Who this is for
Most people who ask Google how to make a website want a free page for a club or a project. This guide is for the smaller group who typed “for my business”, on whom advertisers spend real money per click, because that person is about to spend money one way or the other. The nine steps below are the same whether you do them or pay for them; the difference is who makes the decisions and how long it takes.
The nine steps
- Register the domain in your own name, at a registrar you can log in to. Never let a supplier register it for you. The domain guide explains why this is the one step you cannot undo.
- Choose the platform by the job. A brochure you will edit yourself: a builder. A site that must be found in search or grow: WordPress. A shop: Shopify for simplicity, WooCommerce for ownership and unusual products. The CMS guide has the comparison.
- Choose hosting that is fast, not cheap. Shared hosting adds half a second before anything loads; managed hosting with caching answers in tens of milliseconds. It is a few pounds a month of difference.
- Decide the pages from the questions customers ask. One page per service, a price page or prices on each, an about page with a named person, a contact page that says what happens next. Six to twelve pages.
- Write each page in the customer’s words: what it is, who it is for, where, how much, why you, what to do next. Publish the price. The content guide covers the structure.
- Make it fast on a phone: compressed images, few plugins, no video in the first screen, fixed image sizes so nothing jumps. Test in PageSpeed Insights.
- Set up the free measurement: Google Search Console with the sitemap submitted, analytics with conversion events, and a Google Business Profile linked to the site.
- Put proof on it: a real photo of real work, a named person with a face, reviews you can link to, and the area you cover. No stock handshakes, no unlinked star ratings.
- Measure monthly and improve. Search Console for what you are found for, analytics for what converts, and one change a month based on what they say.
Doing it yourself against paying for it
| Step | Do it yourself? | Where owners usually go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Domain | Yes, easily | Letting the designer or host register it |
| 2 Platform | Yes, with the CMS guide | Choosing a builder for a site that needs to rank, or WordPress for a brochure nobody will maintain |
| 3 Hosting | Yes | Cheapest plan; slow first byte for ever |
| 4 Pages | Yes, from customer questions | Pages about the business instead of for the customer |
| 5 Words | Yes, with effort | The trade’s words, no price, six actions per page |
| 6 Speed | Partly | Uncompressed images, heavy theme, plugin pile |
| 7 Measurement | Yes, an afternoon | Never set up; the site runs blind |
| 8 Proof | Yes | Stock photos, anonymous “team”, invented ratings |
| 9 Improve monthly | Rarely sustained | Launched and left |
Source: Cybrial, from taking over owner-built sites. Every fault in the right column is one we have fixed on a real site.
On our published prices a studio build is from £500 with hosting and care from £50 a month, and it does all nine including the ninth, which is the one owners almost never sustain. The arithmetic for deciding: if your evenings are worth more than the build fee divided by the evenings it would take, buy the build.
When to stop doing it yourself
- When the site must rank against businesses that do this full time. A few evenings a month will not displace them; structure, speed and words decided by someone who knows what Google reads will.
- When it is a shop with more than a handful of products, a feed, or an unusual buying journey. This is where small mistakes cost sales.
- When you have launched and not touched it for six months. Step nine is the one that decides whether the site earns; if nobody will do it, pay someone to.
- When an evening on the site is an evening of unbilled work. The same maths you already apply to your accountant.
