In this digital age, the website plays a crucial role in increasing the online visibility of a business, especially small businesses. A great website will make your business look credible. The good news is, you don’t need a massive budget to create a fantastic business website – there really is no need to compromise on quality. You do, however, need to invest some of your time. Below are some of our tips to create and manage the best business website on a budget.

1. What’s in a Name? Everything.

When it comes to building a great website, domain name is everything. Most of all, it needs to reflect your business name. Once you come up with a list of potential domain names, you can check if your domain name is available on domain sites such as godaddy.com or crazydomain.sg. While it is possible to purchase your preferred domain name even if it is taken, the cost will be up to the owner’s discretion and therefore will most likely be more expensive. After purchasing your domain name, pick an affordable provider to host your site.

2. Choose the right content management system

You can hire a web designer to build your business website, but that will cost quite a bit of money. Instead, you can use a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal. After learning how to install a CMS onto your hosted location, you can install a low-cost template that you like. Do make sure that you search based on the type of CMS you have chosen. Joomla templates obviously won’t work on WordPress, etc.

3. Learn to do updates

If you don’t have enough budget to hire web or digital experts, you need to learn how to schedule updates. Learn how to optimize your website for Google and other search engines. You can read books, follow blogs and forums, or watch YouTube videos. Please note that search engines these days look at much more than just metadata. They look at everything from tags to video clips to what’s written on your web page.

4. SEO Works. Always.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential to make your website more visible to the digital public. It helps you rank on the first page of Google searches and other search engines. For a start, you can use Google Keyword Planner to help you shortlist keywords that potential customers may use to find your business on Google. Once you identify your keywords, use them consistently in your website copy. A word of caution though – Google will penalize you if your website copy is overstuffed with keywords. Therefore, the key to maximising SEO impact is to create quality content.

5. Complement with social media platforms

Google is great to help you increase your online presence, but it’s not the only method to increase organic search. After setting up your site, determine which social media platforms are appropriate for your brand. Many social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram also have their own advertising platforms which you can use to target your customers and leverage your reach, and you can adjust the ad spend according to your budget.

Related: Social Media 101 for Small Business and The Best Social Media Platforms for Your Business

Your company website is a representation of your business. So whether it’s simple or complex, make sure you create something you can be proud of. As long as you invest the work and the time, a limited budget won’t be an obstacle to creating a great business website.

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