One of the most important elements of successfully running a small business can be how effective your website is for attracting customers and allowing them to find what they need with ease. A 2013 Harris Poll showed that almost seventy percent of online shoppers abandon slow websites, which can result in a significant loss of revenue.

If you want to create or improve your business website but are operating on a tight budget, there are a few tips you can use to accomplish your web development goals without going into debt.

1. Review Your Budget Before You Begin

While ideas might abound for your small business website, being aware of your budget before you start spending money on web development can be vital when it comes to effective spending. However, reviewing what you can afford to spend should involve more than simply reviewing your business accounts.

To spend money where it is most needed, organize your web development priorities and then budget so you can address important issues, such as upgrading your site for mobile use or improving its overall loading speed.

2. Plan Ahead

One of the quickest ways to burn through your web development budget is to create a site by trial and error. Choosing a web host, page layout, and the features of your site should all be carefully planned before you spend any money.

Before you meet with a web design professional or create your own site and host it on GoDaddy or any other similar services, write down not only how you would like your page to look but what you hope to accomplish with it as well. Ultimately, you only have seconds to impress your site’s visitors, and careful planning may help you do so with more success.

3. Understand Your Options

It is wise to have an amount in mind when it comes to what you want to spend on web development, but that does not mean this number should be set in stone. When you start shopping around for a development or design team, let them know what your budget is, but then ask them what they might accomplish for a third, a half, and then double that amount. This can help you understand what the company is capable of, given the budget they have to work with.

4. Be Realistic About What You Can Do on Your Own

If you want to create your own small business website, you should consider what you are capable of accomplishing on your own. For example, while a website template can help you make a site with a minimum amount of know-how, how much do you know about domains, search engine optimization, or coding?

While you might be able to learn how to handle these other facets of your website over time, when you are first starting out, you may want to invest in finding a web development company that allows you to bundle services best left to professionals.

Takeaway

While you may have to invest some money in your small business website at the outset, you might be able to afford more than you think, especially if you plan ahead and remain realistic about your web development goals. The more prepared you are before you begin, the happier you will probably be with the financial outcome.