There are thousands of entrepreneurs and bloggers out there, who are right now thinking about getting a website of their own. Most business owners have thought of going online, but they have stepped down thinking of the cost of website building and maintenance. Professional website builders are a great option, but they cost money. Personal website building was not an option even in the recent past unless you knew a couple of coding languages. When most budding entrepreneurs were hoping for a sign of rain, WordPress came into existence.
You all know what WordPress is and how it is the best CMS platform e-commerce the world. What you probably want to know now is, if you can build a website within your budget using WordPress.
How to create a website within $100?
To begin with, let us tell you that WordPress is open source. You can find almost everything you need if you know where to look for them. You can install this software on any website.
These are the four expenses you need to watch out for while building your site –
- WordPress and website hosting
- Domain name
- Plugin and Extension
- Design
All WordPress sites need a hosting service. You can think of it as your site's home on the internet. WordPress has its list of favorite hosts that you can check out. Quite a few hosting services offer sweet deals to first-time website builders including SEO-friendly domain names. Installing WordPress is the easiest part. However, if you are getting beginner’s jitters, you can check WordPress installing videos to get started.
Next, you need to begin the designing process. Since it is an open-source platform, you will find thousands of free themes and templates. WordPress blogs list the top free templates for every website category. You can browse these and download the ones you think are fit for your site. Check out any of the WordPress theme installation guides for detailed assistance on the matter.
Google certifies WordPress to be naturally 99% SEO friendly. However, that is not enough. Since your competitors who are using WordPress, are getting the same basic features you are going. Your SEO needs some boosting. You can download some of the best SEO plugins from the plugins directory free. There are over 50,000 plugins that you can use to optimize your website. While some are for SEO, others are for including responsive contact forms, managing media, including embedded video players and embedding social media widgets.
Here are a few plugins that are enough to create a fully functional and optimized site within permitted budget –
- WPForms Lite
- Soliloquy Lite
- Yoast SEO
- WP Super Cache
- MonsterInsights
- Sucuri
- UpdraftPlus
These are the free versions of the leading plugins to add a myriad of features to your WP site.
If you can find a reliable host, free templates and mostly free plugins, your website cost will be restricted within $100 per year.
How to build a website within $500 – $1000?
Having a budget is very necessary for every business. Keeping an upper limit on your website expenses makes complete sense. However, as your business grows so does your follower-base. With time, you will need a website that is better equipped to handle more data during peak hours.
You may have started with a WordPress site a couple of months back, and you may be nowhere to increase the features.
Let us start with the basics –
- Hosting cost will increase
- You will need number of premium versions of plugins
- You may need a more flexible theme that can support the rush hour
As your server load increases with the increase in customer base, we advise you to switch to a more powerful hosting configuration. You can again resort to the most recommended hosting options by WordPress and its experts. Just make sure, your plan can handle up to 100,000 visitors per month.
Most premium plugins offer a mélange of extra features and support for the users. The free themes and templates can be a restricted regarding creative freedom as well. Paid versions will allow you to let go of all bounds and unleash your creative genius.
Here are a few paid plugins that most website owners love –
- Beaver Builder: this one adds a drag-and-drop builder to your WordPress site.
- Constant Contact: complete email marketing service for WordPress
- OptinMonster: lead generation, addresses cart abandonment issues.
- MonsterInsights Pro: helps you monitor user interaction with your website
- BackupBuddy: your website’s best friend for backing up data
- Sucuri Firewall: Protects against firewall and malware
You can check out more plugins from the WordPress plugins directory. The WordPress community is an enriching experience for any WordPress user. You can find out everything there is to know about site building, hosting options, plugins and much more in the forum.
What changes for an e-commerce website?
The costs for an e-commerce website are considerably higher. You will need a stronger hosting service and a milieu of plugins to manage your users better. You must also get an SSL certificate because Google flags down websites without one.
You will also need a robust database management system. You need an experienced DBA consultant who has worked with e-commerce platforms. We are not saying it is impossible to create and manage a website on your own. However, managing and organizing data takes a considerable amount of time. The time that you can invest in the new project and bigger ventures. You need to entrust your website data into the hands of reputed DBA experts who can take care of it for you. This will increase the cost a bit. However, you will get a more secure experience with complete security for your website data.
Author Bio
Kristen Smith is a website developer and DBA consultant. She specializes in e-commerce website design and management. She has been a mentor for the last ten years.