December 13, 2021

Freelance web design and development is a bit of a balancing act. When building websites for clients, you need to deliver something unique, but not so special that it requires countless development hours.

Even the most experienced developer can use help reducing the time it takes to take a site live. The more sites you finish, the more money you make. Decreasing the time it takes to build a site, gives you more time to find your next freelance web development project.

To help you increase your output as a freelancer, this post explores faster ways of building websites for clients.

How to Create Websites for Clients Quickly

Developers often assume they need to build every website from scratch, carefully crafting each line of code. Unfortunately, most clients won’t pay for that level of customization. Successful freelancers use time-saving hacks to deliver customized sites for clients.

Time-saving website building hacks include:

  • Modifying an Existing WordPress or WooCommerce Theme. Customizing an existing theme saves considerable time compared to building a new theme. Most website projects don’t warrant the effort to create an entirely new theme when you can easily modify an existing one.
  • Using a Page-Building Tool. Drag-and-drop page builders can cut down on development time as well. Popular page builders for WordPress include WPAstra, Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Gutenberg.
  • Starting From a Template. If you are using a page-building tool, many include templates. Use the template to set the basic structure and layout for a page, so you can start fine-tuning the design sooner.

How to Create Online Stores for Clients Quickly

With the right hack, you can quickly create a website. But a fully-functional online store takes more time. If you’re using WordPress, you’ll need to install and configure several plugins to get the right combination of design and functionality.

Many developers opt to go with a solution requiring less setup. SaaS ecommerce platforms and website builders like Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, or Wix eliminate some of the hassles of setting up an online store.

But the convenience comes with a price. These platforms are less flexible, making customizing your client’s store to their exact specifications difficult if not impossible. Plus, each platform uses proprietary systems, meaning you cannot export the store and install it on a different host. If you build a store in Shopify, you have to keep paying Shopify or invest in rebuilding the store on another platform.

Developers prefer the open source nature of WordPress and WooCommerce. Given that WordPress powers about 40% of websites online, it boasts a robust and active community of users and developers.

Because of the open source nature of the platform, just about any functionality or feature you’d want can be found — or created. With over 50,000 WordPress plugins available, and 11,000 themes to choose from, the options can be overwhelming.

Fortunately, a new product from Nexcess makes building online stores in WordPress easier and faster.

How StoreBuilder by Nexcess Works

StoreBuilder by Nexcess automates the more tedious aspects of building an ecommerce website with WordPress and WooCommerce, so you can spend more time customizing the design and adding products.

All you have to do is answer a few questions, and StoreBuilder does the rest. The guided setup wizard uses your answers about your comfort level with website building, the store, products, and content types to build an optimized WooCommerce-powered store. You can even load in demo products as a part of the setup.

Benefits of Using StoreBuilder

StoreBuilder gives you the power of WooCommerce without the complexity of setting it up.

Here’s why freelancers like building websites for clients using Storebuilder:

Preconfigured WordPress and WooCommerce Plugins

The Nexcess team tested, validated, and deployed the best set of plugins. You can get a perfect ecommerce set up within minutes without having to research, download, and install plugins. StoreBuilder also makes page building easier with the innovative Kadence blocks plugin. Unlike other page builders, Kadence doesn’t add a bunch of bloat to a site and slow it down.

Unique and Fast Next-Gen Themes

StoreBuilder includes premium themes designed for maximum speed. Each theme works with StoreBuilder’s easy-to-use interface, so that you can customize the appearance of your store with just a few clicks.

Options and settings within the StoreBuilder dashboard menus.

Set and Forget Plugin Updates with Visual Checks

Plugin updates keep your client’s online store running smoothly and securely. If you host clients’ websites or sell maintenance plans, automatic updates save you considerable time.

Premium Hosting and Auto Scaling Included

Yet another benefit for freelancers hosting their clients’ sites, each StoreBuilder plan includes Nexcess top-of-the-line ecommerce hosting. With our auto scaling feature, you also won’t have to worry about your sites crashing during a Black Friday or Cyber Monday shopping spree. StoreBuilder boosts PHP resources above the base levels to scale with your site’s increased traffic.

Simplified WordPress Admin For Easy Handoff

Every freelancer dreads the “where can I find” or “how do I…” phone call from clients. StoreBuilder makes client handoff a breeze by simplifying the traditional WordPress navigation. When clients log in, they’ll only see the relevant sections in the navigation. The simplified navigation should also prevent unwanted client tampering with critical settings.


The StoreBuilder dashboard

Performance-Boosting Features

StoreBuilder helps freelancers deliver more value for their clients with built-in plugin and sales performance monitoring. It monitors each store’s sales to measure them against a predicted model based on historical performance. StoreBuilder gives your clients a heads up when sales go down so they can take action to recover revenue.

StoreBuilder also monitors the technical performance of your site. While other solutions alert you of performance problems, StoreBuilder tells you why. Our advanced plugin performance monitor detects when a change in a plugin begins impacting your site performance, so you can solve it before a client notices.

To sum up, StoreBuilder makes you a hero to your clients.

Get Started Building Websites for Clients

WordPress and WooCommerce provide the most flexible and advanced features for your clients’ ecommerce stores. When you combine them with StoreBuilder, you can start building websites for clients in no time.

Plus, you’ll have full support from Nexcess’ team of hosting and ecommerce experts. StoreBuilder comes backed with fully managed WooCommerce hosting to keep your store high performing behind the scenes.

Get started and sign up today.

Lindsey Miller
Lindsey Miller

Lindsey Miller is a WordPress and WooCommerce expert and Chief Executive Officer of Content Journey, a content marketing agency that focuses on increasing organic website traffic for their clients through SEO and blogging. She knows WordPress inside and out and has been working with WordPress since 2010 when she started her first WordPress blog. Since then she has attended WordCamps all over the world and had the honor of speaking at many WordCamps and other WordPress events such as WooSesh and WordFest. Lindsey has a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in human relations, clinical mental health from the University of Oklahoma.

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