The short version
- Wix and Squarespace are fine tools. The hard part was never the tool, it’s the words, the photos and the evenings.
- DIY makes sense if you enjoy it and have the time. Most trades have neither after a day on site.
- A good designer writes it, sorts your photos, makes it fast on a phone and sets it up to be found. A bad one sells you a template on a monthly contract.
- Whoever builds it, make sure you own the domain and can see the site before you pay.
I build websites for trades, so you’d expect me to say hire someone. I’m going to try to be straighter than that, because I’ve seen plenty of trades do a decent job on Wix and plenty pay a “designer” for something worse. What matters is what you end up with and what it cost you to get there.
What doing it yourself really costs
The subscription is the small part. Here’s where the real cost sits.
- The monthly fee never stops. To use your own domain and lose the builder’s adverts you need a paid plan, and you pay it every month for as long as the site exists. Over three or four years that’s more than most trades would pay to have it built.
- Your evenings. Picking a template is an hour. Writing every section, sorting a thousand phone photos down to thirty good ones, getting the menu to work on a phone and working out why the hero image is blurry is a lot of Sunday afternoons. Most DIY trade sites I see were started with good intentions and finished at “good enough”.
- Writing about yourself. This is the bit nobody expects to be hard. You know your trade inside out, but writing a page that makes a stranger want to ring you is a different skill. “All aspects of joinery undertaken” isn’t it.
- The template look. Thousands of trades use the same handful of templates. Customers may not know why your site feels generic, but they feel it.
- Speed and search. Builder sites tend to be heavy, and slow sites lose people on a phone. You can fix some of that, but it takes knowing what to fix.
When DIY is the right call
It genuinely is sometimes.
- You enjoy this sort of thing and you’ve got the evenings spare.
- It’s a side business, or you’re testing an idea, and you just need a page with your number on it.
- You’re skint and starting out. A simple site you built beats no site, as long as it has your services, your photos, your area and a way to get hold of you. Here’s the checklist.
If that’s you, pick one template, keep it to one page, use your own photos and get it live. You can always replace it later.
What a designer should do for you
Paying someone only makes sense if they do the parts you’d struggle with. A proper job looks like this:
- Writes the words. You tell them about the business on a call. They turn it into pages that lead with the jobs you want more of and answer what customers ask. You shouldn’t have to write anything.
- Sorts your photos. Goes through what you send, picks the best, crops and compresses them so they look sharp and load fast.
- Designs it around your trade, not around a template. A roofer’s site and a kitchen fitter’s site shouldn’t look the same.
- Makes it fast on a phone. That’s where most customers are. Ask what it scores on Google PageSpeed.
- Sets it up to be found. Page titles, headings and words that name your services and towns, linked to your Google Business Profile.
- Puts your domain in your name, so it’s your property whatever happens later.
An example. Péter from PNG Joinery in Glasgow didn’t know what he wanted when he first got in touch. One call, a plan, then a rough version a few days later so he could see the direction. After that his only job was to send photos and say what he thought. The site was live within two weeks. Read the case study.
Questions to ask any web designer
Ask these before you agree to anything, including me.
- Who owns the domain? It should be registered in your name or your business’s. If it’s theirs, you can’t leave without losing your web address.
- What do I pay after the first year, and what for? Hosting and a domain cost something, so a small monthly fee is normal. A large one with “updates included” usually isn’t.
- Can I see it before I pay? If the answer is no, ask why not.
- Who writes the words? If it’s you, half the job is still yours.
- What does it score on PageSpeed? Ask to see one of their live sites tested. Anything under 90 on mobile wants explaining.
- What happens if I want to leave? You should get the files and the domain, no fuss.
- Can I see a site you built for a trade like mine? Real clients, not mock-ups.
What to watch out for
- “Free website” with a big monthly fee. That’s a rental, and you’ll pay far more over time than a one-off build. Usually you own nothing at the end.
- A template sold as custom. Ask to see three of their sites side by side. If they all look the same, you know.
- Stock photos. If their examples are full of smiling models in clean hi-vis, your site will be too.
- Full payment upfront. Some deposit is fair for a large job. All of it before you’ve seen anything isn’t.
- Promises about Google. Nobody can promise you page one. They can promise to set the site up properly, which is different.
The middle option
If a full site feels like too much, ask a designer for one page. A single, well-built page with your services, your best photos, your reviews, your area and a tap-to-call button does most of what a trade needs, and it costs a lot less than people expect. You can add pages later once the work’s coming in. What a trade website should cost.
How to decide
- Got the time and quite fancy it? Build it yourself. Keep it to one page, use the checklist, and get it live rather than perfect.
- Busy, and the site’s meant to bring in work? Pay someone, but ask the seven questions above first.
- Already built one and it’s not bringing anything in? It might need fixing rather than replacing. Here’s what to check, or send it over for a free check and I’ll tell you straight.
And if you do want it built: you see your finished site first, and you only pay if you’re happy with it. See pricing.
