If you are like most business owners, then you are probably constantly on the lookout for ways to cut your expenses, save money, and ultimately earn a bigger profit. When it comes to getting a business website published and live ready for your customers to use to shop online or find out more about what you offer, doing it yourself has become easier than ever with a wide range of tools on the market as your disposal. However, before you start out with building your business website, it’s worth considering if you have the skills and knowledge needed to get it right. While there are plenty of user-friendly website building tools out there today, there’s still a lot of room for disasters to happen.  

Consider Getting Expert Help with Your Business Website

Before you get started with building your business website, it is worth considering if getting expert help is worth it. This could be assistance with the tricky parts of building your website initially, or with maintaining your website and updating it over time once you’ve done the initial build. Web design services in Birmingham; working with a good web design agency is often worth the additional expense as they can ensure that your website build is on the right track. Even if you want to save money by doing most of the simple stuff yourself, you can rely on them for things that might be outside of your skill level like custom code or testing to ensure that the site is fully responsive.  

Choose the Right Platform for Your Business Website

As you embark on the project of building your own business website, chances are that you will have a lot of different platforms to choose from. The right one for you is going to depend on several factors including your skill level, your budget, and what you need the website to do. Some platforms are better suited to certain types of websites. For example, Shopify might be a good pick for you if you are building an eCommerce store, while on the other hand, for a business blog, WordPress is a great choice. Spend some time researching the different options, figuring out what your needs are when it comes to your site and the process of building, and find the platform that is best suited.  

Give Yourself Time

It’s certainly easy to use a lot of website building tools today if you want to throw a basic website together in a few hours. However, you will probably find that it takes a lot longer than this if you want to fine-tune everything and make sure that your new business website is perfect. So, make sure that you start in good time and give yourself a few weeks or months at least before you expect the website to be done and ready to publish. This also gives you plenty of time to get help with any issues you encounter while building your site, or to find professionals to help you with things that you’re struggling to do like custom code.

Prioritize the Mobile Design

Many website building tools including WordPress focus mainly on designing for desktop first. However, they will have options where you can switch between a desktop and a mobile view to ensure that everything looks great on either sized screen. Before you get started with building your website, it’s important to consider how it’s going to look on mobile devices since you can expect more and more of your visitors to be on a smartphone, tablet, or another mobile device rather than a PC or a laptop. Internet searches, content consumption, and online shopping are all becoming mobile-first, so no matter what kind of business site you are building, it’s crucial to use a platform, theme, or template that is responsive and regularly test it in mobile view.

Focus on Navigation

How easy your site is to navigate makes a huge difference to the user experience and can impact many other important things for your business such as your SEO. Because of this, it’s important to consider the navigation of your website when building and put it on your priority list to ensure that visitors are going to be able to find their way around easily when they land on your site in the future. This is one area where working with a professional or agency can come in handy, as they can test your navigation and suggest improvements, or work on the navigation for you while you focus on other aspects of your site.

Keep it Simple

When building your own business website as an amateur, it can be all too easy to try and get all the information about your business out there on the home page. After all, you are excited about your business and there is just so much to tell your visitors about. But if you have ever visited a website where it looks like somebody has written a novel on the homepage, then you will know that this can be more annoying than it is helpful. Keep things simple and to the point; applying the ‘less is more’ rule is certainly worth it when building any business website.  

Utilize Third-Party Tools for Your Business Website

Finally, search for any third-party tools that can help you get more from your web design project and add more value to your website. You can find sites that allow you to build and use a range of widgets for a small fee, for example, adding to the features that you can get from your chosen platform. These are usually built and designed elsewhere, before you are able to generate the HTML to copy and paste into the back end of your website. You can find options like this for all kinds of website features that might not be directly available from the platform that you are using such as embedding Google reviews or creating a carousel for the homepage.  

If you want to save money on your business website, then building it yourself might be an option. However, it’s a good idea to keep these tips in mind and consider working together with a professional to help you get the best results.