How to get your first business website
To get your first business website, choose one of four routes: build it yourself on a website builder (£240 to £360 a year plus your time), hire a freelancer (£800 to £3,000), hire an agency (£2,500 to £10,000), or use a managed monthly service like Digital Market Stall (£50 a month, everything included). Before you start, gather your logo, some photos, your services and prices, and be clear about the one thing you want visitors to do.
Start with the job, not the website
Most first websites fail quietly because nobody decided what the site was for. Before you spend a pound, finish this sentence: "When someone lands on my website, I want them to..." Call you? Book online? Find your opening hours and directions? Request a quote? That one answer shapes everything: the pages you need, the words on them, and where the buttons go.
For most local businesses the honest answer is "ring me or fill in a short form". That means your phone number belongs at the top of every page, your site needs to load fast on a phone, and everything else is supporting evidence.
The four ways to get a website
1. Do it yourself. Wix, Squarespace and similar builders cost £240 to £360 a year once you add a domain and remove their branding. The software is genuinely easy now. The catch is that you become the designer and the copywriter, and most owners spend three or four weekends getting something that still looks like a template. If money is tighter than time, this is a legitimate route.
2. Hire a freelancer. Typically £800 to £3,000 up front for a small business site. A good freelancer does lovely work, but check three things: who hosts the site afterwards, what changes cost later (£60 to £120 an hour is normal), and what happens when they get busy or change career.
3. Hire an agency. Usually £2,500 to £10,000 up front, and most quotes for a five page site land between £3,000 and £4,000. You get process and polish, and you also fund an office and account managers. For most one-location businesses it is more machine than the job needs.
4. Use a managed monthly service. This is our model, so weigh our bias: a designer builds the site, then one monthly fee covers hosting, the domain, security and every future change. Ours is £50 a month with nothing up front and nothing to pay until you approve the finished site. The route makes sense if you want a professional result without a lump sum, and want someone else holding the technical mop.
What to have ready before anyone starts
- Your logo, or a decision to have one made. A clean text-based logo is fine to launch with.
- Ten decent photos. Real photos of you, your work and your premises outperform stock photography every time. Take them on a modern phone in daylight.
- Your services and prices, written as a plain list. Vague sites lose to specific ones.
- Proof. Reviews, before-and-after shots, accreditations, years trading. Gather them in one document.
- Your details. Opening hours, service area, phone, email, and any registration numbers your trade requires.
That list is roughly what our ten minute brief asks for, and it is what any decent freelancer or agency will ask for too. Preparing it first saves weeks of back and forth.
The mistakes that cost first-timers most
- Buying the domain through the wrong account. Whoever controls the domain controls your business address online. Make sure it is registered to you, or that your provider hands it over freely, in writing.
- Paying a large deposit before seeing anything. The better the provider, the less they need your money up front.
- Letting the site launch without a way to measure it. You want to know how many people visit and how many contact you, or you cannot tell whether it earns its keep.
- Writing for yourself instead of the customer. "Welcome to our website" tells nobody anything. Lead with what you do, where you do it, and why you are the safe choice.
Frequently asked questions
How much should my first business website cost?
For a typical UK small business: £240 to £360 a year if you build it yourself, £800 to £3,000 for a freelancer, £2,500 to £10,000 for an agency, or a managed monthly service at around £50 a month with no upfront cost. Add hosting, domain and change fees to any up-front quote when comparing.
How long does it take to get a website live?
Realistically: a weekend or three of your own time with a DIY builder, two to six weeks with a freelancer, six to twelve weeks with an agency, or seven days with Digital Market Stall because the brief takes ten minutes and one team does everything.
Do I need to write the words myself?
Not necessarily. Agencies and managed services usually include copywriting, and it is worth having: the words sell, the design just dresses them. If you write your own, keep sentences short and lead every page with what the visitor gets.
What is the single most important page?
Your homepage above the fold: what you do, where you do it, proof you are good, and an obvious way to contact you. Most visitors never scroll past it, so it has to do the whole job on its own.
The short version
- Decide the one action you want visitors to take before anything else.
- Four routes: DIY (£240 to £360 a year plus your weekends), freelancer (£800 to £3,000), agency (£2,500 to £10,000), managed monthly (around £50 a month).
- Prepare your logo, photos, services, prices and proof before anyone starts.
- Keep control of your own domain name, whatever route you choose.
- Judge the finished site by one measure: does it make the phone ring?
Rather skip all this?
This whole checklist is what our ten minute brief collects. A designer then builds your site from scratch, you review it in seven days, and you pay nothing until you sign it off. £50 a month after that, everything included.
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