Three rules before you start. Every account is opened in your name, not a designer's or ours. Your domain stays registered to you. And you keep a copy of the file somewhere that isn't the host. Do those three and nobody can ever hold your site hostage — which is a thing that happens to small businesses every week.
Three ways, all free or already paid for
Drag-and-drop static hosting
The easiest route. Several hosts let you drop a folder onto a page in your browser and hand you a live address on the spot. Netlify's "Drop" and Cloudflare Pages both work this way; both have free tiers that a single-page site will never outgrow.
- Costs
- Free for a site like this
- Takes
- Five minutes, no card
Put your downloaded file in a folder on its own and rename it to index.html — that exact name is what a host looks for as the front page.
Create a free account at the host in YOUR name (never let anyone else own it — it's how sites get held hostage).
Drop the folder onto the upload area. You get a working address ending in the host's name within a minute.
Open it on your phone. If it looks right there, it's live.
Watch out: The address you get is theirs (something.netlify.app). It works, but it's not your name — see the domain section below for the last step.
GitHub Pages
A few more steps, and the most durable: your file lives in a repository you control, and every change is kept. Worth it if you or someone you trust is even slightly technical.
- Costs
- Free
- Takes
- Twenty minutes the first time
Create a free GitHub account in your name and a new public repository.
Upload the file as index.html.
In the repository's settings, turn on Pages and choose the main branch as the source.
Within a few minutes you have an address at github.io.
Watch out: Public repository means the file is public — which it is anyway, it's a website. Don't put anything in it you wouldn't put on the page.
Your existing host
If you already pay someone monthly for a site (the free check tells you — 'built on GoDaddy', 'built on Wix'), you may be able to replace what's there. Some hosts allow a plain file; site-builder platforms usually don't.
- Costs
- Whatever you already pay
- Takes
- Depends on the host
Find out whether your plan allows uploading your own HTML. Site builders (Wix, Squarespace) generally don't; traditional hosting (cPanel-style) generally does.
If it does: upload the file as index.html to the public web folder, replacing what's there. Keep a copy of the old one.
If it doesn't: use one of the free options above and point your domain at it instead — you can then cancel the builder.
Watch out: Before cancelling anything, make sure the domain name is registered in YOUR name and not the host's. Check the registrar, not the host's dashboard.
Then point your own name at it
The free addresses work, but yourbusiness.com is what goes on the van. This is the part people find intimidating and it's four steps.
- Find out who holds your domain
Search your domain at a WHOIS lookup or log into wherever you bought it — GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google, a web designer years ago. If it's in someone else's name, getting it back is the first job, before anything else.
- Tell the host your domain name
Every host above has a 'custom domain' setting. Add your domain there. The host then shows you one or two DNS records to create — usually an A record pointing the bare domain at an address, and a CNAME pointing www at the host.
- Create those records at the registrar
In your registrar's DNS settings, add exactly what the host showed you. Replace whatever the old A record pointed at ('parked' is common). Don't delete records you don't recognise — MX records are your email, and deleting them stops it.
- Wait, then check on your phone
Changes take minutes to a few hours to spread. When the domain loads your page on a phone that isn't on your wifi, it's done. The host will usually issue a free security certificate on its own once the domain resolves — give it half an hour before assuming it's broken.
The one thing not to get wrong
Never delete DNS records you don't recognise. MX records are your email, and removing them stops it dead. Change the A record the host asked you to change, add the CNAME it asked for, and leave everything else exactly as it was.
Updating it later
New hours, new prices, a new photo: go back to the form (your answers are still on this device), change what changed, download the file again, and upload it over the old one. That's the whole process. It's also exactly what the $99 pays us to do for you, along with the listings and the posts — so you never have to.
Or we do all of it, and keep doing it
The site on your own domain, the listings claimed and kept right, the posts written, every change made when you ask. Nothing down, cancel any month, and the file is yours either way.
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