If you want to build and grow your brand online, a website is one of the best things to help. Making a website for a small business involves outlining your website’s technical priorities, finding the best platform for your needs, mapping your site structure, designing your website around your user journey, optimizing your site for search engines, and launching and promoting your site. Read on for a step-by-step guide on how to make a website for small businesses.
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1. Identify the elements your website needs
Before actually building a small business website, you need to identify all the elements your website will need, including in the long-term, like an online store, appointments, and contact forms.
These, in turn, will depend on your website’s main objectives. Is it to make more sales by expanding your store’s reach online? To enable clients to book appointments remotely? Or maybe you just want to grow your online brand presence by publishing a blog.
Either way, identify all the elements your site will need first so they’re easy to organize as you build your website. Consider six basic website elements for your site.
- An online store: If you want to sell goods or services online, you’ll need an ecommerce store built into your site that accepts online payments and supports a checkout process.
- A blog publishing platform: Also known as a content management system (CMS), this tool helps you manage all your site’s content behind the scenes, especially if you plan to publish blogs. Most website platforms already include one.
- Appointment-booking tools: These tools are valuable if you have a service-based business like a salon. They enable clients to book appointments via your website.
- Sign-up forms (or lead gen forms): Forms are invaluable if you plan to generate new leads or subscribers from your website. Sign-up forms let visitors give you their names and contact details so you can reach out to them.
- Image galleries or video portfolios: These are helpful if you want to show off your or your business’s previous work.
- Chatbots or live chat: This element allows for real-time interactions with site visitors, which is especially helpful if you plan to use your site for customer service.
2. Choose a website platform
After outlining your website’s elements, the next step in how to create a small business website is choosing the best website platform for your needs. Plenty of beginner-friendly website platforms can host your website, each with its own strengths. For example, Wix has excellent blogging capabilities, while Squarespace has some of the most creative and stylish templates for showcasing designs and portfolios.
Below are some of the best website builders for small businesses I recommend. When choosing a website platform, keep in mind not just your necessary website elements but also your long-term business goals. Maybe building a blog isn’t a priority now, but it might be in two or three years if you want to grow your brand authority.
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Best for publishing blogs and promoting your business on Google | Best for super-stylish, modern templates and for building creative websites | Best for building sites with online stores and a free business email address | Best for building websites with appointments and email and social media marketing |
From $17* | From $16 | From $2.49 | From $9.99* |
*Wix and GoDaddy both have free plans to start.
3. Map out your website pages and structure
My most underrated tip when making a website for a small business is to map out your website pages and structure using the elements you outlined in step one according to your main objectives. Consider the question, “What do I want site visitors to do most?” Then, make that action easy to complete.
For example, if your primary aim is to monetize a newsletter, you’ll need to generate a mailing list, so place a newsletter signup form near the top of your website’s home page. Or, if it’s to book more clients for your salon, add an appointment-booking calendar widget on the home page. This way, those elements are the first thing visitors see when they enter your website.
Then, plan your other website elements and pages according to what you want visitors to see next. Imagine the journey you want users to take on your website. For example, if they aren’t ready to book an appointment, you might direct them to customer testimonials or employee bios to show expertise and promote trust.
Business type | Primary objective: “I want my visitors to do [objective] first…” | Secondary objective: “If my visitors aren’t ready to complete the first action, I’m going to [objective] next…” | Website pages |
|---|---|---|---|
        Service-based business | Book an appointment | Outline my top services |
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Sign up for a class | Educate them on their first class or visit |
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Schedule a consultation | Highlight my professional experience and positive outcomes |
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        Product-based business | Subscribe or join a mailing list | Showcase my insights or expertise |
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Make a purchase | Communicate flexible return and refund policies |
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Start a free trial | Highlight the benefits of using the product |
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You’ll notice that each objective begins with a home page. And while you can stuff that page with sections for your bio, services, and prices, I caution against it. Creating separate pages linked from your homepage can fully satisfy that information.
Many website design templates will include common pages:
- Home page
- Blog directory page
- Top products or services page
- Gallery or portfolio page
- Membership or pricing page
- Subscription, demo, or sign-up page
- Ecommerce store page(s)
- About page
- Contact page
- Meet the team or employee bio page
- Refund, return, terms of service page
- FAQ page
- Privacy policy or compliance page
Your business might not need all of these pages, and that’s ok. Start with your top two to three pages and map out more as your business grows.
4. Design your website
With your website structure and page list, required elements, and platform, you’re ready to start designing your website. The process will differ slightly depending on the website platform you choose.
Some use a drag-and-drop editor with a template you can start with, while others use an AI website generator to create a website template from a few prompts.
Whichever one you choose, use your website structure from the previous step as your guide. For instance, from the example above, if you want to book more clients, place an appointment-booking widget directly on your home page.
Then, place some case study previews directly underneath with links to in-depth case study pages highlighting how you solved a problem or earned a positive result. After that, resurface your booking widget or contact information. This creates a natural progression for visitors to navigate your website.
5. Optimize your website to rank on Google
You have a website with all the necessary pages and elements. But how do you make sure your website appears on Google and doesn’t just get buried beneath thousands of others? The answer is search engine marketing (SEM), aka optimizing your website to help it rank higher on search engines like Google.
SEM involves both your site’s content and technical aspects. Below are some basic search engine marketing steps you can take before publishing your site.
- Add one or two keywords to your website copy. Keywords are the words or phrases you want your website to appear for in Google search results. For example, if you own an artisan bakery in Nashville, some keywords you can insert into your website copy are “artisan bakery Nashville” or “Nashville bakery.”
- Add titles, meta descriptions, and custom URLs to your website pages. Titles and meta descriptions populate in a search result for every page on your site and help search engines understand and categorize it better. Meanwhile, adding custom URLs (i.e., “yourwebsite.com/about” for your “About” page) makes your site look more professional. You can add them under the SEO settings of your website platform.
- Make it easy to navigate. Easy-to-navigate websites rank higher on search engines. Ensure your site has navigation menus and that all your links and buttons lead to the correct destinations. Ask trusted friends and team members to test if your site is easy to navigate, including on mobile devices, and make adjustments as necessary.
- Compress your images. Compressing your site’s images makes your site load faster, and the faster your loading speed, the better your user experience and the higher your chances of ranking on Google. Ideally, you want your site to load in less than three seconds. Make sure your image sizes are no more than 2,500 pixels, and don’t add too many on each page.
- Check for accessibility. The more users your site can accommodate, the better your online presence will be. Make your site more accessible by adding ALT text to describe the image content, using simple fonts, avoiding light text on light backgrounds or dark text on dark backgrounds, and adding subtitles to videos.
6. Get a domain
Once your website is built and designed, the next step is to get a domain name. A domain name is your website’s main “address” or what appears on its URL, such as fitsmallbusiness.com. It gives your website an official “home” and makes it more professional, reputable, and memorable.
Unfortunately, domain names aren’t free because they’re what I like to call “internet real estate” — you have to pay for them to own them. The good news is you can get one from your website platform; they’re often included in your paid website plans. The process differs slightly on each platform, but you’ll usually search for your desired domain name from a database to check its availability.
Most website builder platforms let you buy a domain to connect to your site. (Source: GoDaddy)
When choosing a domain name, choose one that accurately represents your brand. It can be as simple as your business name, like “businessname.com,” or something more location-specific if you have a physical store or serve a particular location. For example, a New York-based auto repair service might use autorepairNYC.com.
Once you’ve chosen and purchased a domain, it’ll automatically be connected to your website. You’ll own it for a year, after which you’ll need to pay an annual fee to renew it.
7. Review & publish your website
After optimizing your website for search engines, all that’s left is to review and publish it. Ensure all your pages and links are in the right places and that you have all the necessary elements. The following are some other specific things to check on your site.
- Your header and footer. Your header is usually where your logo, navigation menu, and search bar (if you have one) are located for easy access. Meanwhile, your footer is usually where people look for your contact information, address, social media links, or other website pages.
- Your navigation menu. This is the main map visitors will use to navigate your site, so make sure it works and leads to all the right destination pages, especially your most important pages based on your user journey.
- Website branding: Your website is your business’s main representation in the online world, so it should also include your brand identity elements. These include your brand colors, graphics, logo, and voice.
- Your site’s favicon. A favicon is a small icon that visually represents your website on browsers. For example, this website’s favicon is the small blue briefcase you’ll see on your tab. It’s usually your logo or an element from it, and it makes your site more memorable and trustworthy. You can upload a favicon under your website’s settings.
I always encourage getting feedback about your website from trusted peers or even members of your target audience and revising where necessary. Once your website is all good and good, go ahead and publish it.
Next steps after publishing your website
The process of how to make a website for small businesses doesn’t end once your site is live. Websites require regular maintenance to serve your long-term business goals effectively. Think of your website as your starting point for growing your business’s online presence. Below are some of the next steps I recommend after publishing your site.
- Index your site on Google. Indexing your website simply means adding it to Google’s “library” to ensure it appears in its search results. You can submit your site to Google for indexing via Google’s URL Inspection Tool and any new pages you publish in the future.
- Create a Google Business Profile (GBP) and add your business to other directories. A Google Business Profile (formerly “Google My Business”) is Google’s version of an online business directory and one of the best ways to get more visits to your website. Aside from GBP, you can list your site on industry-specific directories. For example, Yelp for food establishments and Angi for home repair services.
- Plan your SEO content marketing strategy. Content marketing is one of the most reliable ways to grow your website’s reach on the internet and get found on Google. This is primarily through publishing content on your website, like blogs, infographics, case studies, and videos relevant to your industry and target audience.
- Explore other website marketing strategies. Aside from content marketing, there are other ways to promote your website proactively, like through email and social media, both of which can attract new audiences.
- Conduct website audits regularly. Website audits (or SEO audits) are like health checkups for your site. They check your website’s content and technical elements to see if there are any pressing issues you need to fix to help it rank higher on Google. You can check your site using SEO audit tools like Semrush and HubSpot Website Grader, ideally once every three to six months.
What makes a good website design
Of course, good website design matters when you’re making a website for a small business. Your website should encourage visitors to stay on it longer and keep coming back. There is no one answer for what makes a good website design because each business is unique, but below are some general website design tips to keep in mind.
- An easy-to-navigate design. More than anything, the best marker of good website design is an easy-to-navigate interface. Visitors should easily get where they need to go and do what they need to do.
- An accessible navigation menu. Whether you place it on your header or incorporate it in your site pages, make sure your navigation menu is easy for visitors to access. Don’t hide it in your footer or make it so small it’s nearly invisible.
- Hard-to-miss calls to action (CTAs). CTAs are the signboards that tell visitors what they need to do, like sign up for your newsletter or visit your online store. They help guide your user journey. Like any signboard, make sure your CTAs aren’t just visible but impossible to miss.
- Readable text. This means avoiding long, verbose paragraphs. Short but impactful copy is always the best way to go.
- Good use of white space. White space (or negative space) is an excellent way to break up your website elements and let your website breathe. Use it to break up lengthy paragraphs, divide website sections, or direct attention.
- A good website color scheme. A good website color scheme combines your brand identity with good basic color theory and brand psychology. Find out how to pick a good website color scheme.
Should you hire a professional web designer to design your website? Building a business website requires a lot of strategy and maintenance. If you need a more custom website design or more advanced functionalities, it’s worth looking into hiring a professional web designer. I’ve found Fiverr Pro a great resource for finding freelance website designers who can build your website from scratch to your exact needs.
Why websites are important to small businesses
I often get asked if a website is that important to a small business. The answer is almost always yes. A website represents your business in the digital space, expanding its reach by multitudes. In the era of everything digital, having a website can significantly increase your reach and let audiences learn more about your brand. Below are some of the biggest benefits a website can bring to your small business.
- It lets you reach new audiences. The biggest reason to build a website is it expands your business’s reach to the online realm and, therefore, to thousands of potential new audiences, whether they find your site by stumbling upon one of your blogs or by Googling your business name.
- It educates people about your business. Your website is the main online touchpoint where people can learn more about your business. It’s where you can show what your business offers, tell your brand story, and answer some of your audience’s biggest questions. It also keeps you accessible to audiences 24/7.
- It helps generate more sales. In 2024, 59% of people said they preferred shopping online. If anything, that number will grow in the next few years. Ecommerce isn’t slowing down, and building a website with an online store can get you ahead and future-proof your business.
- It increases your brand authority. Having a website enables you to publish blogs, an established way to increase your brand authority in your topic area. The more people see your brand as a trusted source, the more inclined they are to try your business.
- It’s your digital marketing hub. Your website is also the start and end point of your other digital marketing strategies, including email marketing, social media, and digital advertising. All these strategies are meant to bring people to your website.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Definitely. Several beginner-friendly website builder platforms, including Wix, Weebly, and GoDaddy, let you build and publish a website at no cost. Some, like Weebly, even let you set up an online store. The only drawback is your website won’t have a custom domain. It’ll be published on those platforms’ subdomains, for instance, “yourbusiness.wix.com.” Getting a fully custom website domain will require an additional cost.
Some of the best website builders for small businesses are Hostinger, GoDaddy, Squarespace, and Wix. Hostinger is especially helpful for building websites with online stores, GoDaddy for websites with appointment booking features, Squarespace for stylish and visually stunning creative portfolios, and Wix for a super-easy, beginner-friendly platform for any industry.
On average, the starting cost for a website builder platform like Wix or Hostinger is anywhere between $2.49 and $20 a month. This also covers the cost for a custom domain for one year, although you’ll need to pay a separate renewal cost annually. They’ll also let you build an online store into your site. Meanwhile, hiring a freelance website designer on Fiverr Pro can cost between $100 and $500 per project.
Bottom line
Learning how to build a small business website is so important in a digital-first world. As the entire buyer’s journey from discovery to purchase increasingly becomes more online, having a website prepares your business for the long term. Building a good website starts with identifying its elements, choosing a website platform, and crafting your user journey. Then, design your website, get a domain, and optimize it for Google before reviewing and publishing it live.
