Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the websites and online presence became very important for businesses. Small and medium size businesses overlooked it in the past, but things are changing, the small businesses are jumping into the online world and focusing more on their websites and online brand image. If you are running a hardware store, an electronics shop, a mobile or computer shop or if you are an artist, or a photographer or running a salon, it doesn’t matter what niche you are in, if you are a small business then you should have an online presence. The website is the very first step for building your online brand identity. As small businesses often have limited budget and resources so the small business owners are always seeking ways to get a cost-effective website. Only a cost-effective website is not enough, in fact the website must have certain features and attributes, as the website will represent your business online, so it must have to be able to project a trust worthy and professional image, else you will not be able to gain the true benefits of online branding and marketing and it will be harder to compete with your competitors in the online world.
We have seen examples where small businesses have successfully beaten the big brand in online just because of their websites. Big businesses could have their digital marketing budget in millions of Dirhams however a small business’s entire operation might not exceed to that. But, with an intelligent strategy and a great online brand image the small business can compete with big businesses and enterprises easily. So, it is vital for small businessesto have a cost-effective and appealing website for their online targeted audience. Here are certain methods and certain features which will keep the cost of your small business website low at the same time the website will also be able to perform well against your competitors:
Choose Inexpensive but a Good Domain Name
The domain name is the website address, for Google we type www.google.com or www.google.ae this is the web address or domain name for the Google search engine website. Similarly your domain name will be your web address. It has to be very simple and easy to remember. In Dubai and all around the UAE if you want to register a domain name ending with ‘.ae’ that can be done from Etisalat online domain name registration portal https://www.nic.ae/. However if you want a domain name that ends with ‘.com’ then it can be done from any domain name registration company. However the important thing here is that if you want to keep your domain name cost-effective you should choose a slighter bigger name. The domain names with two or three or even four letters are very expensive ones. Usually you won’t be able to find such a short domain name, however if in case you find it, check the cost and compare it with the longer domain names as well.
For the domain name the length is important, it shouldn’t be too short or too long. Use such words which are easy to spell and remember. Don’t use special characters, digits, hyphens, etc. such domain names are hard to remember. Think about the future also. The domain name should be support your future growth. For example the www.amazon.com was first established for selling books only, and now they sell everything. However if Mr. Jeff Bezos have chosen a domain name such as onlinebookstore.com or buybooksonline.com, etc then how they would be able to sell all these items? They would have to change it. Which is usually a very difficult and risky task. So, it is always better to choose a generic domain name rather industry or product specific names. The generic and medium size domain name are most cost-effective as well as easy to remember and can support scalability too.
Choose Shared Hosting and Basic SSL Certificate Plans
The hosting is similar to a computer it provide space to put your website and its files. The website consists of source code which executes and renders the web design in the browser and the files which are pictures, videos and any document you put on your website. These source code and files need to store in a storage and that storage is called the hosting. It also includes all other required computer resources such as processor, RAM, network, etc. The only difference is that the hosting is an online storage and anyone can access those files form the web browser using your domain name. The SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer and it is a digital certificate that authenticate and identify a website and it also enables an encrypted connection between the user (browser) and the server (hosting). These days it is highly recommended to use an SSL certificate as people in Dubai and all around the UAE are well aware of the fact that websites with SSL are more secure than the ones without SSL. The SSL highlights in the web browser as a green padlock.
Sometimes websites that doesn’t have SSL can be marked by the web browsers. The web browsers prompt a warning and tell users that this website could be harmful as it doesn’t have SSL. Which leaves a very bad impression on users. So, it is better to have an SSL Certificate too, the Basic SSL Certificate or the entry-level plan is enough. For the small businesses and startups the ‘shared hosting plan’ is enough to host a mediocre size website. Some hosting service providers also provide the Hosting and SSL in a single package, which is very cost-effective. The shared hosting itself is the entry level hosting plan and is the cheapest one. It provides basic hosting space starting from 500MBs to 1GB or even more. And it also provide a few email addresses as well. It is always good to use your company email address for business communication rather using Gmail or YahooMail, etc. It is always better to use some email client software such as MS Outlook for your business email addresses. It will download all the emails from the server to your laptop or computer thus not much space will be needed on the hosting server else you will have to keep facing issues with your emails due to filled server storage space and you will have to pay extra to expand it.
Choose an Open-Source Free CMS
The CMS stands for Content Management System. There are two types of websites, one is static and one is called dynamic. The static website is a raw files of source code that are being executed at the server/hosting to render a design at users’ screens. In order to update a static website the webmaster or business must have technical personals who knows website programming and can do the amendments or updates on the website. Whereas the dynamic website means that it has a CMS integrated, CMS or content management system is a software tool that allows the webmasters to update and modify the website content and in some cases the layout too without requiring any prior technical knowledge or qualification. A person with adequate computer proficiency can easily manage a website using a CMS. There is a huge variety of CMS available in the market. Some of them are paid some are free some are open source some aren’t.
The CMS should be widely used, means very popular, it should be open-source, and of course it should be free to save cost. WordPress is the world’s most famous open source content management system (CMS) and it is also absolutely free. The WordPress CMS supports thousands of web design templates and plugins. The plugins are small programs or software patches used to enable certain functionalities in the WordPress websites. There are other free CMS too, but if you are going for a free and open-source CMS the WordPress is the best choice. The open-source here means that this platform is free for everyone and everyone can develop applications, tools and programs on this platform, most importantly the WordPress and other open-source platforms doesn’t prohibit customization of the platform. You must be thinking what does it has to do with a small business website, well actually when a platform is free and open-source then the entire internet community can offer support for it. There would be tons of free online forums and websites offering support for an open-source platform.
Get a Web Design Theme or Template
As the CMS are free there are tons of free themes too, but for a small business the online image is very crucial. Various market researches and studies have shown that it requires only a fraction of a second to build an image or impression of a website in the subconscious mind of the user. The content and rest came later. So, your first impression is very crucial to build trust and reputation, which will be driven by the web design. A free web design temple will not suffice. You must either have to purchase a web design template or acquire a web designing firm (such as RSI Concepts, leading web design agency in Dubai, UAE) to build that web design theme or template for your website. Obviously purchasing a web design theme or temple online is cheaper than acquiring a professional web design company to design it for you. But there is a downside, if you are purchasing a template from online, either its support will be limited or there will be no support at all. Even if the technical support is there you must have to upgrade your design to make sure you get that support, which will cost you every time you will upgrade. This is a bit complex too.
If you purchase an online theme or template it will not be as per your requirements, you will eventually have to hire a professional to customize it to meet your requirements. However, acquiring a professional web designing company in Dubai or anywhere in UAE will cost you a little extra but the web design will be satisfactory. You can get a web design as per your needs and requirement, in addition to that the web design agency’s experience and professional skills will also refine the template even further to be able to perform well. There are some other perks too of hiring a professional service. For example, these days the smartphone usage have already surpassed the traditional computers and laptops. It is very crucial to have an excellent mobile compatible web design which should be able to maintain the user experience at mobile devices too. For that responsive web designs and templates are used. A professional web design agency can easily provide you a responsive web design along with support for search engine optimization which is also very beneficial for small businesses as the SEO friendly designs can bring free organic traffic from search engines and also add to the brand image and brand reputation. So it is always better to acquire a professional web design agency to do build the web design for you.
Prepare the Content
After the web design it will be your content which will dictate the customer experience. So having a great content which clearly define your all products and services is a great competitive advantage. The content should be very accurate and provide enough information to convince an online prospect to convert. The taglines, slogans, heading, highlights and descriptions should be prepared with great care. As in case of a website you or any of your employee will not be present to explain anything to your prospects or customers, so it will be the content alone which will do this work. Make sure your content do this job very well. Apart from the content the user experience and customer journey are also very important, these things are basically a combination of both the web design and the content. These days’ people generally tend to read less and view more. So, it is important that you have visual and graphics content as well, such as images, animations, videos etc. Whatever you can easily manage should be added. But do not overdo it. Too much content is very confusing and it distracts the visitors.
In any business website there is one homepage and several internal pages. The homepage is the online doorway to your business. Make sure you have a bit of everything presented clearly at the homepage. As for the internal pages, the ‘About’ page or Company details are important and help building trust and confidence of the users on the business. Don’t create too many pages, as too many pages will cost you more. Only include essential pages with sufficient content. It is better to prepare separate pages for your products and services it will not only help you improving the customer journey but it will also provide you an SEO advantage, more pages can bring more website traffic. Creating only essential pages with only limited and important content will save you a lot of cost. Another important thing that you should consider, most of the businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE have bilingual websites with English and Arabic, some even have more languages. It is better to stick with one language, as it is very cost-effective, but in case if you think that your audience will also need a secondary language then add both English and Arabic. Do not use any online translation tool or embedded translation plugins as they are don’t do proper translation and the website layout also looks bad if translated by such techniques. Better to have both language versions prepared by your web design agency.
Read More: 5 Strategies to Build Online Brand Identity in 2021
For e-Commerce Businesses
If you are a small or local business and building an e-commerce platform to expand your areas of operations or if you are moving to the online to have an e-commerce website, all of the above steps will remain the same. Only the web design theme or template will be different form an ordinary business website. Let us take the example of WordPress as I have mentioned above. The WordPress CMS also support e-commerce and marketplace features. There are several option that a small business can chose, the best is always to acquire a professional e-commerce web design agency who can help you creating a platform which not only minimize your initial cost but also ensures that your operational cost will remain under control. For e-commerce websites the initial cost is one issue, but if the platform is not built properly then they might end up doing a lot of manual work which require more employee which results in more expenses.
If an e-commerce website is built and designed by a professional e-commerce and marketplace provider company such as RSI Concepts, the initial cost will be less and the operational cost will be low too. Most of the regular operations such as the order handling, shipments, inventory, etc can be controlled and managed through the CMS itself. Businesses will not going to need additional resource as most of these processes will be controlled and managed through the CMS. That is how a cost-effective e-commerce or online marketplace can be developed to aid the small businesses to keep the running cost low. It will maximize the operational capabilities, reduce the need of additional resources and increase their overall profitability and will be very supportive for their gradual growth.
Read More: Why businesses need Mobile Apps?
A One-Stop-Shop is Always Cost Effective
As we have discussed briefly that whatever the method a small business wants to choose eventually they will have to acquire service providers. Either it is for domain name registration, website hosting and SSL, theme or web design customization, the content, or anything else, a small business somehow will end up dealing with a service provider. It could be multiple service providers for different services or a single service provider for all of such services. It is always better to hire a single web design agency in Dubai or anywhere else in UAE who offers all these services. The web design and development agencies and service providers also know that fact very well. Almost all web designing companies in Dubai and all around the UAE are offering a complete package which includes each and everything you need.
It is always better to take quotes from multiple such service providers, compare them and compare the companies too, check their samples of work, testimonials, online ratings, etc. and then chose a single service provider who can offer you all those services from domain name registration to content preparation and everything in between. Make sure the service provider is also capable of handling your future demands, such as upgrades, e-commerce, SEO, social media and digital marketing, etc. A single service provider will save you a lot of cost and hustle.
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Conclusion
Small businesses often have limited budget and resources. Usually here in Dubai and all around the UAE small and medium size businesses (SMBs) rarely have any internal IT department or person. It is always very cost-efficient for small businesses to out-source their IT needs. A website have become an integral part of the online strategy. Since past few years businesses in Dubai and all across the UAE are also focusing more on online presence and brand image. The small business owners and managers are always seeking ways to have a cost-effective website. In this blog we have covered all the essential parts of a website and how to do them in the most cost-efficient way and also maintaining the performance and quality. For a small business the ideal situation is to hire a web design and development agency who can take care of all the requirements, a single service provider will be more cost-effective and easy to manage too. A websites project starts with a domain name, which should be simple, easy to remember and medium sized to minimize the cost. Then comes the website hosting and SSL, for a small business shared hosting is enough and the basic SSL plan will suffice.
The actual website designing and development is where the most resources are consumed. Having a free and open-source content management system (CMS) can save a lot of cost. Businesses can also purchase a web design theme or template from online, but a customer build web design is always better and it also performs well. For a small business website only essential internal pages are enough, no need of creating irrelevant and unimportant pages. Limited number of pages will save cost for the content. Have a single language design unless necessary to have a bilingual website. Hire a professional web designing service to prepare your web design which can support required languages and also have support for mobile devices. For the e-commerce websites, it is important that the CMS and platform provide enough support to help integrating the required systems such as inventory management system, order management system, customer support module, shipment and other relevant integration. This is how a small business can minimize the initial cost as well as the operational cost of their website. RSI Concepts is a leading web design agency in Dubai, UAE, if you need a website or want to revamp your existing website, feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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