Simple site on a builder
About $0 to $400 a year: a free plan runs on a branded subdomain, while paid Wix or Squarespace plans sit around $16 to $35 a month on annual billing, often with the first year of the domain included.
How to build a website yourself and go from blank domain to a live site in a week
Most small business owners can launch a simple site in three to seven evenings. This guide shows how to build a website yourself with Wix, Squarespace or WordPress, what the domain, hosting and add-ons cost per year, and which beginner mistakes quietly hurt your traffic.
Free, no obligation. A senior project manager walks you through the analysis.
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Send us your website. Within 24 hours, you'll get a written analysis comparing your marketing with your competitors'.
Free marketing analysis
- PDF analysis
- 5 competitors
- Prioritized action list
Your analysis is prepared by a senior project manager with 15+ years of experience in marketing.
Key takeaways
The short version
Before you read on
- A basic business site built in Wix, Squarespace or WordPress usually takes three to seven evenings of work.
- Expect roughly $0 to $400 a year for the domain, hosting and plan of a simple site, and more once you sell online.
- Website builders are easier on day one, while WordPress gives you more control and full ownership of your files.
- Before launch, check mobile layout, contact details on every page, a privacy policy and a load time under three seconds.
- The mistakes that cost beginners the most are skipping the phone test, uploading huge photos and leaving meta titles blank.
- Stores with many integrations, custom design or serious SEO goals are where outside help starts to pay for itself.
Good to know
Before you open a website builder, answer three questions
Start on paper, not in an editor. What is the site for: a digital business card, an online store, a blog or a portfolio? Who will visit it, and what should they do once they land? And how many hours and dollars can you actually spare? Your answers decide the tool. A drag-and-drop builder like Wix or Squarespace suits a small, tidy site. WordPress gives you more room to grow, but you'll spend a few extra evenings learning it.
A one-page portfolio or a service business site can go live after a single evening with a ready-made template. An online store or a booking site takes longer, since you'll wire up payments, a product catalog and a few third-party apps. Working after hours, plan on three to seven days for a small company site and one to three weeks for a basic shop.
Step by step
How to make your own website step by step
Step 1
Pick a platform
Wix, Squarespace or Webflow for a simple site, WordPress with WooCommerce for a small shop, Shopify if selling online is the main job of the site.
Step 2
Register a domain and get hosting
A .com name runs about $10 to $25 a year. Shared hosting for WordPress costs around $3 to $15 a month, while builder plans already include hosting in the subscription.
Step 3
Set up the tool
Create your account, pick a template that fits your line of work, then fill in the time zone, language, business name, address and phone number.
Step 4
Add your pages, copy and photos
Build the home, services, about and contact pages first. Use your own photos or free stock images, and keep one color palette and two fonts across the site.
Step 5
Handle basic SEO, then hit publish
Write a title and meta description for every page, submit your sitemap in Google Search Console, connect Google Analytics and claim your Google Business Profile before you go live.
What it costs
How much it costs to build a website yourself
WordPress site
About $60 to $300 a year for a domain plus shared hosting, with an optional premium theme or plugins at roughly $50 to $200 as a one-time cost.
Small online store
About $400 to $1,200 a year for store hosting or a Shopify plan and apps. SSL is usually included, and card processing takes around 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per sale.
Optional extras
Paid stock photos from $0 to $50, a premium template from $50 to $150, and a branded email address at about $6 to $8 per user a month.
Checklist
What a DIY website needs before launch
Run through this list the day before you publish:
Checklist
- A short navigation menu with five to seven items at most
- Your phone, email and a contact form easy to reach from every page
- A layout that works on phones and tablets, tested on a real device
- A privacy policy and a cookie notice, checked against the privacy rules of the states you sell to
- Pages that load in under three seconds on a mobile connection
- Google Analytics and Google Search Console connected and receiving data
Side by side
WordPress vs website builder for a first site
Builders such as Wix and Squarespace are the gentler start. You drag blocks onto a page, the company runs the servers and the updates, and a first draft can be online the same night. The catch is flexibility: you work inside their limits, and moving to another platform later usually means copying your content over by hand.
WordPress hands you the keys. Thousands of free and paid themes, a plugin for nearly any feature, and files you own outright and can move to any host whenever you like. In return, updates, backups and security are your job, and that upkeep is the part most first-timers underestimate.
Checklist
Common mistakes when building a website on your own
These slip-ups show up on almost every first site:
Checklist
- Never checking the site on a phone, so buttons overlap and text runs off the screen
- Uploading full-size camera photos that drag page speed down
- Leaving page titles and meta descriptions empty, which makes the site harder to find on Google
- A cluttered menu with a dozen links instead of a clear structure
- No obvious next step, like a call button, a quote form or an order button
- Making big changes without a fresh backup to roll back to
In short
A DIY website by the numbers
3 to 7 days
to build a simple business site after hours
$0 to $400
a year for the domain, hosting and plan of a basic site
3 sec.
the load time most visitors will wait before leaving
about 60%
of website visits now come from mobile devices
When it makes sense
When to bring in a website specialist
A simple service site is well within reach for anyone with a few free evenings and some patience for a new tool. The math changes once you need a store with shipping, inventory and accounting apps talking to each other, a custom design that matches your brand, or pages built to rank on Google. Mistakes there can eat more hours than you save by doing it alone.
You don't have to hand over the whole build. Many owners keep the site they made and get help with one piece, such as web design or an SEO setup, from someone who does that work every day. If you want a sense of what a full professional build runs, see our breakdown of website design cost.
Before you start
Rather not build it yourself?
Tell us what the site should do and order a free marketing analysis. You'll get a PDF within 24 hours, and a senior project manager with 15+ years in marketing will match a vetted web specialist or a small team to your industry and scope. That same person stays your single point of contact from the first draft to launch. See how it works.
FAQ
Questions companies ask us
Short answers. The free analysis call covers anything specific to your company.
01Can I make a website for free?
Yes, up to a point. Wix and similar builders have free plans that put your site on a subdomain like yourname.wixsite.com and show their own ads. A custom domain, no platform branding and extras such as online payments need a paid plan, which starts around $17 a month on Wix.
02How long does it take to build a website yourself?
Working evenings, a simple site on a builder usually takes three to seven days. A WordPress site with a handful of plugins to configure tends to take one to two weeks, and a small online store one to three weeks, mostly because of payments, shipping settings and product entry.
03Do I need to know how to code to build a website?
No. Wix, Squarespace and Webflow work with drag and drop, so you can publish without writing a line of code. Basic HTML and CSS only start to matter when you want to customize a WordPress theme beyond what its settings allow.
04What hosting should a beginner pick?
For a small WordPress site, shared hosting at roughly $3 to $15 a month is enough. A store on WooCommerce runs better on managed WordPress hosting, which usually costs about $15 to $50 a month. If you use a builder, hosting comes with the plan and there is nothing extra to buy.
05Does my website need an SSL certificate?
Yes. SSL is what puts https in your address bar, and Chrome flags sites without it as not secure, which scares visitors off and can hold back your rankings. Nearly every host and website builder now includes a free SSL certificate, so check that it is switched on before you publish.
06Is WordPress harder than a website builder?
For most beginners, yes. A builder takes care of hosting, updates and security for you. WordPress asks you to handle those yourself, including backups and plugin updates, but it pays you back with far more flexibility and full ownership of your site files.
07Should I hire someone instead of building my site myself?
For a simple service site, doing it yourself usually makes sense. For a store with many integrations, a custom design or a site that has to win search traffic, getting a specialist for part or all of the work often saves time. Through Marketers.com a senior project manager matches that specialist to your needs.
Free analysis
See where your marketing stands, then decide what to do next
Send us your website. Within 24 hours, you'll get a written analysis comparing your channels with your competitors', plus a call with a senior project manager who has run marketing for 15+ years.
- Analysis within 24 hours
- No obligation
- PDF covering 5 competitors
- Team picked by your PM
Free marketing analysis
- PDF analysis
- 5 competitors
- Prioritized action list
Your analysis is prepared by a senior project manager with 15+ years of experience in marketing.
Are you a marketer with experience in a specific industry? Join the team