the same time you receive a professional designer’s touch.

The same goes for plugins. Now, most plugins have a free version, which will demonstrate their abilities. For many of them, the demo version will suffice. However, for those that are directly connected with your business niche or payments, it’s best to invest in a paid plugin. This will guarantee you won’t have any problems and will enhance your security immensely.

It should go without saying, but it’s wise to try the plugin or template first to see if they will fit your needs, and only then buy the product. You’d be surprised how long down the road you might find that a plugin or a template won’t cover your every need.

So, test the plugin or service, see if it works for you, and don’t hesitate to buy it if it will enhance your performance. It’s money well spent.

Consider A Photoshoot

Many online articles will suggest you spare some money on your images. While these suggestions are valid, and you can get some pretty good stock images for a relatively small price (or even free), this is only a temporary solution. Stock images are perfectly OK for your blog posts and periodic content. However, when it comes to your home page, about, service, or product pages, they simply won’t suffice.

Despite being of high quality, stock images are not original. The good thing is that they won’t harm your SEO. The bad thing is that they won’t help with it either.

Furthermore, your website risks becoming unoriginal if the same images are used widely. Some users perceive this as a red flag, as scammer websites often use stock images.

So, it’s far better to invest in a proper photoshoot. Finding a good freelance photographer is easy enough, and you can even shop for the most cost-efficient one. However, don’t put price over quality. It’s always better to give a bit extra and receive a top-notch result.

Have A Dedicated Content Budget

Content is king. You might have heard that while researching how to build your website. It’s true. Nothing on your website is more important than the content. It’s what will drive your audience to convert. Content will also increase your traffic and help fresh users find your business. So, as you can imagine, if something is worth investing in, it’s content.

Now, many websites are trying to utilize AI to cover their blog post, social media, and copywriting needs. Unfortunately, however, AI is still not that good at conveying the right message at the right time. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t use it. However, you will have to edit the outcome and make it better and more… well… human.

You can also write your own content, which is perfectly fine. Still, you will need to delve a bit deeper into conveying the right messages, content marketing, and SEO. A blog post must have specific characteristics to qualify for Google’s first page. At the same time, it must speak to a specific group of people in a particular way. Finally, it needs to be able to persuade. So, writing your own content is not the most cost-efficient way to handle this delicate matter. Even if you are good at it and you know all the bells and whistles, a single blog post will take you an entire day. For example, this blog post takes about 8-10 hours to research, write, prepare for publishing, and publish it.

So, find someone to take care of your content. If you can’t afford someone to write everything for you, this would be perfect. It all depends on your budget. So, dedicate a content budget and make sure you are not compromising on the quality of your content.

It’s Time To Get Started

Now that you know where to invest so that it brings you the most value, it’s time to start building your website. Your first stop is, of course, HostArmada. We offer the best cloud hosting services out there. We give your customers lightning-fast website loading speed, the highest level of security, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This means that no matter when and how many people you have on your website, they will be able to load each page in the blink of an eye. At the same time, our robust security will protect their sensitive information, and they will never have to see the 404 page.

Check out our plans and choose the one that best suits your needs and goals. Still, if you need a hand with choosing the right one, our support team will be more than happy to help. Just contact us, and let us give you the push to build one truly extraordinary and successful website.