Build your website yourself or hire someone?

Should you build your website yourself or hire someone? Build it yourself if you are just starting, have little budget and mainly want a digital business card: Wix or WordPress makes that possible without code, for 100 to 200 euros a year plus your own hours. Hire someone if the site must bring in clients, rank for several services or work in several languages and markets, or if your hours are worth more in your own business. Convert the hours you put in into what they would otherwise earn you: that is usually the real price.

Nine out of ten businesses in Belgium have a website. So the question is rarely whether you need a site (if it is, read do I need a website), but who builds it and what it must do.

Can I build a website myself?

Yes. With a website builder such as Wix or a WordPress theme you build a site without code. You pick a template, replace the copy and photos and connect your domain. AI tools such as Lovable even produce a first version from a description; see can AI build a website.

The technical part is manageable. The hard part is knowing what belongs on the site, so a visitor understands within five seconds what you do and gets in touch, and so Google finds you for the services you sell.

What do you need for a website?

• A domain name, such as yourcompany.com. How to choose one: country domain vs .com.
• Hosting, or a website builder that handles it.
• Copy that says what you do, for whom and where.
• Images: photos of your team, premises or work.
• A clear way to get in touch: phone, form or WhatsApp.
• In the EU, a privacy notice, and a cookie banner if you set non-essential cookies; see do I need a cookie banner.

What doing it yourself costs, and what hiring costs

All prices before VAT. What freelancers charge in your own market is in web developer hourly rate. The hours are experience figures for a five-to-ten-page site, including writing copy. The full build price is explained in how much does a website cost.

Worked example: what do your own hours cost?

Three business owners each build an eight-page site themselves. They count their hours against what an hour earns them in their own business.

For the physiotherapist, doing it yourself is defensible, especially if he enjoys it and the site stays simple. For the electrician and the firm, the hours alone already cost more than having a one-page site built. And that is before the site gets found: a homemade site without a page per service rarely brings in enquiries.

Is building a website hard?

Putting a site together is no longer hard. Making a site that works still is. Homemade sites tend to share the same problems:

• A homepage that tries to say everything at once, and so says nothing clearly.
• No separate page per service, so nothing for Google to rank.
• Copy about the company ("we are a dynamic team") instead of about the customer.
• A contact button you have to hunt for, and a form nobody tests.
• 5 MB photos that make the site slow on a phone; see how to improve website speed.

Those are choices, and you only make them well when you know what your buyers search for and why they leave. How Google reads your site: what is technical SEO.

Starting yourself: a step plan

1. Write down what the site must deliver: calls, quote requests, bookings.
2. List your services and give each its own page.
3. Pick a platform: Wix for simplicity, WordPress for freedom; see Wix or WordPress.
4. Register the domain in your company's name.
5. Write your copy before you choose a design: what you do, for whom, where, and roughly what it costs.
6. Use your own photos and make them small enough for a phone.
7. Test your contact form with a real enquiry.
8. Add the site to Google Search Console and create a Google Business Profile.

A checklist for the search side is our SEO checklist.

Copy that works: five rules when you write it yourself

1. Start with what you do and where, in the first sentence. "Electrician in Leeds for renovation and inspection" says more than "Welcome to our website".
2. A page per service, in your customers' words, not your trade jargon.
3. Give a price indication or what drives the price. Visitors who know the rough cost send better enquiries.
4. Show proof: real photos of your work, your area, your experience.
5. A clear next step on every page: call, email or request a quote.

When to switch from DIY to hiring

A homemade site is a good start. Four signs it is time to have it built:

• The site has been live a year and brings in hardly any enquiries, while competitors do get found.
• You want a second language or a new service, and the template will not allow it.
• You spend hours every month on small changes you would rather spend on clients.
• You need a feature no app or plugin does well: a calculator, a calendar, a client portal.

Torn between a freelancer and a team to take over? Read freelancer or agency and how to choose a web design agency.

A middle road

You do not have to choose all or nothing.