“Website on a budget” Oh, yes! Search it up as much as you want on Google, and you will simply get likes to websites that are asking you to spend about $500!!! While $500 is a budget, but really!!! If you place a website order from scratch with us it would not even get close to $500. In this article, I am going to show you any trick that there is out there to have a website on a real budget, however a professional-looking website! I am talking about under $110!
Well if you took your time to read our “everything a website needs” article, you should know by now what are the essentials that are needed for building a website, however, let’s look at them in a more budget-friendly way.
Web hosting
Now the most essential thing that you need to have a website is a space to store your info on, a web host! Now you cannot buy web hosting. You need to rent it. While we are trying to go on a budget, I do advise you not to search for free web hosting on Google. Do not ever, ever, ever! Work with those companies that are only offering free web hosting. Not only are they bad and slow, but your website can also actually get deleted at any second over the bad security they have.
To get web hosting on a budget you have two ways to go:
- If you absolutely need unlimited hosting, go for companies that offer annual, biannual, triannual and more… because usually, you get some percentages off for going under longer contracts. Even here at Kiuloper, we have monthly, annual, biannual, triannual plans. The trick here is to actually understand how much you will save! Here at Kiuloper when you go under a triannual plan you are actually only paying for two years, and getting the third year for free!
- The best option to get cheap hosting is to go to websites, like Kiuloper, that offer limited value plans alongside their unlimited plans. Use the limited version until you hit your max, then simply upgrade without losing anything! We have clients that their website is 21GB and they just started, and we have websites under us that are three years old and their website is only 500MB (which is only 0.5 GB). So do try to figure out how much you would really need. Using a limited hosting does not lower the professionalism of your website, because no one will find out until you hit your max. With proper planning, you should be able to control that.
Domain
The second most essential thing that you need to have a website is a domain. Some hosting providers, like Kiuloper, give their clients free sub-domains. Now sub-domains look like yourwebsite.kiuloper.com. Now, while this is always an option, it is not really professional looking. There also domains out there that are free for the first year, just as yourwebsite.tk. However, in the second year, they become a little overpriced. There are some domains out there that are only $3/YEAR. I believe yourwebsite.xyz is one of them. However, domains are not something that you can run away from.
To look professional, you need to spend some money. To get the best prices on domains, try to act smart! Domain prices are usually in the same range for the first year, however, you need to be careful for the second year, because some companies that I do not want to name, will charge you three or four times more for renewal. Always check the renewal price of the domain that you are trying to get. The .com domain at Kiuloper is only $9.69 (wow)
Security and SSL
Now when the topic of security comes up, people may get worried! It is true that security could go up to $2000/YEAR, but you do not need that. As long as you have some sort of security, something that can give you that security lock next to your domain, you are good to go! Some hosting providers like Kiuloper, offers extremely cheap or free-forever SSL and securities. We offer free-forever SSL for all our shared web hosting packages, however, we have SSLs that are only $9.02/YEAR “Comodo PositiveSSL (DV)”. So for security, you can go with the free version.
Web Development and Design
The way your website can look is very important! W are going at this with the assumption that you do not know how to code. The entire professionality of your website depends on its design. Now for your web development, you have two main options that are budget-friendly. However, before that, understand that people usually just pay a lot of money for a new design, or hire a web developer with can get expensive for a small business.
So here are your two main options:
- Get it done for free! Many hosting providers offer free website builders with their packages, while you can use them, their logo will show up badly on your website. Your best luck is to use WordPress, a content management system that is free for use and it doesn’t shout out that you are using WordPress by putting its logo everywhere. Many websites nowadays are actually being run by WordPress and you don’t even know! (Fun fact, Kiuloper is also using WordPress!) Now, you can always use WordPress’s free templates or simply search for free WordPress templates, there are some good ones out there that are actually very professional.
- The other option you have is to use themeforest.net for pre-made templates. The templates and designs range from $20-$60, with the usual price being at $50. While these are one-time payments, if you contact the design department of companies like Kiuloper, you may get lucky enough and get the design at a discounted price.
When you found your template, install it by searching how, thankfully there are lots of videos for that, or ask one of Kiuloper’s employees to do it for you.
SEO and optimization
This is the hardest one to try to be on a budget with. Get the idea of advertising out of your head because that is not budget-friendly at all! It is just fast in the result. The cheapest way around SEO is to actually read about how to optimize your website yourself and try to learn some tricks of your own. There are a lot of articles out there. However, the smartest way and the fastest way around this is to start writing articles and blogs on your website. This will increase your popularity. For more information about that read “Why do we need to have blogs?” article.
Conclusion
We did it! We can build a website on a budget, a professional-looking website on a budget. We just made a website with $109.69 for the first year, and from that point on, only $59.69/YEAR. While this is good for starters and small businesses, it is not a great idea to stay on. A low budget for a long time. Yes, for the first few years of the company and business I understand, you need to save money. However, it is important to improve on your website and make it more powerful and strong when you got some money, because the better your website is, the more customers and clients you will have at the end. Just learn to spend money properly and with the proper company
