Sole trader website questions – answered honestly

If you work for yourself, your website questions are probably very different to those of a bigger business.

You don’t have an IT department, you probably don’t have a big budget, and you’ve almost certainly had someone try to sell you something you didn’t need.

I’ve been building websites for small businesses for over 25 years, and the same questions come up again and again from sole traders. So here are the honest answers – no sales pitch, no waffle.

• Do I actually need a website?
• What platform should I build on?
• Should I use Wix or Squarespace?
• How much should a website cost?
• What about hosting?
• Who should own my domain name?
• Should my email come with my website?
• Will my site show up on Google?
• How long does a website take to build?
• Do I need someone to manage it for me?

Do I actually need a website?

Yes. Full stop.

I know some sole traders who rely entirely on social media or word of mouth, and for a while that works. But social media platforms change their algorithms, charge you to reach your own followers, and can close your account without warning. You don’t own any of it.

Your website is yours. It’s the one place online where you control everything – what it says, how it looks, and who sees it. If you’re serious about your business, you need a website.

That said, a bad website is arguably worse than no website at all. If your site looks like it was built in 2009, loads slowly, and isn’t mobile-friendly, potential clients will bounce straight off it and find someone else. So if you’ve got a site already, make sure it’s doing its job properly.

What platform should I build on?

WordPress. It’s that simple.

It powers around 40% of all websites on the internet. It has the biggest ecosystem of developers, plugins, and themes. It’s open source, which means you’re not locked into any single company. And when you want to move host, change developer, or make big structural changes to your site, you can – because you own it outright.

Every other platform wants to be WordPress. So why start anywhere else?

The caveat here is this: WordPress is only as good as the person who builds and maintains it. A poorly built WordPress site is just as bad as anything else. Make sure whoever builds it knows what they’re doing – more on that below.

Should I use Wix or Squarespace?

I get asked this a lot. My honest answer is: probably not, but it depends on what you need.

Wix and Squarespace are subscription services. You rent your website from them. If you stop paying, your site disappears. You don’t own the code, and you can’t take it anywhere – this is completely the opposite of the website subscription service we offer here at Webworthy.

For a very small site – a portfolio or a one-page contact card – they’re fine. They’re quick to set up, and you don’t need a developer. But the moment you want to do anything beyond the basics, you’ll hit a wall. You can’t extend them the way you can WordPress, and the SEO limitations are real.

If your website is supposed to generate business, don’t rent it. Own it, which is a key reason to move away from Wix or Squarespace.

How much should a website cost?

This is the one everyone wants a straight answer to, and the honest answer is: it varies enormously, and cheap usually means trouble.

A very basic brochure site – home, about, services, contact – built properly on WordPress will typically start from around £1,500 to £3,000 for a sole trader. If someone’s quoting you £300 for a brand new website, ask them exactly what you’re getting. The chances are you’re getting a theme from ThemeForest with the colours changed, which is not the same as a proper build.

That said, you don’t need to spend tens of thousands either. The key is knowing what you’re paying for. Ask the developer to explain what they’re building, whether it’s a bespoke theme or an off-the-shelf theme, and what ongoing costs (licences, hosting, maintenance) you’ll face after launch.

If they can’t answer those questions clearly, walk away.

What about hosting?

Hosting is one of the areas where sole traders tend to cut corners, and it’s one of the areas where it matters most – When you work with us, we host your site and manage everything.

Cheap hosting is cheap for a reason. You’re sharing a server with hundreds or thousands of other sites, your site loads slowly, and when things go wrong – and they do – the support is non-existent.

If you want to use your own hosting, use a proper managed WordPress host as we do. Yes, you’re looking at £30-£50 per month rather than £3.99, but your website is your most important marketing tool. Don’t stick it in a skip.

Good hosting means fast load times, proper backups you can actually restore, and security that doesn’t leave you worrying every time a plugin update comes out.

Who should own my domain name?

You should. Always.

This is a surprisingly common problem. A developer or agency registers the domain on your behalf, and suddenly, you don’t have access to it. If you ever fall out with them, or they go bust, or they just stop responding to emails, your domain – which is your brand online – is stuck.

Register your domain yourself, on your own account, with a decent registrar. I’d suggest Namecheap or 123-reg for most UK sole traders. And register it for as long as you can – 10 years if possible. The last thing you want is for it to lapse and get snapped up by someone else because you missed a renewal email.

Use Cloudflare for your DNS – it’s free, fast, and gives you much better control over how your domain behaves.

Should my email address be on my website?

No – and this is one I feel strongly about.

Most hosting packages include email as a “free” add-on. It seems like a no-brainer, but it means your email and your website live on the same server. If your website goes down, your email goes down with it. If your server gets a spam blacklisting issue, your email deliverability suffers.

Separate them. Use Google Workspace (from about £5 per month) or Microsoft 365. You get a professional email address on your own domain, your emails are reliable, and you get all the extra tools that come with those platforms.

It costs a few quid a month, and it’s absolutely worth it.

Will my site show up on Google?

Not automatically – and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.

Getting found on Google takes time and work. It requires decent content, a technically sound site, and – for local sole traders – a properly set up Google Business Profile. It also requires patience: new sites can take months to get meaningful traction in search results.

The basics you can do yourself: set up Google Search Console (it’s free), install the Google Site Kit plugin on WordPress, make sure your pages have clear titles and descriptions, and write content that actually answers the questions your clients are Googling.

Don’t pay someone £50 a month to “do your SEO” if they can’t explain exactly what that means. Cheap SEO is often just noise that does nothing – or worse, gets you penalised.

How long does a website take to build?

A properly built site for a sole trader takes four to eight weeks, usually. That assumes a straightforward brief and that you’re reasonably responsive with feedback and content.

The biggest delay in most website projects is content – getting the words and images together. If you can get that sorted early, everything moves faster.

If a developer is quoting you two weeks for a full build, it’s probably a theme install. If they’re quoting you six months, they’ve got too much on. Four to eight weeks is the realistic sweet spot for a professional job done properly.

Do I need someone to manage it for me?

Probably yes, at least for the technical stuff.

WordPress needs to be kept up-to-date – core, themes, and plugins all receive regular updates. If you ignore these, your site becomes vulnerable to security exploits, and things start to break. This isn’t scare-mongering; it’s just how software works.

Most developers offer some kind of maintenance package. It doesn’t need to be expensive – £50 to £100 per month typically covers updates, backups, and basic monitoring. That’s worth it for the peace of mind alone.

If you want to manage the content yourself – adding new pages, updating text, uploading images – WordPress is genuinely easy to use once it’s set up properly. A good developer will show you how to do this before they hand the site over. If they don’t offer to do that, ask.