If you are starting a blog or a business website, you might not have the budget to hire expert help. The good thing is, in today’s digital world, you can learn a lot of tech skills for free (or for cheap). Also, most of the tools you’ll be using to create and manage your website are user-friendly and easy to use for non-experts. Here are some skills you’ll need to be familiar with.
Basic Web Design
In the past, creating a website was a daunting endeavour involving lots of coding. This is no longer the case, all you need is an elite website builder like IONOS and you can design your dream website visually, without a single line of code. But even without coding, you need to understand the basics of website design and what design elements appeal to your target audience.
For example, a travel blog needs lots of pictures, an online store needs a bunch of e-commerce elements, and a business website needs to get your branding right. Take a short web design course to understand how to design a professional-looking website.
Video Editing and Graphic Design
As it is with web design, you no longer need to be an expert to do basic video editing and graphics design. There were already a bunch of tools to do most of the work for you, but with the advent of AI tools, your work just became easier. But even with the power of artificial intelligence at your fingertips, you need to understand what types of graphics you need and the elements to include in your video content. The good thing with graphics design and video editing is, that you don’t even need to sign up for a paid course. A quick YouTube search will reveal countless free tutorial videos for any media editing skills you need to learn.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Most websites get between 50% and 70% of their traffic from search engine results. This means that you have to optimise your website, and your content to improve your ranking on a search engine results page – and this is what SEO is all about. When you understand the core principles of SEO, you’ll know how to craft your content, how to design your website, and how to tweak your website’s performance for the best search engine ranking. Luckily, most of this information is available for free on the internet, but it can be worth the investment to sign up for a well-reviewed expert course.
Social Media Management and Customer Relations
Technically, these are two different skill sets but they are very related. Social media can be a powerful tool to generate traffic to your website, spread your brand awareness, and engage with your customers/followers. It is also an important communication channel between you, your clients, potential clients, partners, and even the press. Learn how to best leverage social media to grow your brand and brush up on your customer relations etiquette to better deal with both positive and negative feedback.
Conclusion
It is cheaper (and sometimes free) to learn some basic website management skills rather than hiring outside help. Some of these skills include basic web design, search engine optimization, video editing, graphics design, and social media management.
