What you actually need
A site for a one-person business doesn't have to be complicated to work. Here's the short list of things that genuinely matter:
- A clear home page: who you are, who you work with and what problem you solve. In under five seconds.
- A services page: what you offer, described in concrete terms. No unnecessary technical jargon.
- Proof that other people trust you: client testimonials, logos of companies you've worked with, real examples of the work.
- A contact form: keep it simple. Name, email, message. Nothing more.
- A responsive design: around half your visitors arrive on a phone. If it looks wrong there, you're losing clients.
- HTTPS (SSL): the basic standard now, for security, for trust and for how Google ranks you.
- Loading speed: if a page takes more than three seconds, a large share of your visitors simply leave.
What can wait (or what you don't need at all)
Here's what a lot of freelancers and agencies will try to sell you, and what most sole traders don't need in the first version of their site:
- A blog with 20 posts on day one: a blog nobody keeps up with does more harm than good for your SEO. Start one when you have the time to feed it.
- Multiple languages: unless you're actively going after clients abroad, it's a cost with no return.
- Animations and special effects: they slow the site down and pull attention away. Restraint converts better.
- A private client area: it has its uses, but not at launch.
- Live chat: it only works if someone is actually there. Without that, it just frustrates people.
"The best site for a freelancer isn't the prettiest or the cleverest one. It's the one that makes the phone ring."
When to launch your site
The short answer: as soon as you can. But with a caveat.
A lot of freelancers fall into the perfectionism trap. They wait for the perfect site before putting anything online, and lose months of visibility doing it. A simple site done well in two weeks beats an ambitious project that never ships.
A well-structured five-page site, with decent photos and clear writing, published in two weeks will bring you more work than a masterpiece delayed by six months. You can always grow it later.
If you've just started out on your own, the right moment to launch is before you talk to your first prospective clients. Having something to show says "professional" in the first second.
What it should cost you
For a freelancer or sole trader, a sensible budget in 2026 sits between €600 and €1,200, tax not included, for a professional site done properly. That should cover:
- A design made for you (not a generic Wix template)
- 5–8 pages with your own content
- Basic SEO so people can find you on Google
- Forms and a contact page
- SSL, a site optimised for speed, and a responsive design
You can bring the cost down by preparing the content yourself — the words and the photos. The better the material you hand over, the fewer hours the designer bills. But don't cut corners on the technical side. That's the part nobody sees and the part that decides how you do in Google.
At First Day Online, our Essential Website plan (€600, tax not included) is built for exactly this: people running their own business who need a professional presence online without complications or hidden costs. Tax is added at checkout where it applies.
