Websites Aren’t As Complicated As You Might Think

Having a website has never been more critical. Honestly. It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in or even whether you’re promoting yourself online.

These days, people look online before anything else.

I do it myself. If I want to go to a local restaurant, I look for their website. I look up their menu online. If they don’t have one, I’m much less likely to go. And, I’m a local, the pattern is even more common for tourists.

Even if you just have a fairly static website, one that doesn’t get updated often, having a basic online presence matters – a lot.

But, where do you get started?

Websites can seem pretty overwhelming at times. There are so many different options and decisions to make.

Who are you going to host through? What is the site going to look like? What will it cost? Where will you find the time?

Websites Don’t Need to be Difficult (or expensive!)

These days, websites can be as simple or as complex as you want. Creating a basic website for your business, one that looks good and behaves well, doesn’t need to be a complex process.

Using a Website Builder

If you plan to do this yourself, I recommend a website builder.

Squarespace is one of the popular choices in New Zealand. While there are plenty of others too, Squarespace is my personal favorite.

It has plenty of flexibility, while also being very intuitive. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to make a site that looks fantastic.

For example, I built the site for Nelson Brows and Beauty using Squarespace, along with the one for Unite Church and Meredith Thorpe.

Unite’s site is a great testament to Squarespace, as I don’t do anything on the site now. Squarespace is straightforward enough that other people have been able to pick up and run with the site, keeping it vibrant and up-to-date with minimum fuss.

I’m actually a Squarespace Circle member, which makes the service especially good for me. Squarespace Circle is designed for people who build sites for others. I get six-month website trials and discounts on annual plans for clients.

Using WordPress

WordPress is the other main option. This is considered a content management system.

I use WordPress for this site. It’s a much more powerful tool, especially for SEO and making money directly through a site (like with ads and/or affiliate marketing).

WordPress is also good for sites that will change over time. So, if you’re going to run a blog, WordPress is almost always the best choice. WordPress tends to be much cheaper too.

If you don’t mind the classic WordPress look and feel, then building a WordPress site isn’t too painful. The process takes longer than with SquareSpace, but you are getting more control, so the tradeoff is worth it.

But, if you want something more complex (like my landing page), WordPress can be a pain. Getting things to look just right is fiddly. It involves playing around with code and plugins to get everything behaving perfectly.

Getting a Helping Hand

You don’t need previous experience to make a site, but experts can create sites that look and behave better – often in much less time. This is especially true if you need specific features, like allowing customers to book online.

For businesses, the best choice is to have someone else create the site.

This allows you to get exactly what you want, without needing to work out the processes first.

As for price, that depends on who you hire and what you want. But, as an example, I charge hourly for website creation and business support services.

It normally costs well under $500 to get a website up and running for a client. This can include creating a variety of different pages, getting the visual feel of the site perfect and creating researched content.

Some clients choose to manage the website themselves once it has been created, while others look for updates and ongoing work as time progresses.

My services are more comprehensive than most, with my work often being similar to that of a virtual assistant. This means that I can flexibly meet individual needs. After all, each business is unique