We build websites for a living, so read this knowing that. It is still written the way we would explain it to a mate, including the parts where the answer is to do it yourself and not pay anybody.
The technical side is the easy bit and it is not where people get stuck. What stops most small business websites is photos and words, and no amount of choosing the right platform fixes that.
In order
The seven decisions
-
About $20 a year
Your domain name, in your own name
Get the .com.au. It tells customers and Google you are an Australian business, and holding one requires an ABN or registered business name, which is itself a small trust signal. Buy the .com too if it is cheap, and point it at the same site.
The part that matters more than the name: register it in your own business name, not your web designer's. This is the single most common thing people get wrong and they find out years later when they try to leave.
-
Free to about $30 a month
Somewhere to host it
Hosting is where the files live. A small business site of a few pages can genuinely be hosted for nothing on modern platforms. If you are being quoted $30 a month to host five pages, ask what the money is for.
If you use a builder like Wix or Squarespace, hosting is bundled into the subscription and this decision is already made for you.
-
A weekend, or $250 to $10,000
Build it yourself, or pay somebody
Honestly assess your own time. A builder like Wix or Squarespace is genuinely good and costs roughly $20 to $50 a month forever. You will get something live in a weekend and spend several more evenings making it good.
Pay somebody when your time is worth more than the difference, or when you know you will never actually finish it. There is a full breakdown of what the market charges here.
-
An hour with your phone
Ten real photos
Your work, your van, your shopfront, you on site. A phone in good light is genuinely enough and beats stock photography every time, because people can tell.
This is the step that holds up most jobs, including ours. Do it before you start anything else and the rest moves quickly.
-
The hard part
What actually goes on it
Not your story. What you do, where you do it, what it costs, and how to contact you, answerable in about eight seconds. Put your phone number at the top of every screen and make it a tap, not something to copy out.
If you do more than one thing, give each service its own page. That is what lets you turn up in Google for each of them separately instead of only for your business name.
-
Free, and most people skip it
Your Google Business Profile
For a local business this brings in more than the website does. It is what puts you in the map results when somebody searches your trade and their suburb, and if you have never claimed one you generally will not appear there at all.
Claim it, verify it, fill it in completely, and point it at your new site. Free, and it is the highest return hour in this entire list.
-
Twenty minutes, then waiting
Tell Google it exists
Verify the site in Google Search Console and submit a sitemap. Without this, Google finds you eventually rather than soon.
Then wait, which is the part nobody enjoys. A brand new domain takes one to three weeks to reliably appear for your own business name. Nothing you buy makes that faster.
The honest comparison
Doing it yourself, versus paying somebody
| You build it | Somebody builds it | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash cost | $20 to $50 a month, forever | A few hundred to many thousands, usually once |
| Your time | A weekend, then evenings | About an hour, mostly finding photos |
| Who writes it | You, and this is where it stalls | Depends entirely on the quote. Ask. |
| Changing it later | You, any time, free | Ask what a change costs before you sign |
| Best when | Simple site, you enjoy fiddling, cash is tight | Your time is worth more, or you know you will not finish |
Neither is the right answer for everyone. A tradie booked out three weeks ahead should probably not spend a weekend learning a website builder. Somebody starting out with more time than money absolutely should.
Skip these
What you do not need
An app
Almost no small business needs one. A website works on every phone with no download, and an app nobody installs is expensive wallpaper.
A video background
Slow, eats your customers' data, and gets in the way of the phone number. Your customers are looking you up in a driveway.
A blog you will not write
An abandoned blog with three posts from 2024 looks worse than no blog. Only start one if you will actually keep it going.
Anyone promising page one
Nobody outside Google controls Google's rankings. The only guaranteed way onto page one is ads, which are labelled as ads. More on that here.
Fair questions
The things people ask
Can I really do it myself?
Yes, and for a simple site plenty of people should. The builders are good. Budget a weekend, and know that writing about your own business is harder than it sounds.
.com.au or .com?
.com.au for a business trading here. Grab the .com too if it is cheap and point it at the same place.
How many pages?
One done properly beats five thin ones. But a page per service is what gets you found for each service separately.
How long until it works?
Building, one to three days. Being found, one to three weeks for your own name and months for anything competitive.
Free mockup
Or see what it would look like done for you
If after all that you would rather not, tell us the business name and what you do. We build a mockup of your own site and send it over. If you do not like it, that is the end of it and it has cost you nothing.
0468 053 175 · [email protected]