Build your site with AI, no coding: the guide

The first-minute mistake

Almost everyone starts the same way: opening the tool and typing “build me a website for my business”. And almost everyone gets the same thing: something impressive, wide of the mark, that they will spend evenings straightening out.

The first request sets the level of everything that follows. Which is why step one is not a request — it is a preparation.

Step one — the frame before the first request

Before asking for anything, install the frame: the instruction sheet that says what the project is and how you want to work, in an empty folder. Fifteen minutes, no code. The full detail is in the framing guide.

That quarter of an hour is the best investment of the project: everything you write there, you will never repeat again.

Step two — the page plan, before any code

Your first real request describes the site and ends with the most profitable sentence of the project: “first show me the page plan and what each page contains — do not write any code yet.”

You validate a structure in five minutes of reading, instead of discovering in a half-built site that half is missing. You also refuse, right here, everything that overflows: no blog, no newsletter “while we’re at it”. A short version one that ships beats an ambitious one that never does.

Step three — page by page, one conversation per page

Build in the order of the plan, one page at a time, and open a fresh conversation for each page — it is also what makes your subscription last.

After each page, the same request: “show me the result, and tell me what is not finished.” The second half of that sentence grants permission to confess, and you get the real list instead of an optimistic “done”.

Step four — the facts come from you, never from it

The site’s copy is about your business: services, prices, hours, address. That information comes from you, in bulk if you like — but never from the AI’s imagination. An AI missing a piece of information completes it with something plausible, and a plausible-but-wrong price on a published site costs real money.

The protective wording: “write using only this information; whatever is missing, mark it [MISSING INFO], invent nothing.” Visible gaps in the text are a good sign — the system is working.

Step five — the checklist before publishing

Publishing is not the tail end of step four, it is a step of its own: every page opens, no dead links, the contact form tested with a real received message, the site readable on your phone, no password in the files, the legal pages in place.

The form deserves special attention: it is the most frequent and most expensive launch bug there is — it says “thank you” and notifies nobody, for weeks.

And before all of that, from the very first evening: the backup net. It is what turns the project’s worst evening into a simple step back.

The honest calculation, to finish

Your alternative has a known price: 800 to 3,000 € freelance, 2,000 to 10,000 € agency, upkeep on top. The AI option costs a few dozen euros a month — and your evenings. How many evenings depends almost entirely on the method above. The full calculation, hourly rate included, is in AI or agency.