Site builder
Site builder – builds simple websites that need little upkeep
Builds simple websites that need little upkeep, and puts nothing online without my yes.
1. What was the problem?
I wanted websites for my own projects and for friends. But I'm not a builder, and WordPress sites keep needing updates and upkeep. Outsourcing costs money, and every small change became a chore.
2. What is the solution?
The site builder makes simple websites: ordinary pages without WordPress, on my own hosting. I say what I want. It makes a proposal and adjusts it until it's right.
This is what it made:
- the site for the olive oil from a shared olive grove in Molise, in Italy;
- demo sites for two photographer friends;
- a report for the site manager of one of those photographers, with the set-up of the new site and the pros and cons side by side.
This site was built by it too.
What a conversation looks like
A conversation about a site for our olive grove in Italy (2 October). My messages are almost word for word, the bot's answers in short.
08:49, me: "I want to make a website about our olive grove in Molise. I've thought about it before in Evernote, Drive or Grok. Look that up." Bot: searches Evernote, Drive and earlier conversations. Finds a note about the purchase, my harvest story and a sheet with kilos and costs, but no website plan. Asks if it may start with that.
08:59, me: "Also look at the managers' site for inspiration, and at the photo I used for the labels." Bot: looks at that site (warm, personal, no web shop). Can't find the label photo and asks where it is.
09:28, me: send a link to my photo album: "Photo 1743 was used for the label." Bot: fetches the photo and suggests putting it up front.
09:40, me: "I still have no idea what you're going to do. Tell me what you're planning. The label already has a web address on it, but that may still need to be bought." Bot: explains the plan: first a simple site that isn't live yet, with five pages. The domain name turns out to be mine already.
Me: "Ok, make a prototype I can open on the iPad." Bot: asks my approval for a temporary link. At 10:04 the trial version is on my iPad.
10:16, me: three additions: who looks after the grove, who we share it with, and a page with recipes using olive oil. Bot: works it in and makes the recipe page.
10:32, me: "I don't like this wide photo. I want one with a wide landscape, with sky too." Bot: picks a photo of the grove on the hill with lots of blue sky.
The result: dirknel-olijfolie.nl.
3. What did it take?
A hosting package (I already had one), a clear explanation of what I want, and material for the texts and photos.
For my site about our olive grove, quite a bit was already in my mail and on my Drive. It looked that up itself, and based a first set-up on it. Over the course of about an hour I typed something a few times. After a few prototypes and some corrections, the site was ready to go live.
4. What went well?
The olive oil site is live. Demo sites are ready for two photographers. And the site manager of one of them has a report he can work with.
The site builder also helped me find a place for this site and a few others. I let it log in to the hosting of my photo site, and there turned out to be room left there.
5. What didn't go well?
At first I shared the demos via temporary share links. After a few days they stopped working. Then you see an error message, just when you want to get someone excited.
I asked for permanent links, and then the bot suggested putting the demos on my own hosting. That's where they are now. My wish is simple: a link I share must keep working for at least a month.
What do I keep doing myself? (personal contact)
I talk to the people the site is for myself: what do they want, what suits them? I choose the photos and the tone myself. The assistant builds; the idea and the contact are mine. I also have the conversations with the photographers myself.
Who is it useful for?
Small business owners, clubs and hobbyists who want a simple site without the hassle of updates.
Never without my yes
May do on its own: design, build pages, prepare a test version, write down points for improvement.
Never without my yes: put anything live, buy anything (such as a domain name) or change the DNS settings. DNS is a kind of address book: it decides which computer a website is on.
Connections
My hosting, my mail and my Drive.
What access does the bot have?
Access to my hosting, to put files in place. And access to my mail and Drive; logging in once was enough for that.
Which files are shared?
What it found itself in my mail and on my Drive, and a shared Google photo album with photos of the olive grove.
Cost and time per month
I already had the hosting. A complete site costs me about 5% of the weekly capacity in my subscription.
Difficulty
★★ – doable yourself if you know what you want; help is handy with the first connection to the hosting, if you haven't done that before.
Getting started yourself
- Write down what the site should tell, in five sentences.
- Collect texts and photos, or point out where to find them.
- Ask an AI assistant for a site that's easy to maintain.
- Look at the result and ask for changes.
- Let someone you trust look along before you put anything online.
Lesson learned
Put demos in your own place, not on a temporary link, and let nothing go live without your own yes.
Status
In use since early October 2026. I've been working with Grok Bot since the end of August 2026, about six weeks now.