How to make a website for your small business: the options
There are three ways to make a website for your business: build it yourself on a website builder, get help from a person (a freelancer, a designer, a handy relative), or have a service make it for you. All three need the same raw material from you: what you do, where you do it, how to reach you, and some photos. The difference is how much of the building, writing and fixing lands on your desk.
What every option needs from you
Whichever way you go, the site is built from your information. Gather this first and every route gets faster:
- Your business name exactly as customers know it, and your phone number and email.
- What you do, in a list: each service or product, one line each.
- Where you work: your address, or the towns and areas you cover.
- Hours, including when you answer the phone if that is different.
- Photos: your work, your shop or vehicle, you. Phone photos in daylight are fine.
- A few sentences about you: how long you have been doing this, why customers pick you.
- Reviews you are allowed to quote, or a link to your Google reviews.
- A domain name, or a few ideas for one. How to choose a domain name for your business helps if you have not picked one yet.
Put it all in one folder on your computer or phone. That folder is most of the work.
Option 1: Build it yourself
What it involves
- Sign up for a website builder and pick a template close to your trade.
- Replace the sample text on each page with your own words.
- Upload and crop your photos.
- Set up the contact form and check it sends to your inbox.
- Connect your domain, or buy one through the builder.
- Check every page on your phone and fix what looks cramped.
- Publish, then add your website to your Google Business Profile.
Who it suits
Owners who are comfortable on a computer, enjoy arranging things, and have several free evenings. It is also the route with the most control after launch: you change anything whenever you like.
Where it usually goes wrong
The template looks great with its sample photos and words, and less great with yours. Owners often stop at "good enough", leaving a home page that never quite says what the business does or where. Ask a friend who does not know your business to look at the home page for five seconds and tell you what you do.
Option 2: Get help from a person
What it involves
- Find someone: a local freelancer, a designer recommended by another business, or a relative who builds sites.
- Agree in writing what they will make: the pages, who writes the text, how many rounds of changes, and the price.
- Hand over your folder of information and photos.
- Review a first version and send changes.
- Approve, and get the logins to everything in your own name.
Who it suits
Owners who want a person to talk things through with, and who would rather pay than spend their evenings on it. A good designer also brings judgment: what to put first, what to leave out.
Where it usually goes wrong
The common problems are not about design. They are about ownership and follow-up: the domain registered in the helper's account, no way for you to make small changes, and nobody to call when the helper gets busy or moves away. Settle those questions before work starts. What to ask a website company before you pay is a good list to bring.
Option 3: Have it done for you
What it involves
- Give a service your business details, or the address of a site you already have.
- Receive a finished site to look at.
- Ask for changes, or make simple ones yourself in an editing panel if the service provides one.
- Connect your domain when you are happy with it.
Who it suits
Owners who want a professional result without learning software or managing a project. It fits most local businesses whose needs are standard: services, about, photos, reviews, contact.
Where it usually goes wrong
Services differ a lot. Some lock the site inside a monthly plan you cannot leave without losing it; some give you no way to change your own hours. Ask what you can edit yourself, whether the price is one-time or monthly, and what happens if you stop paying.
Comparing them side by side
Your time: most with doing it yourself, less with a helper, least with done-for-you.
Your money up front: least with doing it yourself, most with a freelancer or designer, and done-for-you usually somewhere near the low end.
Control later: highest when you built it, and with the others it depends on whether you are given an easy way to edit.
Quality of the result: depends most on the words and photos, which come from you in every option.
For a rough sense of prices, see how much a small business website costs.
Which to choose
- You have time and like this sort of thing: build it yourself.
- You want someone to work with and have a budget: hire a person, with ownership settled in writing.
- You want it done and do not want a project: use a done-for-you service that lets you edit the basics.
- You are not sure: gather your folder first. Seeing how long that takes tells you a lot about whether you will enjoy building the rest.
Start this week
- Make the folder: services, area, hours, contact details, photos, a short paragraph about you.
- Pick a domain name and check it is available.
- Search your trade and town, and note two local businesses whose sites you like and why.
- Choose one of the three routes and take its first step.
If you want to see what your business could look like online before committing to any route, you can see a first website for your business made from those details.