Launch A Website on a Budget: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you’re ready to launch a website on a budget but feel overwhelmed by the cost, you’re not alone.

Starting a business—especially when every dollar counts—can feel daunting.

But guess what?

You can launch a website on a budget without sacrificing style or functionality.

…but what if you got no money? (or low money) (or you aren’t quite ready to make an expensive commitment)

I know you’ve heard it be for “I’ve been there before blah, blah, blah”, but it’s true.

I really have.

I’ve spent 100,000,000+ hours @ YouTube University, Google State College, and spiraled down the black hole of all kinds of non-business related topics.

(you can still find me doing this REGULARLY though 🙃)

I’m a “I’ll figure this shit out myself” kinda girl (I’m a Sag ♐️), and boy do I have a list for you if you’re up for the challenge.

My goal for you is to save you so much time (and money, lots and lots 🤞🏽) throughout this new business venture of yours 😘

I’m going to provide you with a step-by-step breakdown on how to launch a website on a budget, with resources to help you achieve this without breaking the bank

(but also a couple of options if you get stuck along the way and decide that’s an excellent place to invest a little more to stop spinning and circles and just get the shit done lol)

1. Buy Your Domain 💳

• At this part of the process, you’ve got your name ready to go and have already done your research on whether this name is already taken or not.
• You can purchase yours pretty much anywhere, but GoDaddy is my favorite (ya know since google domains no longer exists 🥲)
• Make your way to claim yours at godaddy.com before it’s taken 🏃🏽‍♀️

2. Build Your Brand 🧰

• Build your vision board on Pinterest – I like to create one for my brain dump, and a second to narrow down what ACTUALLY resonates with me
• After curating your vision board, look for recurring themes and colors that scream ‘YOU.’ I recommend 4-6 colors that give your brand a cohesive feel.
• Want to extract the exact colors? Use tools like Image Color Picker to nail down your hex codes—trust me, you’ll need those for, well, everything.
  • Get your fonts from Google Fonts – look on Pinterest for pairings and insert the vibe you’re going for when searching
  • Create your logo on Canva. You should be able to get away with the free version of this
    • (but idk maybe you hop on that free trial, get it done before it’s over and then idk cancel before you get charged? 🤫)
  • I know people are against building your logo on Canva due to trademark issues, but tbh you’re probably here on the grounds that you’re just starting off and trying to hit the ground running with this new business venture.
    • yes, you can have trademark issues in the future, but I feel like your Canva logo can hold the fort down til you start making fat stacks and once you’re ready to trademark your logo, you probably can afford to hire a professional to design your logo (and probably your website too cuz you’ve got bigger fish to fry)

3. SEO Research 😭

• I won’t sugarcoat it—SEO isn’t the most glamorous part of building your site, but it’s the secret sauce that makes sure your dream clients (AKA the ones that pay the big bucks) can find you on Google.
• Think of SEO as your wingwoman, helping you stand out in a crowded room.
• You’ll need to gather keywords and long-tail keywords based on your business, niche, service, and target audience.
• You can use free tools like:
  1. https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/
  2. https://www.keysearch.co/
  3. https://answerthepublic.com/
• Or you can also visit my girl Mariah Magazine for more resources and SEO services
  • (She’s kind of breathtaking considering SEO is my biggest hater, but she somehow has made it digestible for me to be able to DIY it with tons of free tips and affordable options)

4. Write Your Copy ⌨️

• Now that you’ve gathered your special google friendly words, it’s time to start to put them all together.
• Some people think building your copy first is better and others say designing your website first is better – take the route that works best for you and your hard working brain.
• If you prefer to write before your copy before designing, you’ll need the words for all the pages in your website.
• Everyone’s website has different needs based off of their business and the services they offer. However, the bare minimum you’ll need copy for are:
  1. Home page
  2. About page
  3. Service page
  4. Shop page (if you sell anything + a product page per product you offer)
  5. Contact
  6. 404 page (my favorite but somehow exceedingly underrated)
  7. Legal pages (the enemy and most ignored pages, but unforch, ya still need them 😕)
• If you prefer to design before you write your copy, you can write your copy for your website based on each section listed on the website template of your choice.
• Here’s a list of some of my favorite copywriters that can HELP so much and offer all kinds of free and affordable resources to get you some bomb ass copy
  1. Sara @ BTL Copy *my #1 go to cuz she always has the best tea and sends digital kisses on the mouth 😘*
  2. Alethea @ Copy with Spice
  3. Kaili @ Reveal Studio
  4. Kori Whitby @ Cool Copy Club (my newest found gem)

5. Design Your Website on Showit 🎨 (the fun part imo)

• This is a Showit stan home over here so this is the only website host I will be covering.
• If you’ve never used Showit (or head of it) before, I’ve got a free website template and a special offer that gets you your first month of Showit free.
• I KNOWWWWW it’s not the cheapest website host, but it is 100% worth it and saves you from so many headaches. It’s the most user-friendly platform for web design and SEO.
  • PLUS customer support is literally just a chat away (they have business hours, but they’re still fast af in my experience).
• Your most budget-friendly options from here? ↙️
• A) DIY it like a boss, or
• B) invest in a professional template
• And hey, I just so happen to have some gorgeous Showit templates that will have you up and running in no time!
• I love, love, love Showit because it’s so easy to plug in all your brand colors, fonts, and media and just start tweaking here and there to make it YOURS and still be able to add a touch of ✨remarkableness✨.
• If you happen to be someone who finds this part overwhelming since it just isn’t your jam, it just so happens that I offer a template customization service where I do all of this for you and HAVE IT ALL DONE FOR YOU IN JUST ONE DAY 👀
• Bonus tip: you can build your inquiry form directly in Showit at no additional cost, so you can start receiving those emails from potential clients. Once you get more traction more often, look into Dubsado, Flodesk, Karta, etc.
• I do have a special Flodesk discount that gets you 50% off for a WHOLE ASS YEAR if you’re interested in beautifully designed emails and forms.

6. Launch That Website, Bb! 🍾

• It’s about that time to launch your website
  1. By now, you’ve got (more than) the basics to launch a website on a budget that still looks professional and lets your dream clients know you’re legit.
  2. Double, triple and quadruple check every page and keep an eye out for typos, broken links, and that the design is how it’s supposed to be on both mobile and desktop.
  3. I’d recommend sending to a friend (or two) to look over (especially on mobile since most people are on mobile and have different devices and screen sizes).
  4. It’s time to hit “Publish” on showit and show the world who you are and what you offer! 🚀

Professional Email 📓 bonus step 📓

• You can continue to use your gmail (or other personal accounts), but I do believe your business will appear 100x more legit with a “@yourdomain .com”
  • only because it already looks 100x more unprofessional to be emailing “yourfavoriteva@gmail.com” (let’s bffr).
• Some plans start as low as $6 a month which is all you need is 1 account and keep it the most basic plan until the emails start flooding, and it’s time for an upgrade.
• If you got your domain from GoDaddy, check out their email deals to get yours up and running!

Launching a website can feel really stressful and overwhelming for most busniness owners, with so much information on the internet with dos and don’ts.

Never mind trying to launch a website on a budget-resources are already limited as it is, but remember:

Don’t be too hard on yourself to build it PERFECTLY the first go around

What’s essential is that you are putting your name out there for your target audience to find. Allow yourself to research, test, tweak, and learn it step-by-step. I’m here if you need additional support!

(but for the love of carbs, please aim to get an actual website ASAP and not a canva, stan, milkshake, linktree, google form, etc. as your website 🥲)

I’ve got a lot of thoughts about this one, but I’ll dive into those at another time lol

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If you’re looking for some serious help launching your website

Hit me up!