How to create a website for your business from scratch

What should a business website do?

A business website should help a stranger decide to contact you or buy from you. That is the whole job. Before you pick a tool or a color, write one sentence: when someone visits, what should they do next?

For a dentist it is book a visit. For a bakery it might be order a cake. For a joiner it is ask for a quote. Everything on the site should point at that one action. If a page does not help with it, leave it out.

Owners who ask this question online are usually told two things: keep it simple, and do not start with the design. Both are good advice. Start with what a visitor needs to know in the first ten seconds: what you do, where you do it, and how to reach you.

How do I get a web address for my business?

You buy a web address, called a domain name, from a company called a registrar. It looks like yourbusiness.com. You pay a yearly fee, and you choose the name.

One point matters more than the rest. The person who registers the domain is called the registrant, and the registration agreement is between that person and the registrar (this is how ICANN, the body that accredits registrars, describes it). So register the domain in your own name, with your own email, and keep the login yourself. Many owners let a web builder or a nephew register it for them, and then cannot get it back when they part ways.

• Pick a name people can say over the phone and spell on the first try.
• Prefer .com if it is available. Many customers type it by habit.
• Use a work email that matches the address, such as hello@yourbusiness.com, not a personal one.
• Turn on automatic renewal and put the renewal date in your calendar.
• Keep the login in a safe place and tell someone you trust where it is.

Which pages does a small business website need?

Most small businesses need five pages or fewer: Home, What we do, About, Contact, and sometimes Prices or Gallery. More pages are not better. Each page should answer one question a customer actually asks.

• Home: what you do, who for, where, and one clear button to contact you or book.
• What we do: your main services in plain words, one short paragraph each.
• About: who you are, how long you have been at it, and a photo of you or your team.
• Contact: phone, email, address, opening hours and a map, all in text, not in a picture.
• Gallery or past work: real photos of real jobs, if the work is visual.

Put your phone number and town on every page, at the top. People on a phone should not have to hunt for them.

What words and photos should I use?

Write the way you would explain the business to a new neighbor. Short sentences. Everyday words. Say what you do, for whom and where, in the first line of the home page.

Photos do more work than words. Use your own: the shop front, the team, the finished job, the product on the counter. Stock photos of smiling strangers tell a visitor nothing. A phone camera in daylight is good enough for most businesses. Ask permission before you show a customer, a child or a customer's home.

• Take photos in daylight, with the phone held level.
• Shoot a few of each thing: wide, close up, and with a person in it.
• Keep the files reasonably small so pages open fast on a phone.
• Add a short description to each image so it can be read aloud to visitors who cannot see it.

How do I let people book or buy online?

Add booking or a shop only if customers already ask for it. If most of your customers phone you and that works, a clear phone number may be enough for now.

If you do want online booking, choose a tool that puts your calendar on your site, sends the customer a confirmation, and sends you an alert. Test it yourself from a phone, then ask a friend to try it without any help from you. If they get stuck, a customer will too.

If you want to sell products, you need a shop, which means a way to list items, take card payments, and handle orders. Several website builders include one. Before you commit, check four things: what the monthly fee is, what is charged on each sale on top of card fees, how you export your product list if you leave, and how tax and shipping are handled for the states you sell to. Start with five or ten products, not your whole catalog. Add more once the first orders arrive and you know the process works.

Anything that takes payments or customer details needs more care than a plain page. A mistake here costs real money. This is a good point to ask for help.

How do I get my website on Google?

Google finds most sites on its own, but you can help it, and the most useful step for a local business is a Google Business Profile. Google says you can add or claim your business at no charge, and that it lets customers find you on Search and Maps and lets you control how your business shows up.

Then make sure your site itself is easy to read. Google's own starter guide for site owners gives a short list of things that matter:

• Give each page a clear title that says what the page is about.
• Use web addresses with real words in them, such as yourbusiness.com/services, not random letters and numbers.
• Write for people, not for search. Repeating a phrase over and over does not help.
• Set up Google Search Console, a free Google tool that shows how your site appears in search.

Be patient. Google says some changes take effect in a few hours and others can take several months, and nobody can promise you a ranking. Anyone who does is guessing.

How do I keep a website up and running?

A website needs a little attention every month. Put 30 minutes in the calendar and check the same things each time.

• Open the site on your phone. Does it load, and does the phone number work when you tap it?
• Send yourself a message through the contact form. Did it arrive?
• Check that hours, prices and holiday closures are right.
• Add one new photo or a short update.
• Confirm the domain renewal date and that your email still works.

Also think about accessibility. The US Department of Justice says the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to the goods and services of businesses open to the public, including those offered on the web. In plain terms: use readable text size, strong contrast between text and background, and descriptions on photos, so people with poor sight or other disabilities can use your site.

When is it worth getting help?

Do it yourself if your needs are simple, you have a few free evenings, and you are happy to learn. A plain five page site is a fair first project.

Get help when the site has to do more than inform: online booking tied to your calendar, payments, a shop with stock, or an email assistant that answers common questions. Get help too if your site has to fit a logo and look that people will recognize, if you have no time, or if you tried and it still does not feel right. We build websites for small businesses with the owner doing very little of the work. If you want to see what finished sites look like, our sample work shows several. Every business in it is made up, and the pages say so. When you are ready to talk it through, get in touch for a 20 minute conversation about your business.