Designing a Website: The Complete Guide for Swiss SMEs

Designing a Website – the Guide for Swiss SMEs

You want to design a website – or have one designed – and wonder where to start? Good news: a convincing website design is no dark art. It follows rules you can learn, and today there are three realistic ways to get there: let AI design it, build it yourself in a site builder, or hire an agency. The fastest and most flexible route today is AI – more on that below.

In this guide we walk you through all three options with honest pros and cons, the most important design ground rules, typical costs in Switzerland – and a checklist to verify at the end whether your design is truly ready.

Design it yourself, have it designed – or use AI?

Before we talk colours and fonts, there's the fundamental question: who designs? The honest answer depends on your budget, your time and your standards:

Route	Best suited for	Time to a finished website
AI website builder	You want your website exactly the way you picture it – without any technical know-how. You describe to the AI in your own words what you need, and it builds it precisely that way: layout, copy, images, entire subpages. Want to change something? Just say so.	First draft in minutes, live within hours
Yourself with a site builder	You'd rather assemble your site piece by piece via drag-and-drop from templates. That gives you manual control over every block – but with special elements you hit the limits of the builder and need some technical flair.	A few days to a few weeks
Agency / web designer	You want strategic advice and a fully custom design – someone to develop your brand presence, concept and complex features with you. You bring the time and budget for it.	Several weeks to months

The three routes aren't mutually exclusive, by the way: many start with an AI draft or a template and bring in professional help later for targeted polish – so the budget goes into refinement instead of blank pages. What separates a real AI website builder from a page builder with an AI text feature is explained in this guide.

The 7 ground rules of good website design

Whichever route you choose: these rules are how you (and your visitors) recognise good design. They're the yardstick for every draft.

• 1. One goal per page: Every page has exactly one core message and one clear call to action – call, enquire, buy. Anything that distracts from it goes.
• 2. White space is your friend: Crowded pages look cheap, airy pages look professional. Give titles, copy and images room to breathe instead of filling every gap.
• 3. Few colours, clear roles: One main colour, one accent colour for buttons and links, plus neutral greys. The proven rule of thumb: 60% base tone, 30% secondary, 10% accent.
• 4. Two fonts maximum: One for headings, one for body copy – and body copy never below 16 pixels. Readable beats original, every time.
• 5. Think mobile first: Most of your visitors arrive on a smartphone. Design for the small screen first; what works there works on desktop too – rarely the other way round.
• 6. Load fast or lose them: Every second of load time costs visitors. Compressed images, lean technology and good hosting are part of the design – beauty is worthless if nobody waits for it.
• 7. Make trust visible: Real photos instead of stock images, customer testimonials, references, a complete legal notice and a Swiss address. For SMEs especially, trust is the strongest design element.

Design your website in 5 steps

Here's how to approach the design concretely – the order matters more than most people think:

• 1. Define goal and audience: What should the website achieve – enquiries, sales, applications? And who visits it? A painting business serving private customers designs differently than a B2B fiduciary.
• 2. Plan the structure: Sketch the page plan (home, services, about, contact – you rarely need more) and the order of content on each page. Structure first, looks second.
• 3. Choose your design elements: Colours, fonts, image style – ideally derived from your logo and your industry. Stick to the 7 ground rules above.
• 4. Add content and images: Short titles, concrete benefit statements, real photos. Write the way you talk to customers – not the way a brochure sounds.
• 5. Test and refine: Check the website on a phone, have two or three outsiders look at it and watch where they get stuck. Good design happens in the second round.

What does website design cost in Switzerland?

Price ranges are wide – here are the typical orders of magnitude in the Swiss market for orientation:

Option	Typical cost	What you get
Agency / web designer	From around CHF 2,000 for simple sites; SME websites often run CHF 4,000 to 10,000 and beyond	Fully custom design and personal consulting – ongoing changes cost extra
Website builder (e.g. saldiaSite)	From CHF 29 per month with annual billing, hosting and support included	Professional templates you assemble yourself via drag-and-drop
AI website builder (e.g. saldiaBuild)	Free entry tier; paid plans from CHF 9 per month with annual billing	Your website exactly as described – the AI builds layout, copy, images and subpages

Important when comparing: don't just look at the starting price, but at what's included over time. With a site builder or AI builder, hosting and ongoing operation come with the subscription; with an agency website, hosting and maintenance are usually billed separately – in return you get a fully bespoke solution. And if data location matters to you, look for Swiss hosting – here's why it counts.

Your dream website with AI – exactly the way you want it

The biggest advantage of AI isn't just speed – it's freedom. With a classic site builder you work within the given building blocks, and the moment you want something special you hit technical limits. With saldiaBuild it's different: you describe in your own words how your website should look – and the AI builds it precisely that way. No code, no builder limits, no technical expertise required.

Here's how it works: you explain your business in a few sentences – industry, offering, style – or provide the URL of your existing website. The AI researches your topic, designs the layout and builds the complete website with fully written copy, images and multiple subpages. Want to change something afterwards – a different section, a new subpage, a special element – you simply say so, and the AI does it. That's exactly why saldiaBuild produces your dream website, not just a website that happens to fit a template.

The everyday advantage is autonomy: you don't want to contact someone for every text change or new image and wait for a reply – you want to see results yourself, right away. You tell the AI what you need, and the next version appears in seconds – so you stay in the driver's seat at all times and reach a professional result even without a big budget.

The result isn't a lump of templates but a static website without a CMS and without a database: it loads fast, is secure and is hosted in Switzerland. You can try it in the Free plan with the credits we gift you, at no risk.

Prefer designing manually via drag-and-drop instead of describing? Then the saldiaSite builder is your route – here we compare saldiaSite and saldiaBuild directly.

The 5 most common design mistakes

We see these mistakes on Swiss SME websites again and again – and all five are quick to fix:

• Too much on the homepage: The homepage tries to tell everything and ends up saying nothing. Better: one strong title, three core offers, one call to action.
• Vague calls to action: "Learn more" leads nowhere. Be concrete: "Request a quote", "Book an appointment", "Order now".
• Tiny type and weak contrast: Light grey on white at 13 pixels is something nobody reads – least of all outdoors on a phone.
• Stock photos instead of real people: Everyone has seen the handshake photo from the image library. An honest team photo beats it every time.
• Design without upkeep: Outdated opening hours, dead links, news from 2022 – the best design loses if the content isn't right.

Checklist: is your website design ready?

Run through these ten points before you go live:

• Every page has a clear goal and a visible call to action
• The website works flawlessly on a smartphone
• Body copy is at least 16 pixels and easy to read
• No more than two fonts and one clear colour palette in use
• All images are compressed and the page loads in under three seconds
• Titles and copy speak your customers' language – consistently
• Real photos, testimonials or references build trust
• Legal notice, privacy policy and contact details are complete
• Two outsiders have tested the website and found their way around
• You can change content yourself without having to ask anyone

Ten times yes? Then nothing stands in the way of your launch. And if you're still on point one: the fastest way to a first professional draft is to let the AI design it – trying saldiaBuild costs nothing in the Free plan. Prefer to design it yourself? Then have a look at saldiaSite. And if you have questions, our support team in Burgdorf is there for you – in German, French and English.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can I design my website myself?

Yes – and more easily than you'd think. With an AI website builder like saldiaBuild you describe in your own words how your website should look, and the AI builds it precisely that way – without any technical knowledge. If you prefer to design manually, you assemble your site yourself via drag-and-drop from templates with a builder like saldiaSite. Either way, what matters is sticking to the design ground rules: one goal per page, few colours, two fonts maximum, mobile-ready and fast.

What does it cost to have a website designed?

With Swiss agencies, simple websites start at around CHF 2,000; SME websites often run between CHF 4,000 and 10,000 and beyond. Website builders are considerably cheaper (saldiaSite from CHF 29 per month with annual billing, hosting included), as are AI website builders (saldiaBuild with a free tier and paid plans from CHF 9 per month with annual billing).

How does billing work with saldiaBuild?

Two parts: the plan (Free or from CHF 9 per month with annual billing) covers hosting, domain features and support. The actual work of the AI – every generation and revision – runs on credits. Every plan, including the Free tier, starts with a one-time gift of credits, so you can create your first website at no extra cost. If you need more later, you top up credits. You'll find the exact allowances on the saldiaBuild product page.

Design the website myself or hire an agency?

Designing it yourself pays off if you want to build your website independently and without a big budget – with an AI website builder like saldiaBuild you reach a professional result without prior knowledge today, because you simply describe to the AI what you need. An agency is worth it for very special requirements and the matching budget. Many SMEs start with AI and bring in targeted professional help later – if at all needed.

Can AI design my website?

Yes, and exactly the way you picture it. With an AI website builder like saldiaBuild you describe in your own words what you want, and the AI builds the complete website with layout, fully written copy, images and multiple subpages – or based on your existing website via URL import. You tell the AI about changes simply, without code and without builder limits.

How long does it take to design a website?

With an AI website builder, the first complete draft is ready in minutes and you can go live the same day. With a site builder, expect a few days to a few weeks depending on scope. Agency projects typically take several weeks to months.

What makes good website design?

Good website design is clear rather than spectacular: one goal per page, generous white space, a reduced colour palette, at most two well-readable fonts, mobile-first thinking and fast loading. Plus visible trust – real photos, testimonials, a complete legal notice and a Swiss address.