One of the questions we hear most after handing over a hand-coded website is: "If I want to change my phone number or a price, can I do it myself?" The answer is yes. An HTML website is just a set of text files, and with a little care you can make small edits in a few minutes. This guide walks through the safe way to do it.

First, understand what you're looking at

A typical small business site has a handful of files: index.html for the homepage, one .html file for each extra page (like about.html or services.html), a styles.css file that controls the look, a script.js file for small interactions, and an images folder. For everyday edits, you will almost only ever touch the .html files and the images.

Step 1: Make a backup before you touch anything

Download a copy of the entire website folder and keep it somewhere safe, with the date in the folder name. If an edit goes wrong, you simply put the old file back. This one habit removes almost all the risk from editing yourself.

Step 2: Open the file in a proper text editor

Use a plain code editor rather than a word processor. Free options like Visual Studio Code or Notepad++ work well and colour-code the file so it is easier to read. Avoid Microsoft Word or Google Docs: they add hidden formatting that breaks web pages.

Step 3: Find the exact text you want to change

Press Ctrl + F (or Cmd + F on a Mac) and search for a few words you can see on the live page, such as your old phone number. You'll land right on it. You will notice it sits between tags, like this:

<p>Call us on 98xxx xxxxx</p>

Change only the words between the > and the <. Leave the tags themselves exactly as they are.

Step 4: Watch out for phone numbers and links in two places

A phone number often appears twice: once as visible text and once inside a link such as href="tel:+9198xxxxxxxx" or a WhatsApp link like wa.me/9198xxxxxxxx. Update both, or the button will still dial the old number. Use Ctrl + F again to make sure no old copies remain, including in the footer.

Step 5: Replacing a photo

Step 6: Preview before you publish

Double-click the edited .html file on your computer to open it in your browser. Check the change looks right, then shrink the window to phone width to see the mobile view. If something looks broken, compare your file against the backup to spot the stray character.

Step 7: Upload the changed file

How you publish depends on your hosting. On most shared hosting you upload through the File Manager in your control panel. Static hosts and Git-based setups usually let you drag and drop the updated file or push the change. Upload only the files you edited, then refresh the live site with Ctrl + Shift + R to bypass your browser's cache.

Rule of thumb: if the change is words, numbers or a like-for-like photo, do it yourself. If it changes layout, adds a section or touches the CSS, ask a developer.

Mistakes that commonly break a page

When to hand it over instead

Adding a new page, changing the menu, redesigning a section, setting up a form, or anything involving SEO tags and redirects is best left to whoever built the site. These changes touch several files at once, and a small slip can affect how Google sees the whole website. A quick email with your change list is often faster than an evening of trial and error.

Prefer not to edit at all? Our optional care plan covers small text and image changes. See the pricing page for details.