When creating their own website, too many new business owners go for low cost website design at the expense of creativity and functionality. But by skimping on your website, you run the risk of having a second rate and cheap-looking website that makes you look unprofessional which will end up not bringing in any revenue for your business at all.

It’s not about having the prettiest and flashiest thing online for a very low price. The real goal is to have a website that will generate income and grow your bottom line. It’s about creating value for your visitors – identifying their problems, engaging with them, building their trust, and then eventually using that connection, that trust, to sell your product or business to them.

You can easily pay too little, but if it’s designed wrong, be prepared to lose even more money in potential revenue.

You could have a well designed, properly functioning website that’s still reasonably priced, as long as you avoid these common mistakes:

Avoid too busy, too flashy designs

A flashy design will look busy, like there’s too much going on. Do not cram too much design elements on an entire page, particularly above the fold or the upper half of the page. Tons of images, text, and videos will cause loading time issues, and don’t look good on mobile phones or tablets where most of your potential visitors spend their time on. Most importantly, an overcrowded website will only confuse your visitors. If it takes them more than three seconds to figure out what to do next, then it’s time to get a redesign.

Make calls to action loud and clear

A clear call to action will get your visitors to focus on what to do next. Leave clear directions of what you want them to do: Subscribe to our newsletter! Add to cart! Get a coupon! Download the app! There should be enough information of what value they’re going to get if they press on that button and give you their contact details. Do not make them figure things out because if it will take too much of their time, it will annoy them and they will just leave.

No analytics in place

One of the biggest website design mistakes to avoid is to leave out analytics tools to track performance. Your website as an investment, but how do you know if that investment is paying off? The only way to accurately measure your website’s success is to look at data and analyze how visitors are using it. You can use Google Webmaster Tools or a similar program to set up your site’s analytics. Once it’s properly installed you can identify poorly performing pages, review conversion flows, and test advertisements and promotions on your webpage in order to to analyze progress and make improvements.

Here’s one really valuable takeaway: You don’t really have to pay too much for your website when you don’t really have to. When you are going for low cost website design you need to figure out first what your business really needs. If you just need your website to function as an online brochure, then your needs will simply be very different from that of a fully-functioning ecommerce shop. But then, you would also have to make search engine visibility a priority in order to get found online. There are so many factors involved, and it’s too difficult to put a price on an investment that could help out your business so much in the long run.