To build a website you need a domain, hosting, a platform and content - in that order. Working alone on a ready-made platform, a simple site can be finished over a weekend, with an annual cost for the domain and hosting. This guide walks through all 8 steps and says honestly where the DIY route pays off and where it does not.
This is the step everyone skips and the reason many sites get built twice. Before any technical decision, answer four questions:
Write the answers down in a few sentences. If you cannot write them, the site is not ready to be built - regardless of who builds it.
Two things you pay for annually and which are entirely separate, even though they are often bought in the same place.
Short, easy to say over the phone and without hyphens. For the Bosnian market a `.ba` domain carries trust and a local signal; `.com` makes sense if you also target outside the region. Register it in your own name, never someone else’s.
The server where the site lives. Shared hosting is enough for a small site. More important than price is that the server sits close to your visitors and that an SSL certificate and backups are included.
Three realistic options. The difference is not only price but how much friction you will face a year from now.
Wix, Squarespace, Shopify. The fastest route to a site with no code at all. Monthly subscription, limited control over technical SEO and hard to migrate. Good for testing an idea, tight once you start growing seriously.
The most widespread CMS. Enormous choice of themes and plugins, full control and easy migration. Needs maintenance and updates, and a badly configured install tends to be slow and vulnerable. A good fit for most small and mid-sized businesses.
A site written for your case. Fastest, most secure and free of surplus code, but it needs a developer both to build and to make larger changes. Worth it when the site does something specific - bookings, integrations, a large catalogue.
The biggest failing of amateur sites is not ugly design but that the visitor does not know where to click. So you draw the site map first and choose colours later.
For most small businesses five to eight pages are enough: home, services, about, references and contact. If you offer several services, each gets its own page - one page with everything piled together ranks for none of them.
The rule is one page, one intent. A page explaining a service and a page selling it can be separate, but they must not target the same phrase or they compete with each other.
Sketch it on paper or in any tool. Ten minutes here saves days later.
This is where 90 percent of projects stall, both DIY and agency-led. Content is prepared before the site is assembled, not after:
Testing happens on a real phone on a mobile network, not in a simulator. Most visits in Bosnia arrive that way. Check every link, that the form sends, and that the call to action is visible without scrolling.
Through PageSpeed Insights. If the page takes longer than three seconds on a phone, look at the images first - compression is the fix in nine cases out of ten. Speed feeds conversion directly: every second of waiting turns some visitors away.
Google Search Console and analytics before launch, not months later. Without them you do not even know whether Google can see you.
Move to the real domain, confirm HTTPS works, submit the sitemap in Search Console and complete your Google Business Profile. For local businesses that last step often brings more than the site itself.
We have no interest in misleading you here, so we will say the part that does not favour us either.
Build it yourself if you are testing an idea, have a limited budget and more time than money, or need a simple site with a description and contact details. Ready-made platforms are perfectly sufficient for that and there is no reason to pay an agency.
Hire someone when the site has to generate enquiries, when you compete in search against firms doing serious SEO, when you need an online store, bookings or integrations with other systems - or when your time is worth more than the price difference.
There is also a middle path: build version one yourself, then bring someone in once it starts producing work. That is a perfectly legitimate route and more common than people think.
If you are at that point, look at how we handle web design or what SEO optimisation of a website actually covers.
Annually you pay for the domain and hosting, plus a monthly subscription if you use a ready-made platform. That is the bulk of the cost if you do everything yourself. The rest is your time, and that usually runs longer than expected - mostly on preparing text and images.
On a ready-made platform a simple site can be done over a weekend, if the text and images are ready. With an agency a brochure site takes 3 to 4 weeks and an online store 6 to 10 weeks. The timeline almost always depends on how quickly content arrives.
The domain. Check the name is free and register it, because everything else revolves around it. Hosting can come later and from a different provider - they are two separate things.
For most small and mid-sized businesses, yes. It gives full control, migrates easily and has an enormous range of solutions. It needs regular updates, and a badly configured install can be slow - so it is worth setting up properly from the start.
You can. Ready-made platforms and WordPress with a prepared theme require no code. The limit shows when you need something specific - a particular booking flow, an integration with another system, or serious speed optimisation.
Submit a sitemap in Search Console, give every page a unique title and description, write content that answers real questions, and complete your Google Business Profile if you are a local business. First results come after months, not days.
For a small business usually five to eight: home, services, about, references and contact. If you offer several services, each deserves its own page so it can compete for its own phrase.
Unoptimised images. A 6 MB photo uploaded straight from a phone can triple load time on its own. Close behind are a missing clear call to action and copy written about yourself rather than about the customer.
Tell us where you stopped - we will say what we would do next, no obligation.
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