How to Build an Inexpensive Professional Website That Looks Like it Cost Thousands

When it comes to your online presence, whether you are a business owner, blogger or simply a social media fanatic, nothing is more important to your overall success than having a professional website. In many ways, your website is like your first impression on the web and so it’s crucial that your website be a reflection of yourself as well as a unique and well thought out experience. While many people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars creating a unique yet professional website with the help of professional design firms and web coding experts, I have managed to create a website that received hundreds of thousands of views per month spending a fraction of that! In all, my website cost me under $250 dollars to build myself using free resources and tutorials online, plus a few little web hacks that I would like to pass on to you today! So here are my tips for creating a professional website that looks like it costs thousands of dollars!

Go Self Hosted

Although there are plenty of free website options online, using a free service doesn’t hold a candle to a true self hosted website. Although you can certainly create a very decent user experience on a Blogspot.com account, the fact of the matter is that when it comes to your site’s SEO or search engine optimization, a website that is ran from blogspot will never pull in the rankings the way a self hosted site will. This is because your site will always be a subdomain of a larger site, even if you purchase your own custom URL. In order to get the highest rankings for your site and the best SEO, you want to have your website self hosted. Yes, this option costs money, but usually not more than about $100-$150 a year for your domain URL and hosting fees. I use a hosting service called Bluehost, but there are many others out there and I suggest doing a little research for which service and price point works for you!

Use Trusted Website Building Software

I personally use WordPress on my website and I love how reliable, easy to use, and versatile the platform is for my needs! It gives me professional results without actually needing to be a professional web designer! I don’t need to know how to code or even understand HTML because WordPress allows for you to download special plugins to your site that help you create nearly anything you could imagine. Because it’s used by so many professionals, there are so many (free!) resources available to help you build the site of your dreams, and WordPress is constantly updating and adding new functionality!

Buy a Professional and Responsive Theme

Your website’s theme is basically the design that is seen by the end user and although you can get many free themes online for your site, I highly suggesting spending a little money and buying a theme that is perfectly designed, responsive and full featured! I personally purchased my theme from BluChic.com which specializes in responsive WordPress themes for female-centric businesses. Although my theme cost slightly more than your average WordPress theme, I love that it is responsive (which means that the layout of my site optimizes depending on the screen or device that is viewing it), with a clean-cut editorial design that I was easily able to tweak to fit with my own branding. My theme is also backed by a customer service team so that if I ever run into issues or have any questions, I have a professional on call to help me!

Now, I’m not a web design professional by any means, but I am one smart cookie and was able to build my website for a very reasonable price by myself in less than a day and I know you can too! Yes, I was nervous to do it at first, but after Googling some quick how-to’s and watching a few YouTube videos on website building, I was quickly able to learn the basics for setting up my site and follow step-by-step instructions that helped me to create it. It may have seemed overwhelming at first, but in reality, all the information I needed to create my own professional website was available to me for free online, so if you want to create an inexpensive website that looks like it cost thousands of dollars to code and design, I suggest using these tips and doing some research and Googling of your own so that you can get to work!

xoxo,

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out my Blogging Resource Guide or How to Build an Online Business without an Email List!