Getting a website when you're not good with computers

You do not need to be good with computers to have a good business website. Plenty of owners who run excellent businesses never touch the technical side at all: someone else builds the site, and they answer questions, approve it and keep a few logins safe. The trick is choosing a way of getting a site that matches how much you want to do, and knowing the handful of jobs nobody can do for you.

First, be honest about how much you want to do

Website options are often sold as "easy". Easy for whom? A drag-and-drop builder is easy for someone who already edits photos and uses spreadsheets. For someone who finds email attachments a chore, it can turn into months of frustrating evenings and a half-finished site.

Think about the last time you had to set up something on a computer or phone, such as online banking or a new printer. If that went fine on your own, a builder might suit you. If you needed help from a grandchild or a store employee, go straight to an option where someone else does the building. That is not a failure. It is the same decision as hiring an accountant instead of doing your own payroll.

The done-for-you options

A local freelancer. One person who builds the site, usually after a meeting or a call. The best ones explain things patiently and come recommended by another local business. Ask how you will get changes made later and what they cost, because you will be relying on them.

A web design agency. A team that handles everything. More expensive, often more meetings, and usually more than a small business needs.

A done-for-you service that builds from what you have. Some services take your current site, or just your business name and town, and build the new site for you, so there is very little to write or gather. You look at the result and ask for changes in plain words.

A family member or friend. Often willing, sometimes very good. The risk is what happens when they move, get busy or lose interest. If you go this way, make sure the accounts are in your name, not theirs.

What to steer away from: a builder that you are "supposed to" set up yourself, sold to you as done-for-you. If the salesperson says "it's easy, you just drag things around", that is a do-it-yourself product.

The things only you can do

Even with the most hands-off option, a few jobs stay yours. None of them need computer skills.

1. Say what your business does, in your own words. A phone call or a few lines in an email is enough. The builder turns it into website text.
2. Say where you work or where your shop is, and your hours.
3. Supply or approve photos. Real photos of your work, taken on a phone, are fine. If you cannot send them yourself, someone can take them off your phone for you.
4. Check the facts. Phone number, address, prices, license number, the names of services. Nobody knows these like you, and a wrong phone number on a website costs real calls.
5. Decide what customers should do: call, request a quote, book.
6. Own your accounts. The domain (your web address) and any website account must be in your name and your email. This is the single most important thing in this whole guide.

How to review a website when you are not a computer person

When someone sends you the finished site, you do not need to judge the code. Judge it like a customer would.

• Open it on your own phone. Can you read the text without zooming?
• Tap the phone number. Does your phone offer to call it?
• Read every word on the home page out loud. Does it sound like your business?
• Look at each photo. Is it really your work, or a stock picture?
• Ask someone who has never seen it to find your hours. Watch them.

Then write your changes as plain requests: "Please change the Saturday hours to 9 to 1." "The second photo on the home page isn't our work, please remove it." That is exactly what a good builder wants to hear. How to give a web designer feedback has more on wording changes clearly.

After launch: getting changes made

Your site will need small changes: new hours, a new service, a holiday closing. Before you pay for any site, find out how those happen. There are three common answers:

• You email or call, they change it. Simplest for you. Ask what each change costs and how fast it happens.
• You change it yourself in a simple panel. Good if the panel really is simple: a box with your hours that you type into, then a Save button. Ask for a demonstration before you buy.
• You are on a monthly care plan that includes changes. Fine if the price is fair and you can leave without losing your site.

What a website panel should let you change lists what should be easy if you do go the do-it-yourself route for small edits.

Traps that catch non-technical owners

• Signing up for something you do not understand. If a contract or plan has words you do not follow, ask what they mean before signing. A provider who will not explain is a warning.
• Letting someone else own the domain. It feels like a detail until you want to leave.
• Calls offering to "fix your Google listing". Most are sales pitches, some are scams. You do not have to decide on the phone. Ask for it in writing.
• Paying for things you will never use, like a blog you will not write or an online store when you sell in person.
• Assuming the site will stay right on its own. Hours and prices change. Put a reminder in your calendar to look at the site every few months.

What to do this week

• Decide honestly: do you want to build it yourself, or have it built? If unsure, choose built.
• Write five sentences about your business: what, where, for whom, hours, how to reach you.
• Pick ten photos of your work on your phone.
• Find out where your domain is registered and whose name is on it, if you already have one.
• Ask two other local business owners who did their website and whether they would use them again.

If you already have a website that is hard to change or looks dated, you can see your site rebuilt first, done for you from what is already on it, and just tell them in plain words what to change.