6 Ways To Design A Beautiful Website Without Overspending

There are currently 1.2 billion websites in existence - that means that there’s one website for every six people in the world. The number of websites has exploded and soared at an exponential rate in the past two decades. It seems like everyone and their mother has a website to their name and because the creation of websites has become so accessible to almost everyone, the versatile usage of websites has manifested in how they are now employed as virtual stores, business cards, portfolios, or simply as landing pages which are designed to draw in customers.

So, since there’s such a great variety of websites covering all sorts of different topics and needs, making one should be a piece of cake, right? After all, if there are so many websites, then it should mean that websites must be relatively inexpensive. We’re dealing with the Internet and not luxury items, so we definitely don’t want to max out our credit cards or anything that causes similar dents in our wallets, according to Lexington Law.

However, the value of websites often lies in the aesthetics, the design, and the user interface is integrated along with the content. Here are some key ways to capitalize on the reach of the Internet while optimizing for a cost-efficient design in order to get the best of both worlds which will allow you to create a beautiful website that’s available for everyone to see and interact with.

Employ a Minimalist Design

Less is more sometimes. Luckily for web designers, minimalist designs are some of the most successful forms of web pages. You don’t necessarily need fancy videos, graphic effects and sounds, and flashy content in order to attract visitors - the purpose and functionality are the most important feature. If you want an example of how this works look no further than the most popular site on the Internet with the most tried and tested model - Google.

Find a Template

It’s rumored that Einstein famously once said: “I don’t need to know everything; I just need to know where to find it when I need it.” That quote could not be more relevant than here - there are hundreds if not thousands of sites offering free HTML packages that have a site’s format already designed and ready to go for you. All you need to do is fill in the blanks - or in this case the placeholder text.

Subscribe to a Service Like Squarespace

If you don’t like any of the cheaper designs of websites that you can find online or if you feel that they are too generic to make an impact, you can instead pay for a designing service that simplifies the coding process to make it more accessible to the common person. Squarespace or Deluxe are good examples of companies that offer a convenient platform that provides such accessibility services for both site layout and design style.

Rely on Lightweight CSS to Cut Load Times

Every second counts when it comes to site design. According to a study published by KissMetrics, 3 percent of all site visitors give sites less than a second to load. That means that you’re losing 3 percent of all your users right off the bat if you don’t account for your site load times. Be smart and use lightweight CSS and don’t overload your pages with photos or videos in order to reduce the load time significantly.

Familiarize Yourself With HTML and CSS and Negotiate

Haggling is acceptable and even necessary when doing business where there is no established price for a good or a service. If you took any random person off the street and asked them how much they would pay to have a website coded, their answers would differ dramatically based on their age, education, and general background in technology. The next time you look for someone to do coding for you, make sure you sound knowledgeable about the basic front-end coding languages so that you can avoid getting tricked by an unscrupulous or opportunistic web dev and so you can turn the tables and haggle with them.

Do Research on Your Intended Audience and Expected Traffic

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is another one of those old adages that everyone has heard of but no one really knows who first said that applies to web development. Remember that we said that pictures might be detrimental to attracting site visitors? If your intended audience consists of people looking to have a wedding experience, high-quality pictures that increase the load times may be worth the losses in overall visitors because you increase engagement with the people who stay.