Save Money on Development

Choose a Developer who is a Good Match for your site

If you’ve chosen to work with a developer rather than building the site yourself, it is very important to choose the right one and, if necessary, to be prepared to wait until they have an available slot to work on your project.  Communication and understanding are the cornerstones of a good development process.

Most developers will tell you whether they are a good match for your project, or not, based on their skill set, interests and your budget.  Don't be offended if a developer tuns you down as a poor match.  Their decision is based as much on their knowledge of themselves as it is on their assessment of your requirements and resources.

It is worth planning your site out properly; firming up your ideas on what it should look like and what it needs to achieve for you before even approaching developers for a quote.

Once you are clear in your mind about what you want, the next stage is to organise your thoughts onto paper and then into folders.  This also shows the developer your commitment to building the site.

Bullet Point List of pages

This is a free and simple way to lay out your web site and make sure your navigation scheme is sound.

In addition to creating a good basic framework which is clear and free from ambiguity, this bullet point list can be used to create the folders and pages which organise your content.

A basic structure on which to build is a fundamental requirement of any website.  It allows you to work through the creation of page content and your seo structure as well as organise your contewnt so it is ready for the web.

Organise Folders and Files

Now you have a folder structure which reflects your bullet list, you should create a Word or Text document in each folder containing the text for that page and any notes.

If you are using WordPress or similar CMS (Content Management System) for your site, then the Word or Text document should include the following:

1. Page Title
2. Page Text including section headings
3. The page Keyword or phrase for search engine optimisation
4. A short Excerpt to be used by the search engines

Who are you?

Firm up your branding by making sure you have your logo in Vector format; know which colours and fonts you want to use; and deciding on which icons to use to represent aspects of your business.

If your logo is not in vector format, you may want to have it converted by a designer on Fiverr, although if you are employing a web-designer they may offer this as a paid service.

Think about the kind of images that reflect you or your business, from photos to icons.  Check out free or affordable sources of your visual assets.

Define your authentic voice.  How do you talk to your customers or clients?  Where can you demonstrate shared values?

Google is your friend

Create your own free Google Drive account which can be used for the initial development phase of your web site and, later, to securely store your site backups.  From there, you or your developer will be able to organise your Google Webmaster Account and Google Local Business Listing.

Images stored in your Google Photos can be organised into Albums and do not count towards your 15GB free storage.  You can also use those Albums to sort photos to be used on your web site.

Organise and Optimise your Images

If you are using a developer to build your site, and you also have a lot of images fresh off the camera, organising and optimising your images can save you a lot of money and development time.

There is free software available to help you optimise, crop, rename and resize your images, individually or as a batch process.  See our Image Editing page for more details.

Finding Stock Images

Not everyone has the right images to hand for their web site.  Often a site will need to use Stock Images.  Image research is time-consuming, so if you are working with a developer, this is another area where you can save yourself development time and money.

There are some good websites offering free stock images which are not subject to copyright restrictions and even more selling stock images for a reasonable price.

Many web developers have paid stock image accounts and their own stock image libraries accumulated over the years which can save you money on paid stock.

Adopt an Appropriate Naming Convention

By naming your web site images after the page they are to be used on, you not only improve your search engine optimisation but also make it easier, faster and cheaper to build the site.

On your service page you might have the main image as services-main.jpg with other images named after section headings services-removals.jpg, services-house-clearance.jpg etc.

Where you want more than one image in a section that is not broken down into subheadings, you can simply use services-removals-1.jpg and services-removals-2.jpg.

Image Titles and Alt tags

For accessibility as well as SEO, images should have a Title (if you are using a CMS like WordPress) and a short description known as an Alt Tag.

See https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/decision-tree/

The easiest way to create these is in a spreadsheet like the example included in our free Example Site Folders zip folder.