Building a website yourself: what it takes and how long
Building a website is not one job but six. Below each of them: what is done, how long it takes and where people usually stop.
We wrote this article and we sell a builder. But the list below is honest: these jobs exist both in a builder and by hand — the only difference is who does them.
1. Name the goal
What the site is for: a call, an order, a catalogue, or simply trust. Everything else follows from that.
Time: half an hour, and the most valuable half hour there is. Without a goal a site comes out pretty and brings nothing.
2. The text
This is where most people stop. Picking a design is easy; writing the text is hard: what you offer, what it costs, why anyone should trust you.
Time: a few days if you write it yourself. This step cannot be skipped — a "I will fill it in later" site stays that way.
3. The look
You take a template or commission a design. A template is a day; a designer is one to two weeks and separate money.
4. The domain
The name is bought. The .uz zone requires documents: passport and PINFL. Registration can take several days.
Time: from an hour to a few days, depending on the zone.
5. Hosting and certificate
Where the files live, and the padlock. Without the padlock a browser marks the site "not secure" — that loses trust immediately.
Time: a day the first time, half an hour afterwards.
6. Upkeep
A website is not made once. Prices change, photos age, certificates expire. Someone has to do it.
Time: an hour or two a month, permanently.
What it adds up to
By yourself: one to three weeks, if the text is ready and the technical part does not scare you. Most of the time goes to the text and the domain, not to the code.
A builder takes steps 4, 5 and 6 off your hands. Steps 1, 2 and 3 stay yours — nobody will invent your goal and your text for you.
Where people usually stop
In our experience, at step two. Someone picks a design, then looks at an empty page and cannot find anything to write. Hence the advice: start with the text, not the design.