Building a website on a budget - your answers & advice

Henry Osadzinski · Dec 12, 2012

Carrying on from our last piece of content, we've been going through your recent threads here and in some other parts of the site to put together a guide to one of the most frequently asked IT questions - "what are my options when building a website for my business?".

Over on BusinessZone, Lucie has also taken some of the key bits of advice from the Startup Clinic, turned it into a more extensive article and we've seen some handy additions in the comments.

Let us know what you think and if there's anything else that you'd consider essential information to add

There are also some recent threads that you'll likely find useful, including Faevilangel's How to find a website developer / designer and Mobious' updated guide to Improving your web presence.

Enjoy!

Icon design by Cursor from The Noun Project
Comments from cocodude (post), Faevilangel (post) & Stretchy (post).

S-Marketing · Dec 12, 2012

By far the most important thing to remember when looking to build a site on a budget is to make sure you build it based on a sound marketing strategy.

If you simply follow the advice of your web designer you are not going to get the best return on your investment. If you can't afford proper advice, do some research yourself around what marketing actually is, and why it's so important.

Henry Osadzinski · Dec 12, 2012

Absolutely - there always needs to be someone asking "why?" alongside every decision

Alan · Dec 12, 2012

The single £ assigned to DIY is a bit misleading. The learning curve can be quite steep if this isn't something you are into, and time is money, unless you work for nothing.

Packaged solutions may work out most economic for many businesses, as they are providing scalable and complete solutions with the benefits of economies of scale. But then I would say that being a packaged solution provider with a personal touch

The comparison should be

DIY - growing food in your own back garden, fun, interesting and you learn a lot (about weevils, blackfly etc), but time consuming and you'd never actually be able to feed yourself properly.

Packaged Solution - Shopping at Asda, Tescos or Marks & Spencers etc a range of choice, quality and prices brackets

Paid Custom - Hiring a personal nutritionist and a personal shopper. Absolutely essential if you need the best and have the money.

ZedS · Dec 12, 2012

Yes, you can definitely go for a cheap website or even a free option - but then don't expect any actual results. Most free or super cheap websites are completely invisible on search engines or they fall apart with every click. You do get what you pay for. The only exception is if you have some experience and skills in web designing, in which case you could probably manage a decent set-up.

I notice how many company owners tend to underestimate the importance of their websites, so they try to cutback on how much they spend on it. Yet if you realise that nowadays people are on the internet 24/7, you know how crucial online presence is - not just having a frozen website which sits there and does nothing, but a website which actually makes a great impression and draws in clients/customers. Hire someone who knows what they're doing - you'll get their expertise, skills, insight, understanding and their time, instead of trying to juggle everything by yourself with limited experience and know-how. As in most cases, going to an expert will give you far better results than you could manage on your own, not to mention that peace of mind is priceless.

Henry Osadzinski · Dec 13, 2012

One thing we briefly mentioned but didn't have the space to go into full detail about was using services like Facebook to set up a company landing page. Brands like Vitamin Water have used this to good effect previously and, if done right, an engaging and well thought-out Facebook page can give a good first impression but would you ever recommend using it over a full site?

Alan · Dec 13, 2012

Henry Osadzinski said:
One thing we briefly mentioned but didn't have the space to go into full detail about was using services like Facebook to set up a company landing page. Brands like Vitamin Water have used this to good effect previously and, if done right, an engaging and well thought-out Facebook page can give a good first impression but would you ever recommend using it over a full site?

The setup of a company landing page on facebook is simple/cheap. Creating engaging content is the more difficult part. In your example, Vitamin Water create a new post systematically every 2 days.

This forms part of their overall online marketing strategy, and they are promoting a brand, not specifically trying to obtain online sales through FB/Twitter and their other online channels, including their website. And even then, they still have a broken link on their 'home' icon on their FB page, despite probably a hefty online marketing budget and department..

I guess what I am saying is the example of a Facebook page as per Vitamin Water isn't relevant to small businesses considering FB as an alternative to having website. There maybe better examples around, but I don't know of any specifically.

RyanMitchell · Dec 13, 2012

This is a great infographic.

webgeek · Dec 15, 2012

Seems as though the discussion about 'website' is focusing on the code powering the website, at the expense of the the content.

Mapping out the navigation hierarchy, including which pages will go where, how many are needed initially, how many words per page, what graphics are required, all are really what a website is about. The framework sitting on Apache/IIS is merely the translator.

If you spec out the above nav/pages/content, it's like shooting fish in a barrel when it comes to getting bids for the work. If you're long on time and short on money, then write it all yourself. Otherwise, find a reputable writer from the forum here or possibly a 4* or 5* writer from TextBroker.

After you've got the framework in place with content added, you'll probably need some SEO type person to review and tweak things (at least the title, meta description, a few keyword/synonyms on the page and internal link anchors). Again, if you're a DIY type, do a bit of reading on top SEO blogs/sites/forums and figure out how to do this. Mediocre skills will get mediocre results, so be forewarned.

Alan · Dec 15, 2012

webgeek said:
Seems as though the discussion about 'website' is focusing on the code powering the website, at the expense of the the content..

Were those posts removed? I didn't notice any discussion about code.

webgeek · Dec 15, 2012

Have a look at the first post graphic.

Wordpress, Joomla, CMS, Squarespace, design, hosting

There's a lot of mechanics, but not about what goes on the page.

SqueakyHinge · Dec 15, 2012

If you are on budget you have time on your hands - therefore building your own site and the talk of 'people not valuing their own time' is a bit cheap.

They don't have any value assigned to their time because if they did they wouldnt be ON A BUDGET.

Thankyou, thankyou very much.

Alan · Dec 15, 2012

webgeek said:
Have a look at the first post graphic.

Wordpress, Joomla, CMS, Squarespace, design, hosting

There's a lot of mechanics, but not about what goes on the page.

I have to agree with that (although that isn't so much the discussion as the info graphic)

S-Marketing · Dec 15, 2012

The graphic also quotes me as having said that you should never scrimp on getting a site built. That doesn't sound like something I would have said at all. I don't know which post they have quoted, but generally i recommend spending money on working out what your message is, and giving as little as possible to a web designer (within reason).

ZedS · Dec 15, 2012

Stretchy said:
generally i recommend spending money on working out what your message is, and giving as little as possible to a web designer (within reason).

This is what will determine the type of website you end up with. I've seen some appalling websites that were just shocking to look at (I'm talking bright yellow backgrounds with bright blue/green/pink text links randomly placed) - it turns out the people were just interested in a cheap designer, not high standards. If you're just looking for a cheap rates, don't have a website at all - that works out cheaper.

- I'm not saying you should go all out and hire an expensive web designer BUT a website is an important investment. If you have a budget, one of the few things you should be scrimping on is your website.

S-Marketing · Dec 15, 2012

ZedS said:
This is what will determine the type of website you end up with. I've seen some appalling websites that were just shocking to look at (I'm talking bright yellow backgrounds with bright blue/green/pink text links randomly placed) - it turns out the people were just interested in a cheap designer, not high standards. If you're just looking for a cheap rates, don't have a website at all - that works out cheaper.

- I'm not saying you should go all out and hire an expensive web designer BUT a website is an important investment. If you have a budget, one of the few things you should be scrimping on is your website.

What you spend on the site has little relation to how good the site will be, or how it will serve its purpose (again, within reason).

If a cheap site is built based on sound marketing principles, it will outperform an expensive site built based only on the advice of a web designer.

Henry Osadzinski · Dec 17, 2012

@Stretchy - sorry about that. We initially had a bit of additional context around each of the quotes but space was limited. I've included links to the original posts from which each quote was taken. If you'd like any other references to clarify it, feel free to PM me and I'll make sure it's sorted out

Thanks as well to you & everyone who has added their comments to this post - it's a really big topic and the more advice and opinion that people can share, the more it can help new startups with their questions.

solenlil · Dec 20, 2012

The most economic for many businesses, as they are providing scalable and complete solutions with the benefits of economies of scale.

Yorkshire&Online · Dec 20, 2012

Sometimes it is just unrealistic to expect to get onto the first page of google with a limited budget. However, google local (google places) can give your business a chance if you are reliant on local customers.

I therefore think you can get away with creating a free website but place extra attention on google places to give your website good exposure.

There are some good free templates out there to allow you to do this. I think wix.com offer some really good templates that give you the opportunity to create a very unique and professional looking website for free.

uncle_rico · Dec 30, 2012

Coming from a person that is'nt formally trained in building websites but taught myself, I think the most important thing if you don't have much money is to have time and patience to research what it is you actually need and which platform best suits you. To keep costs low you're not going to be able to avoid doing some of the design yourself.

Wordpress
Ideal for blogging/general websites to state who you are, what you do and the occasional update. If you want to sell stuff I would'nt recommend wordpress at all.

Facebook/Twitter
This is good for promoting, but will you be taken seriously as a business with no website? No!

If you have your web address already thought out I would first register the domain name with godaddy.co.uk to make sure nobody else takes it.

Once you've bought your domain name you can then transfer it to a free hosting site so you dont have to pay a monthly hosting fee.

If you just want everything done all under one site with no hassle I would go with webeden.com , theire designs are great, they also allow you to integrate payment systems with them.

I build small business websites/shops and even do youtube adverts for really low fees on a freelance basis. If anyones interested let me know.

uncle_rico · Dec 30, 2012

Also I think its unfair to say that you should'nt even bother building a website if you dont have the money for a top notch one. Establishing your presence online is a good start by any means.

m.evans · Jan 1, 2013

I my self after a few years working around websites and web site security i would say the key thing to keep in mind when you are in the stages of building your business website.

I myself use WordPress has it is very easy to use but at the same time there are lots of users who use this script so when there is a security issue there is a patch for it within hours.

in total my website cost around 60 pounds to do and that was just for a template to make it look good and domain/host costs.

Hope this helps anyone who is looking to set up a website.

RockYourWings · Jan 5, 2013

I would agree with M.Evans, although Wordpress is classed as a 'DIY' solution here - in fact its a vast online enterprise with thousands of individuals and hundreds of companies being employed daily to create all manner of websites based on Wordpress.

From my experience, I've found Wordpress to be the most popular CMS solution - hardly surprising with such an abundance of free 'plugins' which add volumes of extra functionality and tonnes of free support from around the world.

As you can probably tell, my website is built on Wordpress! I've tried mainly CMS solutions in the past and even had a nab at constructing my own similar CMS using PHP and MySQL databases - too long, and too expensive.

Another thing about Wordpress specifically, aside from its secure coding, and great SEO that's already built in - the plugins available can either be paid-for offerings or free, thus opening up another realm within Wordpress.

I'll put it out there and say that I've been really impressed with Elance dot com as of late, thousands of freelancers who are able to complete a project (maybe a website for you?) you specify to a good standard - if you're unsure where to go, submit a project with requirements and go from there!

For the record, I use QiQ for Hosting and Crazy Domains to purchase Domains.

Costs per year for my six domain names and a large hosting package equate to approximately £60 per year - if anyone can't find them on Google, PM me and I'll forward you their website addresses.

Hope this helps.

Alan · Jan 5, 2013

You don't per-chance work for (or an affiliate of) Crazy Domains? I have been around a long time and never stumbled across them and todays two posts from you mentioning it.
Just wondering?

Any one else heard of them, or is it just I haven't been looking hard enough for deals recently?

RockYourWings · Jan 5, 2013

roibot said:
You don't per-chance work for (or an affiliate of) Crazy Domains? I have been around a long time and never stumbled across them and todays two posts from you mentioning it.
Just wondering?

Any one else heard of them, or is it just I haven't been looking hard enough for deals recently?

I do not work for them, nor am I an affiliate. I have however purchased six domain names from them very recently for the lowest prices around, and when you are building a domain portfolio, price matters.

I have however developed many websites for other individuals and this is the first time I have used them - highly recommended, as are the hosting company I have been with for 4+ years (QiQ).

PS. I'd look harder.

Alan · Jan 5, 2013

Their prices look great. Do you get full domain management panel for DNS etc?

RockYourWings · Jan 5, 2013

They certainly have quite an extensive list of settings you can fiddle with, best to ask them - I tend to just purchase the domains and change the name servers to my website, nothing too technical!

Is there a sticky in this forum that collates the latest deals? It would save a fair amount of searching/researching for some guys.

ukinsurance · Feb 26, 2013

I think you would do well by visiting freelancers websites and can get a skilled web-designer at much lower rates.

KeithP · Feb 27, 2013

"If you want to sell stuff I would'nt recommend wordpress at all."

Sorry I have to disagree - online sales are all about getting visitors to a website and IMHO, WordPress is far better at achieving that than all of the dedicated e-commerce solutions (Cubecart, Actinic, etc). If you use an e-commerce plug-in like WooCommerce then WordPress is a very robust solution for most small businesses who want to sell stuff online.

Fred_the_frog · Mar 5, 2013

How long did this take? 10 minutes?

I thought it would include something about the cost of domains, cost of hosting, do I need SSL certificate, which platforms are good for which websites?

Baz Watkins · Mar 28, 2013

Building a website on a budget, kinda depends on what you mean by budget. Budget means different things to different people, one person might think £250 is cheap, another £1,000.

People need to move away from price and think more about purpose.

eventdomain · Apr 5, 2013

Tricky one to answer, for a publishing site with search box, likely around £3kish, although can get this cheaper. While watching a bbc programme about webby things (it was called Webwise or something) - the expert reckoned a spend of upto £30k - but you could costs could be anything, and its a case of shopping around for good deal.

I'll say this - once you have one site built, you're probably know what the going rate is for a certain website type, thus this makes it easier to decline quotes.

Some websites are clearly not worth the quotes being charged - this was no exception and it doesn't exist anymore, except in archive files now.

£100m - Site was the businesslink.gov - other sites costs that will shock you are:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/index.htm - £35m a year to build and operate for three years.

http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx £21m

(Source: BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/07/the_105m_website.html

eventdomain · Apr 5, 2013

Tricky one to answer. While watching a bbc programme about webby things (it was called Webwise or something) - the expert reckoned a spend of upto £30k - but costs could be anything, and its a case of shopping around for good deal.

Some websites are clearly not worth the quotes being charged - this businesslink one was no exception and it doesn't exist anymore, except in archive files now.

£100m - Site was the businesslink.gov - other sites costs that will shock you are:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/index.htm - £35m a year to build and operate for three years.

http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx £21m

(Source: BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/07/the_105m_website.html

Vestor · Apr 14, 2013

I build secure and seo websites + operate webshops and control internet traffic to make money. Completely self taught.

I've owned 2 webshops ranking number 1 on google and bing. I sold 1 of them.

I currently have 1 at number 1 and another at 5 both in different sectors and about 30 other websites that are seo traffic cash machines.

It cost me £3.50 + about £5 a month lol

bt a lot of time and dedicaation and an extremely strong drive for learning.

theres a lot of ways to build on a budget if you know how but I'm a polymath I have expertise in many many areas so I find things like this quite easy.

I always lived on very little money and saved most of it.

If anyone wants advice on building businesses on a budget I'm the guy to talk to lol ;-)

Its about putting effort and dedication in 24/7 + networking. All it comes down to but you either got it or you don't.

For me its just come naturally - I grew up in a very poor family and that turned me into a master of budgeting and business.

I happily give free advice I enjoy helping.

Vestor · Apr 19, 2013

and ea totally depemds what you wanna do,

you aint buildimgthe next ebay and papyal sister company websites on a budget lol.

My expertise is in webshops, domains, SEO, comtrol of traffic, secfrity and penetration testing - i also do business cosulting on models and tactics.

Mostgly for fiends now - I've made my momey so I just help them set up their ad were finding my methods working in untappend markes all the time - ehich syrprised me as is 2013 but still thers a lot of business sectors ntoeven employing well know systems.

Step 1 read the google algorythum
Step 2 lean the security you need in place - once you start geting big - you become a target
Step3. learn coding and script modifaction (this may take years dending on what you've got -you can rely of off shelf stuff depeding on what you are doing but tend to look quite unprofessional and without knowledge of coding how can you debug and penetratuon test)
Step4. Secure, secure, secure - for me back when I started over 10 years ago my first webshop was hacked in under 2 weeks as they guys run crawlers searching for unsecured systems - and word press well ye stay up to date but that won't stop a zero day exploit or half the other patches that are still unfixed

Learn it your self. I'm completely self taught trial and error and its the only way - never say never I'mmd 30's this year and I'm still keeping up with these punks.

Every generotion of 13-16 years can and will crack your site and its so easy now you don't even need to hack. You just install some fire fox add ons and look for weaknesses.

theres basic rules to prevent 90% of this - if you have no idea get a host than runs it all for you but that cost you a fortune.

Just remember too - bigger you get - bigger target you become - hire whitehats you can trust at this point to to pen test your system but be careful who you hire thats fire sure... tking a company client database in blackhat community earns a pretty penny and many peoples sites hsve so little protection its just a brute force decryption and knowing how to not get caught.

CalvinHarris · Apr 19, 2013

would you say its better to pay for a service to handle all of that for you, or hire contractors to do it?

wendynathan1960 · Apr 30, 2013

Hi all,

I am hoping for a bit of advice here. I have read the previous posts and apologise if this has already been explained but i am not familiar with technology etc and do not have a clue what to do when it comes to making a website for my company!

I am a sole trader and just looking for a basic website for which potential customers can see samples of my work.

I have a friend who can design the content for me so that part is sorted, i just dont know how to go about getting a domain name and who i need to go to to get the website etc

i hope i am explaining myself here.

Thanks, Wendy

Vestor · Jun 5, 2013

wendy eveythings automatic nowadays!

Although cn be confusing to noobs, theres so many scripts you can just install an appropriate site with a good host.

PM if still stuck I can sort out what ever you like easily enough.

The real problems people have are these - 1 SEO - geting a good ranking on google and 2. security

As standard security is awful - all hosts expect you to do your own security no matter what they advertise 99 out of 100 will have a wordpress exploit or simple things like FTP left open SSH open they expect peole to learn and know these things.

Those are likely to be far more important isuues than getting a website up. I'd spend a good day on security when seting up any website its the first thing I do as people have spiders scanning 24/7 for open servers and can install malicious code before you even used your account. If you don't work fast.

Vestor · Jun 5, 2013

Rcently Ive had to spend a lot of timeand money on security as the advancements made by hackers with operating systems such as "KALI linux" is alowing thos "inthe know" to destroy their competition through malicious means and its hell of a job keping ahead of the bad side.

KALI linux is for pen testing it claims but in truth most users are popping home pcs, routers,wi fis websites like candy from a baby and the worst thing is not many people know about it and its all automatated theres litterally billions of 13 yo kids running scripts that can destroy small businesses and they don't even need any knowledge of programming to do it anymore.

Vestor · Jun 5, 2013

CalvinHarris said:
would you say its better to pay for a service to handle all of that for you, or hire contractors to do it?

I believe its better to learn but having said that its gonna take years in reality and its a never ending subject.

I've been coding all my life and reent advancements from the darkside have made security THE bigest priority for my company now.

SEO you have to know the tricks of the trade - you can pay people but its full of rogue traders / black hats and you must be very creful who you hire.

SEO best way to learn - read the google algorythum but you need the other knowledge to acompany it (implementation). People go onabou backlinks and stuff truff is thats not half as important as making the site google friendly and followinging all the nesacery registration procedures. These alone with good keywords do far more for you than all the bcklink crap.

Blackhats will cheat you - your site wil rise rank fast and drop just as fast as it rose because google knows and has implemented anti black hat into the algorythum now.

I its esy if you know how but I've been doing this since I was 7 and now 31 so i forget how hard it can be for a beginner. My company now specialises in start-ups as its so important - tutoring is a big part of it - teachibg people safety on all levels.

I can setup a secured site but that can be comprimised very easily with a poor password or using an external email system - simple mistakes - its a vast subject all round.

I've had 3 google/bing number 1 websites this year ;-) abd I did them all for dirt cheap I should put my prices up though as it takes so much more time now especially on security, with things like KALI i have to spend extr week or 2 just on secuity alone per site.

Hard to keep up with me even let alone a new comer. Hie but choose wisely, its not about how much you pay but how much they kknow. Sorry to say but theres a lot of very bad coders out there and even worse plain thieves/cheatsl.

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