Everything seems to cost more nowadays. But your website doesn’t have to. With a few tricks and a bit of time, you can find ways to save on your website that won’t take up too much of your time.
Do your own search engine research
Learning how to do your own search engine optimisation is a great money saver. Not only can you improve your rankings on search engines, but you’ll also get a better understanding of your website, your content, and how search engines work.
And there are plenty of free resources out there to teach you about working with search engines, researching keywords, writing content, and building your website. Moz’s SEO Learning Center has plenty of free resources, including video tutorials, blog posts, and checklists, and you can also pay for courses that lead to certification. Semrush Academy has free video courses that focus on specific SEO topics, from digital PR to content-led optimisation. And Google has detailed documentation to teach you about all of Google’s free tools, how Google works, and what you can do to make sites better.
Use free themes and plugins for your CMS
If you’re using a content management system such as WordPress or Drupal, you might think you have to pay for a theme or plugins to make everything work the way you want to, but there are plenty of free options available that will make your website shine.
Obviously, WordPress is a big player in the CMS field, and many plugins and themes that are available will have free versions available on WordPress.org. While they may have limited features, you can often find that there are free plugins and themes that meet your needs perfectly.
The same is true of Drupal, with themes and modules also available to download from their site. If you’re using an open-source content management system, you can usually find free plugins or themes for it, giving you an easy way to make your website unique while also not having to spend money on a designer or developer.
However, please make sure that when you’re downloading free add-ons, you’re getting them from an official website, and not getting cracked or pirated versions. Doing that is a one-way ticket to getting your website hacked.
Look for royalty-free stock photography
You want to make your website look great, but you also know you can’t shell out money for stock photography, much less get new photos taken professionally. And it might be tempting to just have a browse in Google Images, but ending up with copyright issues is even more of a pain.
Luckily, there are plenty of royalty-free image sites out there on the web, many of which have fantastic pictures just waiting to be on your website. Unsplash and Pexels are both powerhouses, filled with thousands of images that are free to download and use on your site. Or if you need vector graphics, Public Domain Vectors has plenty to choose from.
Learn to code your own website
Even if you don’t become a full-stack developer that can build complex applications over a weekend, knowing a bit about how websites are made and how they are built can save you a lot of time, effort, and money if something goes wrong.
W3Schools is a long-standing place to learn HTML, whether you’re just starting out or you can’t remember that one tag you used to use to build that thing. You can also learn CSS, JavaScript, and programming languages as well. CodeAcademy has a range of free courses available, including beginner HTML and CSS and an intermediate CSS course once you’ve taken on the basics. And freeCodeCamp will start you learning responsive web design from scratch by building a cute little cat photo app.
What other ways can you think that’ll have you saving money on your website? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram!
