Wix vs Squarespace vs hiring a web designer

What you can do

1. Count the hours, not only the subscription

   Wix, Squarespace, and the GoDaddy website builder are typical monthly subscription plans. The plan is only one part of the cost. The hours are yours: writing the services, naming the towns you drive, adding photos of your own jobs, putting a phone number where a thumb can tap it, and keeping those facts current after the first week. A landscaper, a contractor, an HVAC company, or a plumber is often on a job when that work would get done. If you will not open the builder again after launch, the plan can keep billing while the page goes stale. A hire moves the building and the ordinary edits to someone else. You still have to supply the phone number, the towns, and the photos. This page does not print builder prices. The cost guide and the free estimator show prices those companies print on their own pages.

   On this site: How much a small business website costs; Free website cost estimator

2. Put a tap-to-call link on the first screen

   A tel: link can start a call when someone taps the number. A number that is only text, or a number inside a photo, makes the customer retype it. Put the number where a thumb can reach it on the first screen of a phone. A person calling a plumber, an HVAC company, a landscaper, or a contractor is often in a truck or a kitchen, not at a desk. The free website checker looks for a tel: link on one public page. It does not place a call, and it does not store the URL.

   On this site: Free website checker; How to check if your website works on phones

3. Keep the page usable on a phone

   Open the page on a phone you already own. Scroll the services and the towns. If you have to pinch and zoom, or you wait a long time before the number appears, the page is hard to use. Large photos, slideshows, and extra widgets can slow a phone page. A laptop window can hide that. The free checker reports response time and a mobile viewport tag. A viewport tag is a setup signal. It is not proof the layout fits. Look at the phone.

   On this site: How to check if your website works on phones

4. Name the towns you actually serve

   The browser title and the main heading should say the trade and the places you work. A page that only says Home, or Welcome, is easy to miss when someone searches the trade and a town. Name the towns you really drive, such as Medina, Brunswick, Wadsworth, Cleveland, or Akron. A Medina County crew that also works in a nearby town should say that town on the page. Leave off a county you do not serve. The service area on the site and the service area on your Google Business Profile should match.

   On this site: Why your business is not showing up on Google

5. Link the site and the Google Business Profile

   The Google Business Profile is separate from the website. Map results come from the profile. The name, the phone, the towns, and the website on the profile should match the site. Link the website from the profile, and put a link on the site so a customer can open the profile. A builder subscription does not create the profile. Hiring someone does not create it either, unless that work is part of what you asked them to do. The Google account should stay in your name. This page does not create the profile for you.

   On this site: How to show up on Google Maps for your town

6. Keep the domain in your name

   The domain should be registered in an account you can open, in your name or the business name. A builder plan can include a domain for a time, and that name can stay tied to the builder. Before you pay, ask whose name is on the registration and how you take the name with you if you cancel. If you hire someone, ask the same question. If you leave and the name stays in an account you cannot open, the address on your truck, your cards, and your Google listing points at a name you do not control. The hire guide on this site walks through the questions to ask.

   On this site: How to hire a web designer for a small business

7. Use a builder when you will finish the page

   DIY is the right call when the offer is simple to describe, you can spare the evenings to finish it, and you will keep editing it. A solo landscaper, contractor, HVAC company, or plumber who already writes their own posts, and who will check the page on a phone before sharing the link, can get a usable site from Wix, Squarespace, or the GoDaddy website builder. The subscription is the tool. The finished page is still your job. Put the domain in an account you control before you point a truck, a card, or a Google Business Profile at it.

8. Hire when you will not do that work

   Hire when calls are the point of the site and you will not spend the hours to build it and keep it current. Hire when the page you have is slow on a phone, the number cannot be tapped, the towns are missing, and you have already tried to fix those. Hire when you want hosting and ordinary edits handled by someone else. Ask who owns the domain before you pay, and ask to see the page on a phone. A new site does not, by itself, put you on Google or on Maps. What a monthly plan should cover after the site is live is in the guide on website maintenance cost.

   On this site: How to hire a web designer for a small business; What website maintenance costs a small business

9. Read a short checklist before you subscribe or hire

   Read this before you start a subscription or before you hire. You know who will spend the hours to finish the page and keep the phone number, the hours, and the towns current. The domain will be in an account you control, and you know how you take it with you if you cancel. The phone number will be a tap-to-call link on the first screen of a phone. The page will name the towns you actually serve. The Google Business Profile will use the same name, phone, and website, and the site will link to the profile. Photos will be of your jobs. You know what the monthly plan includes, and you know how you cancel. If a line is blank, that line is the decision.

10. Check a live page, or ask for a site

    If you already have a page on a builder, start with the free website checker. It reads one public page and reports HTTPS, response status and time, the title, the meta description, a mobile viewport tag, one heading, and a tel: link. It does not store the URL. Website Quick Diagnostic is $19, paid once. An automated PDF within about 1 hour with your speed and mobile scores, the top 5 issues ranked, and a plain fix for each. The $19 is credited toward the $99 Checkup within 30 days. Website Checkup is $99, paid once: a ranked report of what to fix on your website first, covering speed, SEO, mobile, and AI search visibility, delivered within 2 business days. Those checks describe a page you already have. They are not a quote for a new site. If you want Telep IO to build it, ask on the start page. The founding offer is $500 to set up and $50 a month, limited to the first 3 Ohio businesses. Hosting and ordinary upkeep are included. You see a demo of your own site before you pay. The start page says you get a preview within a few days.

    On this site: Free website checker; Website Quick Diagnostic; Website Checkup; Start a site quote

Check a page now

The free website checker reads one public URL. It reports HTTPS, a mobile viewport tag, and whether GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended are blocked. It does not store the URL.

The AI search readiness check is the free look for AI search. It reports whether OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, and PerplexityBot are blocked, and whether the words are in the server HTML. It does not store the URL.

Website Checkup is $99, paid once. A ranked report of what to fix on your website first, covering speed, SEO, mobile, and AI search visibility, delivered within 2 business days. No login is needed. The report goes only to you.

FAQ

More guides

• Why your business is not showing up on Google

  A business can be missing from Google because the page is not in the index, because the words you searched are not the words a customer uses, or because the page is blocked. A page can also be in the index and still sit far down the results. The free check on this site reads the public page, and it does not look up a rank.

• How much a small business website audit costs

  You can check a public page for free. The checker on this site reads one URL, reports what it found, and does not store the URL. If you want a report that ranks what to fix first, Website Checkup is $99, paid once, and it is delivered within 2 business days.

• How much does a small business website cost

  If you build it yourself, published US prices checked for this page start at $4 a month on WordPress.com when billed annually, $17.77 a month on Wix Light for a yearly plan, or $19 a month on Squarespace Basic billed annually ($228 for the year). If you hire an agency, Clutch says web design agencies typically charge $2,000 to $100,000, and that most reviewed projects cost less than $10,000. If Telep IO builds it, the founding offer is $500 to set up, then $50 a month. Limited to the first 3 Ohio businesses. The start page splits that setup into two payments and makes the first upkeep month free, which comes to $1,050 in the first year, then $50 a month.

• What website maintenance costs a small business

  Website maintenance is the work that keeps a live site reachable and current: hosting, domain renewal, SSL, backups, software and plugin updates, security, small content edits, uptime checks, and keeping a Google Business Profile matched to the site. You do not always need a monthly plan. You need one when you will not do that work, or when a fee is the only way the site stays hosted and edited. Other providers set their own prices. This page does not print those prices. The only prices stated here are the ones Telep IO publishes.

• How to hire a web designer for a small business

  Before you hire, ask who owns the domain and the site, what hosting costs, who edits it later, whether the page works on a phone, whether they will help with a Google Business Profile, and when you will see a first look. Walk away if you will not own the domain, if the contract locks you in, if there is no portfolio you can open, or if the monthly fee does not say what it covers. Other people set their own prices. Ranges vary. The only build price stated here is the one Telep IO publishes.

• Signs your business website needs a redesign

  Redo the site when it no longer matches the business, you cannot edit it, or a customer on a phone cannot read it and call. Many of the usual problems can be fixed without a full rebuild. Old hours, a missing call link, a page that is hard to read on a phone, and an address that is not on HTTPS are often edits. A new look does not, by itself, put the business on Google or on Maps.

• How to check if your website works on phones

  Open the site on a phone you already own and try to call the business from the page. If you have to pinch and zoom, or you cannot find the number, the page is hard to use on a phone. A viewport tag tells the browser to use the screen width. It is a setup signal, not a grade of the layout.

• Can ChatGPT and other AI tools find your business

  An AI tool can mention your business when it has public information to use, or when a person typed the facts in. A robots.txt file can ask specific crawlers to stay off the site. That file is a request, not a record of what a tool has already saved. Blocking one crawler does not block every AI product.

• Is a Facebook page enough without a website

  A Facebook page is not a website you control. Google's guidelines say the website on a Business Profile should represent the business, and they say not to use a page created on a social media site as that website. A site you control can name the work, the towns, and a phone number a person can tap.

• What a small business website should include

  A local site should say what you do, name the towns you actually serve, and put a phone number a person can tap. It should also load on a phone. That is not a promise of a ranking or a set number of calls.

• How to show up on Google Maps for your town

  Map results come from a Google Business Profile, which is separate from the website. Google says that when you add and verify a Business Profile, customers can find the business on Search and Maps, and that only verified businesses can show their info there. A website does not create the profile. This page does not create it for you.

• How to get more Google reviews

  Ask a real customer after the job is done, and give them a direct review link from your Google Business Profile. Google lets you share that link, or a QR code, in a text or email, on a receipt, and at the counter. Do not pay for a review, do not offer a discount for one, and do not ask only the people who already said they are happy.

• How to get more calls from a trade website

  A website does not promise a set number of calls. For an HVAC company, a plumber, or a landscaper, the page can make the call easy: the number is tappable, the jobs are named, and the towns are the ones you drive. If those facts are buried, the person on the phone has to hunt.