Create a website for your business
Squarespace’s all-in-one platform gives you everything you need to create a stunning website for your business. No matter the stage of your company, our powerful platform and promotional tools can help grow your business online.
Pick your starting point
Explore the various website template options to find the one that best represents your business. Each template can be customized to fit your brand.
Simple payment and checkout
Squarespace offers straightforward payment and checkout options for your customers.
Offer multiple payment options
Take online payments with Stripe, Paypal, Apple Pay, and Afterpay (Afterpay is available in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand).
Accept in person payments
Connect a Square reader to the Squarespace app to sell in person.
Keep customers on your site
Customers can browse products, manage their cart, and checkout all without ever leaving your store.
Professional Email from Google Workspace
Strengthen your brand with professional email @ your custom domain name. Get one inbox and one user free for the first year with select plans.
Promote your business online
Drive traffic to your business’s website with email marketing, social media tools, and more.
Stand out with SEO
Improve search result ranking by optimizing your blog post titles and descriptions with built-in SEO tools.
Drive engagement
Increase traffic to your blog with Squarespace Email Campaigns and connected social media accounts. Enable commenting through Squarespace or Disqus.
Everything your business needs to sell online
Whether you’re selling products, your expertise, or your time, your website is designed for simple customer check-out or appointment booking.
Sell Products
Allow visitors to browse your merchandise, add items to their cart, and check out simply and efficiently.
Sell Services
Collect customer emails and build mailing lists.
Sell in person
Keep your inventory and customer data in sync, whether you sell online or in person.
Made with Squarespace
Get inspired by a collection of websites made by Squarespace users.
How to create a website for your business
Choose your business website template and customize your design.
Secure a custom domain name for your business.
Start adding content about your business, including Contact and About sections.
Connect your website with e-commerce , scheduling , or other features to sell online.
Publish your site and grow your business with email, social, and SEO tools.
Frequently asked questions
Does my business need a website?
No matter the stage of your business, a website can help you stand out and reach new customers online. With Squarespace, you can use a website builder to quickly get up and running with a professionally-designed template designed for your industry. Our all-in-one platform makes it simple to connect Google Workspace, ecommerce management, and marketing tools to build a complete online presence. Your Squarespace website is also designed to look great on mobile devices, so your customers can get a seamless experience from anywhere.
Can I manage business listings with Squarespace?
If your business also has a brick-and-mortar location, we’ve got you covered. With Location Management, you can create and manage online listings for your business’s physical location directly from your Squarespace site. An integration with Google My Business allows you to seamlessly update the address, contact information, and hours that appear for your business.
How do I promote my business online?
Squarespace is more than a website builder – it’s an all-in-one platform designed to launch your business website and help you grow online. Every Squarespace website comes with SEO tools to help your business stand out in search results. You can also add email marketing , social media tools, and promotions to help find new customers and convert leads. Plus, with the Squarespace app, you can easily update your website and manage your business directly from your phone.
How do I start selling products or services online?
Squarespace offers easy-to-customize website templates to launch an online store that fits your small business’s brand. Our ecommerce tools make it easy to connect a payment processor, offer shipping, and manage your product inventory. You can also sell in person and keep your customer data in sync with Point of Sale in the Squarespace app. If you’re an appointments-based business, you can accept bookings and manage your calendar with powerful Scheduling tools.
Squarespace is the all‑in‑one platform to build a beautiful website.
Let’s make an impact together to stand with the people of Ukraine.
Create a website without limits
Build and scale with confidence. From powerful site infrastructure to advanced business solutions—we’ve got you covered.
Try Wix. No credit card required.
One platform, infinite possibilities
Unlimited creation.
Create a website with a complete suite of advanced functionalities and bring your vision to life.
Powerful infrastructure
Get an enterprise-grade foundation, engineered for your limitless scalability and peace of mind.
The place for growth
Convert and scale seamlessly with built-in marketing and business solutions.
Website templates that set you up for success
Get a headstart on your journey with 900+ free, customizable website templates , strategically researched and tailored for every industry — or start from a blank canvas on our website builder.
Build more than a website
From selling online, starting a blog and organizing events to promoting your business and building your community, create a website that can grow with you.
And create it your way
- Smart drag and drop editor - 1000’s of advanced design capabilities - Custom domain, logo and more brand tools - Full-stack web dev tools for custom functionality - AI technology that creates a site for you
A website foundation engineered for growth
Faster loading.
Wix is designed for performance so your site loads faster.
Built with SEO in mind
Get the SEO capabilities you need to optimize your site for search visibility.
Enterprise-grade security
We keep your site and visitors’ data protected, 24/7.
Resilient infrastructure
Multi-cloud hosting ensures 99.9% uptime, even during traffic spikes.
Accessible for everyone
Make your own website inclusive with built-in accessibility tools .
Take your business where it needs to go
Sell online and manage your business with powerful eCommerce solutions.
Create a free blog, grow a loyal audience and monetize your content.
Scheduling software
Offer your services and deliver a seamless booking experience for your clients.
Increase your visibility and attract new clients with your work.
Domain and hosting
Get scalable, free web hosting when you create your own website, and connect a professional domain name .
Branding tools
Establish a strong brand identity with a customizable logo , color and text themes, and more.
Drive traffic that converts
Promote your business and reach the right audience: - Complete SEO solution - AI-driven FB & IG Ads - Email campaigns - Social posts and more
Manage your business like a pro
Capture leads, get reports and insights, automate your business, and more from desktop or on the go from your phone with the Wix Owner app . Everything is synced for seamless management experience.
How to create a free website
Follow these 6 simple steps to create a website today
Sign up for a free website builder. Choose what kind of website you want to create.
Customize a template or get a website made for you. Choose your starting point.
Drag and drop 1000s of design features. Add text, galleries, videos, vector art and more.
Get ready for business . Add an online store, booking system, members area and blog.
Publish your website and go live. Start building your professional online presence.
Drive traffic to your site. Use advanced SEO tools and integrated marketing solutions.
Get inspired, gain new skills and see what’s trending
How to design a website in 2023
13 ways to monetize your website
Online courses to get you started
15 Wix websites to inspire you
Why the Wix website builder is the best choice for you
When you create a website using our website builder, everything is there to build your business the way you want. Run it with total peace of mind knowing that there’s enterprise-grade infrastructure built into every site with free reliable web hosting, around-the-clock maintenance and fully managed security. Use our tailor-made, customizable templates and 1000s of design features to help bring your vision to life. You can also add your own code for total design control. Bring more people to your site and convert visitors with a wide range of built-in eCommerce and business solutions like SEO and marketing tools. Plus, you’ll always have the support you need with 24/7 customer care. You can start by creating a free website with Wix. Over 220 million people worldwide have chosen us to grow online. You can, too.
We're here for you
Get answers.
Watch tutorials and read detailed articles in the Wix Help Center.
Get support by chat or schedule a call with a Customer Care Expert
Get help at any stage—from site creation to online growth.
Is it easy to build a website?
Yes. Wix offers a few different ways to create your own free website, so you can choose the creation process that works best for you. Need to get online fast? Answer a few simple questions and Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) will build a website for you. If you want more design freedom, choose from hundreds of templates or even start from scratch and drag and drop the website design features you need in the Wix Editor.
Can I create a website without knowing how to code?
Absolutely. Wix is for everyone and makes it possible to create a high-quality website without knowing how to code. In the Wix Editor, you can drag and drop any feature you want and customize it to match the look and feel of your site. Of course, if you do know how to code, you can add advanced functionality to your site with Velo.
Should I use a website builder or hire a web developer?
The free Wix website builder is intuitive to use. Looking for a specific web service? Explore the Wix Marketplace to find a certified freelancer or agency at a price that fits your budget.
How do I build and host my site for free?
When you create a free website with Wix, you get reliable, scalable and free web hosting. All your web content will be stored on secure servers located around the world. So no matter where your visitors come from, your site will load fast.
How can I make sure my data and my visitors’ data is secure?
At Wix, we take care of security for you. With every site you get enterprise-grade security . From threat prevention to real-time detection and rapid response, security is fully managed by our dedicated team of experts—24/7. This includes data encryption in transit using HTTPS, TLS 1.2+ and an automatic SSL certificate.
How do I create a free website with a custom domain?
You can create a free website with Wix that comes with a Wix domain. To instantly look more professional online, get a custom domain name . It adds credibility to your brand and helps visitors find you online. You can start building your brand by using your domain in a custom email address ([email protected]), your social channels, email marketing campaigns and more. For inspiration use our Business Name Generator .
How can I optimize my site for SEO on Wix?
All Wix sites come with best-practice SEO defaults, including utilizing server-side rendering, customizable meta tags for all site pages, structured data markup, dynamic XML sitemaps, and more. Plus, you get a suite of built-in SEO tools to help you compete in organic search. Learn more .
Is my site optimized for Core Web Vitals (CWV)?
Every new feature, component and element that we create is built with performance in mind, so no matter what type of business you have, you can create a high-performance website. Over the past year, we’ve managed to achieve dramatic improvements for CWV and increased the ratio of Wix sites in the Google CrUX report with good scores for all three CWV by over 10x. To learn more about how Wix prepared for CWV, check out this webinar we hosted with Google .
Can I use a website builder to create a landing page?
Yes. You can create any kind of website with Wix. Explore beautiful HTML landing page templates in the landing page builder to get started.
How can I design a logo for my website for free?
You can design your own logo for free with the intuitive Wix Logo Maker . Any logo you create is ready to go in high resolution for digital or print so your brand stays consistent.
This website was designed with Wix .
Building a Business Website: A Small Business Guide
Your small business needs a website. Here's how to build one.
- Building a small business website is important to inform your audience, explain your value proposition, boost brand recognition and drive sales.
- To build a business website, you first need to choose a domain name and secure web hosting. Then, optimize your website to improve your search engine rankings and drive traffic.
- Keep your website up to date and optimized for mobile devices. Also, ensure your site speed is adequate to improve your search engine rankings.
- This article is for small business owners looking to build a website or improve upon their existing website.
It’s no longer feasible to run a business, even a brick-and-mortar one, without a web presence. Consumers turn to the internet for everything from product research to location and operating hours. Even just a simple, well-designed website can give you an edge in your field, and if you have products to sell, your site can open up new markets and expand your business cheaply and easily.
Website design software has evolved to be easy for anyone to use. You don’t need to know coding to develop an attractive and functional site. No matter what program you use, you just need to follow some basic rules and tips to give your website a professional look, make it easy to find, and show your company in the best light.
Here’s our step-by-step guide to creating a successful business website.
1. Determine the primary purpose of your website.
A business website generally serves as a space to provide general information about your company or a direct platform for e-commerce . Whether you create a simple website that tells a little about your company or a more complex e-commerce site, the most important thing you must do is say what your company does – on the homepage in plain terms. Don’t make customers root around to discover if your company can do what they need, warned Erin Pheil of website design company Followbright.
Editor’s note: Looking for the right website design service for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you about your needs.
“Think about your specific user experience and the journey the user will go through as they navigate your site,” added Gabriel Shaoolian, CEO of website design and digital marketing agency Blue Fountain Media. “Whatever the fundamental goal of your website is or whatever the focus may be, users should be easily able to achieve it, and the goal itself should be reinforced as users navigate throughout your site.”
If you don’t plan to accept payments (like Apple Pay) through your website, you won’t have as much work to do in setting it up. If you are a retailer or service provider and want to offer customers the option to pay online, you’ll need to use an external service to receive your payments, which we’ll discuss later in this article.
2. Decide your domain name.
Your domain name is one of the most important features of your website. It’s the URL you’ll share with your current and potential clients and promote on social media. Therefore, you want it to be descriptive and easy to remember and type in. Try to keep it short, and steer clear of abbreviations, acronyms, and numbers, if possible, to avoid customer confusion.
You also need to decide your top-level domain, or TLD. This is the suffix at the end of your domain name, such as .com, .net or .biz. However, nontraditional TLD names have grown in recent years. These TLDs can be based on location, such as .nyc, or type of business, like .marketing, .agency or .law. While these can be descriptive, .com is still the main go-to. Read our article on choosing a nontraditional TLD for more information.
Once you’ve selected your domain name, you’ll need to confirm its availability and purchase it through a domain registrar. These are some popular domain registrars:
- Squarespace
As you select your new domain name, check copyrights to make sure you’re not infringing on anyone else’s protected name. If your preferred URL is already taken, you can call the company using it and ask to buy it from them or use a domain buying service from a company like GoDaddy, which will reach out to the owners of your desired domain name. This service costs around $70 per domain.
Your domain name is how users will find your website, so choose one related to your business or services.
3. Choose a web host.
Every website needs a host – a server where all its data is stored for the public to access at all times. Hosting your own website is probably too large an expense for your small business, so you’ll need to select an external host.
Depending on your budget , you can choose from two different routes. A shared web host, the less-expensive option, means you’ll share a server with other sites. Dedicated hosting costs significantly more, but it means that you get your own private server and won’t have to compete with other sites that could drag down your speed. Some web builder platforms, such as Squarespace and Wix, include web hosting in their monthly packages.
These are some options for web hosting services:
- 1&1 Ionos : This web hosting company is known for its cloud hosting and offers other cloud-based options such as servers and site backup. Plans and capabilities vary but pricing plans typically begin at $15 per month.
- A2 Hosting: A2 Hosting offers both shared and dedicated hosting options. New customers can acquire a Lite hosting plan, which is sufficient for some small businesses, for as little as $3.91 per month for the first year.
- DreamHost: DreamHost offers three hosting plans tailored for managed WordPress websites: DreamPress, DreamPress Plus and DreamPress Pro. Costs generally start at $16.95 per month.
If you’re looking for free website hosting options, it’s important to remember that hosting a website is by no means free for the hosting company. Therefore, they may employ other methods, such as placing banner ads on your website, to compensate for the free hosting.
When choosing a host, consider how well that host can answer questions about its server locations and reliability, said Jim Cowie, former chief scientist at cloud-based internet performance company Dyn.
“It’s good to ask, ‘Can you show me how close you are to the major markets my customers are going to be in?'” Cowie said. “Any good hosting provider should have the tools to show you … measurements of their performance.”
As your business grows, you may find that you need to upgrade to a different web host, or even work with multiple providers to handle your website traffic and operations. Cowie advised keeping a close eye on your site performance and the experience your customers have using your website so you can determine your hosting needs. [Read related article: How to Choose a Web Hosting Service ]
4. Build your pages.
A good website is more than a static homepage. You’ll want to create multiple pages dedicated to different aspects of your business, such as a detailed catalog of your products or services, or a blog section for company updates. As for your overall website, make sure each page supports the site’s primary goal, has a clear purpose and includes a call to action (e.g., “learn more,” “sign up,” “contact us” or “buy this”).
A contact page, as your customers’ direct link to you, is one of the most important sections of a website, so include as much information as you can (your business’s phone number, email address and physical location, if you have one). It’s also a good idea to include information about the founding team or staff on an “about” page so customers can put real names and faces to your brand.
If your business doesn’t already have a logo, hire a graphic designer or create a logo yourself to use on your website, business cards, and social media profiles. This will help your clients identify your company quickly and easily on the web.
Justin Zalewski, director of product design at innovation consultancy Studio Science, offered a few basic tips to help you create efficient, content-rich pages for your website:
- Be clear about what your business does. Distill what your business does into a clear, concise statement and lead with that. Visitors should be able to understand what you do within seconds of landing on your homepage. A few well-written pages are more effective than dozens of poorly written ones.
- Place strategic calls to action. CTA buttons tend to perform best when they match the information on the page. For example, a “buy now” button makes sense on a product page, but a “contact us to learn more” button might be more appropriate on the “about us” page. Similarly, a page listing customer reviews might have a button that takes the reader to the available plans and pricing.
- Automate speed improvements. Set up as many automated speed improvements as you can. If you use a content management system (CMS), installing the right plugins will cache parts of your site so visitors don’t need to download anything more than once. For WordPress users, Zalewski recommended WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache , which compresses files and allows visitors to browse your site more quickly. Some of the more technical aspects of caching and compressing files may require a web development partner if you’re not particularly tech savvy.
- Avoid stock photos. Tacky stock photography is the quickest way to turn a great site into a mediocre one. If you’re looking for photos to use on your page, it’s best to use a picture of your actual team or office.
Pheil added that high-quality images of the products increase sales , so invest in good photos of the products or services you sell.
Build informative and engaging web pages that offer a positive user experience. Strategically place CTAs to encourage users to engage in specific behaviors.
5. Set up your payment system (if applicable).
While this step won’t apply to all business websites, companies that want to offer the option for customers to pay online will need to integrate electronic payment systems with their websites. The easiest way to do this is through e-commerce software or by employing one of the best credit card processing solutions .
Many web hosts offer an in-house shopping cart or integration with e-commerce programs. Do some research to make sure you get a solution that’s easy to work with and flexible enough to meet your needs now and in the future.
E-commerce businesses need to make payment processing available on their sites, whether through their e-commerce software or a third-party processor.
6. Test and publish your website.
Before announcing that your site is live on the web, make sure it works on all major browsers, like Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari and Chrome. Click through each page and feature on every browser to ensure images show up, links are correct and the format looks smooth. This will take some time, but the effort you put in now will save you future complaints from visitors who can’t access certain features .
Also, make sure that your website displays properly on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This step should not be overlooked, as Google and other search engines have migrated to mobile-first indexing, which prioritizes the performance of the mobile version of your website when it comes to search engine rankings.
Another important feature to incorporate from the very beginning is an analytics program. By setting this up before the website is live, you can iron out any issues and coordinate a proper setup, Shaoolian said. Once the website is live, you can monitor page performance and determine why a certain page is successful or unsuccessful based on your analytics.
“You can look at which of your marketing campaigns are showing the most conversions, and examine any metrics such as city, browser, etc. to shed some light on how your audience is interacting with your site,” Shaoolian said. “If you … implement this [after] the site goes live, you’ll miss out on valuable data and have no way of seeing which elements of your site are successful or unsuccessful right from the start.”
7. Market your website on social media.
Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest is the best way to increase your audience reach and alert customers to what’s going on with your company. Whenever you update your website, post about it on your social media outlets, but balance that with genuine, nonpromotional engagement.
Also include links to your social media on your website. The most common places to do this are the footer or the ancillary bar (the extra menu in the top right that often holds login or contact links). Learn more about social media for business in our marketer’s guide .
8. Invest in search engine optimization (SEO).
Submitting your website to major search engines will help direct potential leads to your page, as will deploying a strong SEO strategy across your site. Shaoolian said that defining title tags, meta descriptions, and Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) that are relevant to your company and aspects of your industry can boost your rankings in search engines for the products or services you’re trying to market.
“Building relevant keywords into your content from the very first phases of your website, and having a strong focus on SEO from website launch, will help you generate traffic early on,” he said.
As you build your business website, these important on-site SEO tactics can help you improve your ability to move up the ranks. (There are also off-site SEO tactics you can pursue).
- Choose the right keywords. Select keywords that are relevant to your business and that your potential customers are searching for online. Visit our guide to SEO small business tools to find a solution that can help you identify, analyze and track these keywords.
- Publish fresh content. Regularly publishing on a blog, adding to your website and updating your content all signal to search engines that your site is relevant for the chosen keywords. Choose topics that are relevant to your business and exciting for your industry to position yourself and your business as thought leaders in the space.
- Place internal and external links. Internal links are the links on your website pages that lead to other pages on your site, while external links are your links to other popular, high-authority websites. Place these links strategically throughout your website. Make sure that the links make sense, fit the context and provide value to the reader; otherwise, linking may count against you.
- Optimize images. Compress images so they don’t slow down your site’s loading time. Take the same approach with video, making sure that any clips load quickly and don’t slow down how your site moves overall. Images’ metadata, such as tags and captions, is also an opportunity to work in your keywords and tell search engines what the images are about.
- Maximize your site speed. Pages should load as quickly as possible; within a few seconds is ideal. You can use free site speed checkers such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights to see if your site is performing optimally.
9. Maintain your site.
Staying relevant is important, so update your website frequently with blog posts on current industry events, new products and offers, and company news to keep visitors coming back to the site.
You should also check at least monthly to ensure your software and all add-ons are up to date. Pheil said that if your software is not up to date, it’s in danger of being hacked, even if your website host’s security is strong. If you don’t have time to do this yourself, delegate the task to a trusted employee or a freelance website manager.
Starting a website for your business is a low-cost investment that can help you establish credibility and reach a wider customer base than you ever could through traditional marketing techniques. If you keep your website updated with fresh, current content and are quick to address technical issues, you’ll never have to worry about “not existing” to your current and future clients.
Keep your site up to date with fresh content and timely information to ensure it remains professional and top of mind for your audience.
Business website FAQs
How much does a business website cost.
According to research by Mark Brinker, the average cost of a small business website ranges from $4,000 to $10,000. The reason for such a wide range has to do with the type of business involved and the amount of work the business owner is willing to do. The difference between taking your own pictures and hiring a photographer can be a few hundred dollars. The same can be said for professional copywriting for web content and so on.
How long does it take to create a business website?
Website creation can range from days to months, but if you’re looking for an average, we can turn to DreamHost, a leading web host provider for small businesses, and they say the typical website building process runs between two and four months.
What should you include on your website?
Every business should include pertinent information like who you are, what you do and how you can be contacted? Your site should also include the products or services you sell , along with an easy way for customers to make purchases online. Businesses may want to include mission statements, reviews, testimonials and a regularly updated blog that provides valuable information regarding the company and industry.
Nicole Fallon and Stella Morrison contributed to the reporting and writing in this article. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.
How To Make A Small Business Website In 2023
Reviewed By
Updated: Jan 16, 2023, 8:38pm
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- How to Make a Website: A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You Going
- Pick a Domain Name
- Register Your Domain and Pick Your Design and Hosting Providers
- Add Engaging Content and Useful Pages
- Optimize Your Website for Search Engines
- Review Your Site Before You Hit ‘Publish’
Keep Your Site Up to Date
Read our quick and easy guide to learn how to make a small business website. We’ll walk you through important design considerations, helpful tools, and how to get your site live.
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How To Make a Website: A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You Going
Your website is the most effective sales and marketing tool in your arsenal. In just five easy(ish) steps, you can create a beautiful personal or business website that engages visitors and excites them to work with you. Here’s how to get started.
1. Pick a Domain Name
A domain is the unique name of your website.
You can choose any name you want, but it’s best to have one that matches your business or professional name. Not only does this keep your branding consistent, but it can also significantly impact how you appear in search engine results. A good domain name may help you place higher in rankings, which can increase the number of people who click to access your site.
As you’re brainstorming domain names, heed these helpful tips:
- Include keywords relevant to your business to boost your visibility in search engines.
- Ensure it’s easy to spell.
- If you have trouble brainstorming, use a domain name generator as a jumping off point.
- Keep your domain short to make it easier for visitors to remember.
- Avoid abbreviations, acronyms, hyphens and numbers.
- Aim to use traditional top-level domains, or TLDs, such as .com or .net or one that best relates to you or your business.
- Make sure no one else is already using it. While you can purchase a domain from someone else, this can get expensive. You may be better off picking another name or using a different top-level domain, like .net, instead.
2. Register Your Domain and Pick Your Design and Hosting Providers
Once you’ve settled on a domain name, you’ll need to register it with a domain registrar. You can do this using a website like Domain.com or Network Solutions. Keep in mind that these providers simply register ownership of the domain for you, which may cost between $10 and $20 per year, depending on your TLD.
You’ll still need to find another provider to host the URL where you will build your website and potentially use another program to design it. To simplify things, you may choose to register your domain at a provider that offers registration, hosting and design capabilities.
If you don’t have much, or any, coding experience, you may want an all-in-one option like WordPress, Squarespace or Wix.
If you choose to use separate companies to manage your web hosting and designing, look for a hosting service that offers perks such as tech support, a free domain name or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate .
You should highly weigh the SSL certificate as it’s a global standard security technology that enables a secure connection and protects your and your visitors’ data and sensitive information. Simply put, this security measure adds the S in HTTPS at the front of a website’s URL. Search engines and visitors look favorably upon it.
These features are more common with all-in-one providers, but there’s no guarantee, so be sure the one you choose offers them before you purchase a plan.
Popular web hosts with and without built-in design integrations are Bluehost , DreamHost, GoDaddy and InMotion .
If your web host doesn’t provide any integration features, some third-party design programs you might consider are Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud applications. You can create designs on these platforms and embed them onto your website pages.
3. Add Useful Pages and Engaging Content
You have many options when it comes to how you organize your content about your business and its services.
That said, strive to include these important pages on your website:
- A striking homepage. The central hub of your business website should captivate people and tell them exactly what you do and whom you serve. Incorporate eye-catching graphics, readable fonts, concise and clear descriptions and enticing calls-to-action.
- An enlightening ‘About Us’ page. Share the origin story of your business. Highlight your achievements, mission and values. You can also introduce any team members to foster deeper connections with customers.
- Booking or shop page. Drive more revenue and integrate a third-party online scheduling platform or an e-commerce platform, such as HoneyBook or WooCommerce.
- An accessible contact page. Include social media accounts, emails, phone numbers, addresses and a contact form to make it easier for people to reach you. If it fits your business, add your operating hours, too.
- Memorable content. Sharing compelling content establishes you as an expert in your industry and helps grow a loyal community for your business. This might include blogs, videos, podcast episodes, case studies and more. As a bonus, this content may help boost your ranking in search results and increase site visitors.
- A robust FAQ page. Giving answers to common questions not only helps build more trust with your brand, but it may also reduce the number of calls and support tickets you receive.
- Testimonials and press coverage. Boost your credibility by sharing your successes. Create a page that shares positive reviews about your services and include any mention of your business in notable media outlets.
4. Optimize Your Website for Search Engines
Search engine optimization, or SEO , is the practice of refining your business website so your pages rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), most notably Google. It’s what helps people find you.
As you build your website, keep these basic SEO practices in mind to increase your visibility and drive more traffic:
- Use relevant phrases, called keywords, throughout your posts and pages. Don’t use keywords just for the sake of them, though. Make sure your choices are intentional. Overuse may negatively impact your ranking.
- Consistently publish valuable content for your customers or readers.
- Perform routine content audits or cleanups to see what you can consolidate or refresh.
- Keep your website’s loading speed as low as possible by optimizing images or enabling browser caching. These tweaks can help your webpage rank higher in search engine results. You can measure your page speed on GTmetrix . (Learn more about the importance of webpage loading speed .)
- Ensure your design and content work properly on computers, mobile phones and tablets. Do not underestimate your website’s performance on mobile devices. Up to half of web traffic now comes from smartphones.
It’s great to have a beautifully designed business website, but search engines want to see more than that to establish your authority when they index it in their search results.
As you optimize your site for search, make sure you’re keeping your visitors in mind. You’ll want to choose easy navigation systems and build pages that enable fast load times. To accommodate a range of user abilities, follow Section 508 guidelines to make your site as accessible as possible.
5. Review Your Site Before You Hit ‘Publish’
Before you unleash your website into the real world, you’ll need to test it to make sure it works properly.
Among other things, make sure you:
- Read through your content to ensure everything is accurate and error-free.
- Check for any broken links.
- Remove any filler content from your website theme or template.
- Test your website across browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and more.
- Connect your website to Google Analytics to monitor its performance.
Once you’re ready, hit publish. To help drive traffic to your newly minted website, share it with friends, market it with clients and include it on your LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media profiles.
You aren’t done with your site the minute you hit publish. To remain high in search rankings and improve your visitors’ experience, you’ll need to consistently maintain your website. Consider adding the following to your webmaster to-do list:
- Use webmaster and analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to monitor how people use your site. Some website engagement metrics to track include bounce rates, click-through rates and average session duration.
- Regularly update your website with blog posts, products and promotional offers.
- Perform monthly reviews to ensure all aspects of your website, including internal and external links, pages and plug-ins, are working as intended.
- Update your “About Us” page with new team members or achievements.
As time goes on, you may want to foster relationships with other business sites to establish credibility and improve your SEO. When other important websites link to your website, search engines see your site as more credible and worthy of being ranked higher in the results.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do businesses really need a website.
Yes, every business really should have a website. Even if you’re not looking to sell online, a website is a vital component in marketing as it enables people to find out about you online, which can drive sales offline.
How much does a website cost to make?
Websites for standard small businesses, personal use or portfolios can range from free to $20,000 upfront—or more, in some cases. Final and recurring costs are based on your web hosting package, add-ons, design, SEO and other customizations. For an average small business website, you can expect to pay between $4,000 and $10,000.
Should I build my website or pay someone else to do it?
If you have a sizable budget and don’t want to handle any design or technical aspects yourself, it may make sense to hire a designer. Otherwise, you can create your own website using beginner-friendly platforms like WordPress, Wix or Squarespace.
How much does it cost to upgrade a website?
Each company charges a different amount to upgrade a website. Generally, you will have to pay for a domain name, which can typically be purchased for $12 to $60 per year on a website like GoDaddy. The simpler and easier to remember the domain name, the more expensive you can expect it to be. Upgrading to Wix’s Pro plan will cost $23 per month (billed annually), while upgrading to Weebly’s Professional plan will cost $16 per month (or $12 per month if billed annually).
Is it possible to make a free website?
Yes, it is possible to build a website for free. Granted, most of the platforms that offer a site for free either use a subdomain or display third-party ads, both of which will make a business website quickly look unprofessional. However, they can be a great way to build a site without any upfront cost. Learn more about how to build a website for free .
How do I buy a domain name?
A domain registrar service will let you quickly search for available domains. Once you’ve chosen one that you like, the service will walk you through the checkout process and offer guidance on how to connect your domain to your site.
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- Top Website Statistics for 2023
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Best eld devices 2023, how to find employees in 2023, 29 side hustle ideas to make extra money in 2023, best auto dialer (2023), recruitment process outsourcing: the ultimate guide.
Farrah Daniel has been writing professionally since 2016, covering sex education, health and wellness, personal finance, marketing, small business and entrepreneurship and much more. As a full-time freelance writer, Farrah also manages and creates content for small businesses and nonprofits. Check out more of her work at farrahdominique.com.
Adam Hardy is a former assistant editor at Forbes Advisor, where he covered small business and tech. Previously, he was a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder, specializing in the gig economy and entrepreneurship. His work has appeared in the Asia Times, Business Insider, Creative Loafing, the Tampa Bay Times, Yahoo! Finance and other publications.
- Help Center
- Google Business Profile
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service
- Submit feedback
- Verify Your Business
- Reach potential customers
- Edit your website made via your Business Profile
Get started on a website with Google
You can create a mobile-optimized website to represent your business via your Business Profile on Google.
Google will automatically use the information and photos from your Business Profile to create a site that you can customize with themes, photos, and text. Your site will automatically update whenever you change your business information or post new photos and will also be optimized for display on desktop, laptop, and mobile devices.
Create your website
When you're claiming your Business Profile , you’ll have the option to create a website based on your information.
If you've already claimed your profile, you can follow these steps to create your website:
- Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile .
- Tip: On your desktop, using Google Search, select Edit profile .
- Near the top, select the Contact tab.
- Under "New website," select Get Started .
- Then on the page that opens,create your site.
You can edit your site at any time. Learn how to edit and optimize your website .
Publish & unpublish your website
- Select Manage .
- To publish: On the top right, select Publish .
Google domains for advanced features
Need more help, sign in for additional support options to quickly solve your issue.
Want to receive one-on-one guidance and tailored recommendations on how to make the most out of your Business Profile? Try booking an appointment with Small Business Advisors .
Important: This service cannot troubleshoot issues, including Business Profile verification or suspension, or Google Ads billing.
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Create Your Business Website Today
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What does a professional website need?
Creating a business website doesn't have to be a lot of work. Jimdo walks you through each easy step until you meet your goal.
A custom domain
Claim a web address that’s easy to share and remember. We’ll include it free for the first contract term.*
Professional designs
Foolproof, modern designs make the best first impression. Tell us about your business and we customize your colors and layouts—just like a designer would.
Image Library
Upload your own photos, pull them from your social accounts, or pick from our library of free stock images. All at your fingertips with ample storage.
Quick and easy editing
Update your website in seconds from desktop or mobile. Want to edit text or upload a photo while you’re out and about? Just log in and go—no app needed.
How to make a website for your business
Follow these simple steps to set up your company website.
- Sign up and choose a business domain name.
- Connect your social media accounts.
- Add your logo and choose your colors.
- Jimdo automatically creates a professional business site that’s customized just for you.
Create your own business website with these essentials
GDPR-compliant legal texts you can trust
The Legal Text Generator from Jimdo creates personalized Imprint and Privacy Policy texts for your website that update automatically and are GDPR-compliant—guaranteed (EU only).
Sync your info across 10+ online platforms, automatically. Improve your search engine ranking and save time by making sure your business info is up-to-date across the web, so you can find the right customers.
Professional business websites built with Jimdo
Can you really build a modern site in minutes? Absolutely. Check out what our customers have already created.
Business Website FAQ
Yes! Even if you do most of your business in-person, customers are now used to doing research online before they make a purchase. If you don’t have a website, you’re sending a message that your business isn’t up to modern, professional standards. A website is cheaper than traditional advertising, easy to keep up to date, and less time-consuming than keeping track of multiple social media accounts.
A nice-looking business website helps you look reputable to new customers, and can build trust in your brand. There are a few different ways to make your website look professional. First, a custom domain or web address. This helps customers know that they have reached your “official” site, and it also shows that you take your business seriously by committing to a domain. Then, stick with a clean, polished design, and use your logo and consistent brand colors if you have them. Make sure your information is up to date and respond quickly when people contact you. You can also add customer testimonials and reviews to your site, so that people know you offer five-star service.
You don’t need a million-dollar company to have a professional website. In fact, a website is even more important when you’re starting out because it gives you a home online—where customers can find you, contact you, and even buy your products. That’s why Jimdo has affordable, flexible plans to fit every stage of your journey. You can upgrade anytime if you need more features. Plus, you won’t need to pay a professional web designer to maintain your site, because you can edit and update everything yourself.
A business website doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. It used to be expensive to hire a web designer or agency to create your site. Now you can set up a business website for free, and be online in minutes! Just start with a free Jimdo Play plan that includes everything you need to get started. When you’re ready, you can upgrade to our affordable paid plans for just a few dollars a month. These include a custom domain for the first contract term, SEO tools to boost your search engine ranking, and fast and friendly support from our team of experts.
Does my business need a website?
The answer is a very enthusiastic “yes!” A business website is the best way to attract new customers, find freelance work, and serve as your official home on the internet. And you don’t have to hire a professional web designer or learn how to code.
Local Businesses
Put your company on the map and catch the attention of customers right in your neighborhood.
Freelancers
Show off your portfolio and attract new clients with a freelancing website.
Online Stores
Make money online by selling your products to customers all over the world.
* In purchasing a Jimdo Dolphin plan we grant a reduction in price of €20 for the first contractual term, which is equal in value to the cost of a domain. This offer exclusively applies to the following domains: de, com, net, org, info, at, ch, es, it, fr, nl. A domain registered with another provider can be used with your new plan for the first contract period, without additional costs. Upon renewal, your selected plan will renew at full price, without this €20 reduction. In purchasing a Jimdo Creator plan, we grant a free domain for the first contract period. This applies exclusively to the following domains: com, net, org, biz, info, de, at, ch, fr, eu, nl, com.mx, es, co.uk, it, ru, рф, pl, be, com.pl, se, me, li, name, website, online, shop, store, store, click, rocks, nu. Upon renewal, the domain costs €20 per year. Of course we will inform you of the exact price via email, 6 weeks prior to contract renewal. The duration and billing terms of the domain depend on the duration and billing terms of the plan purchased.
What Kind of Website Do You Need?
Choose a website builder or platform, choose a template or theme that suits your business, create the pages your business needs, review and publish, maintenance, updates, and optimization, how to build a website: a step-by-step beginner's guide.
If you run a small business or an LLC, or are in the process of starting one, you will need a business website . At TRUiC, we believe all companies need a website regardless of their industry or size. With advances in technology and services, it’s never been easier to build your own website without the need for any web designer experience.
This article provides an overview of the steps to build a website for your business as well as suggestions for which tools to use based on your business type and knowledge level . We’ll also provide additional resources to help you accomplish your goals and get your business website up and running quickly.
When you feel like you're ready to get started, head over to our Best Website Builder Review to find the right web hosting services and more for your small business.
Before diving in, it’s best to ask yourself what sort of website you’ll need.
Depending on the type of business you operate, the kind of website you need will vary. While all websites have many similarities, your business site will require certain features that others don’t.
If you own a restaurant, for example, you’ll likely want to display a menu on your website. In contrast, a certified public accountant (CPA) likely will consider an easy-to-use contact form essential.
Below we'll explore different business categories along with recommendations on what website building software makes the most sense for these types of businesses.
Local Business
Examples of local businesses include restaurants, CPAs, plumbers, real estate agents, flower shops, tanning salons, you name it. Think of any corner store or market you might find when driving down your main street as a perfect example of a niche business with specific website needs.
While these businesses generally don’t require large or complex websites, their sites must provide basic information about them while helping customers solve their problems.
Some local businesses need extremely basic websites, which feature just one page that displays their contact information and hours of operation. Others will need sites with greater functionality, such as ordering systems, chat responders, or even internet data exchange (IDX) integrations. Ultimately, your website needs will depend heavily on the type of business you run.
Remember, it's not enough to simply have a Facebook page, a Google Business Profile, or a Yelp profile for your business. While all of these will help promote your brand and increase its visibility, a website for which you have complete control represents the first real step to becoming a legitimate business.
Recommended Software
For local businesses, we recommend the GoDaddy Website Builder . GoDaddy meets the needs of most small businesses while also providing an extremely straightforward user experience.
VISIT GODADDY
Large Business
Large companies or brands include the businesses most people already know by name. All the companies who put items on the shelves of your local grocery store, for example, also need a business website.
Surprisingly, they often create much simpler websites than you may expect. Many of their sites are just blogs on a much larger scale. While a large business website may include hundreds or thousands of pages, the technology required to create it is actually no more complicated than what you need to build a small, simple blog.
The most popular content management system for these types of websites is WordPress. There’s a good chance that a large business will already employ a few technology people or web developers. This means your business absolutely has the internal capabilities to build and run a proper WordPress website.
For large businesses and brands, we recommend WordPress . All WordPress sites need a reliable host, and beginners may prefer a host that includes a website builder. This is why we recommend Bluehost for both your hosting and building needs.
START WITH BLUEHOST
Online Service Business
A few examples of this type of business include software-as-a-service (SaaS) firms, membership sites, social media companies, and forums. Similar to businesses that need a blog or portfolio site, an online service business’s website takes center stage in promoting the company. The major difference, however, is that these businesses need sites with advanced functionality and technical integration.
Unless you’re an experienced web developer, you’ll almost certainly have to hire or contract with technical experts to create a website with the level of flexibility and expandability your online service business needs.
For online services businesses, we recommend WordPress . Using a subscription to a service like Envato Elements makes picking the right theme and adding unique functionality to your site easy.
START WITH ENVATO
If you want to sell products directly to customers online, you will absolutely need an ecommerce site.
The ecommerce sector has undergone a significant boom during the past few years. This includes those selling physical and digital products as well as those using a dropshipping model. Much of the fuel for this massive growth came from new software products that simplified the entire online selling process and lowered the cost for small businesses and entrepreneurs to enter the market.
While slightly more complex than a standard blog or portfolio site, ecommerce websites are simple to build and operate thanks to software specifically designed to serve this need.
For ecommerce businesses, we recommend Shopify . Specifically designed for online sellers, Shopify is one of the world’s most popular ecommerce platforms. Shopify provides the most robust tools on the market for new online stores.
VISIT SHOPIFY
Content Creators
Generally, a blog or portfolio website suits people who want to have a personal, online presence or artists who need a place to showcase their work.
In the case of a blog, the website is the business rather than a support feature of the business. This will influence the software you use to create the website. Because you’ll “live” in that software on a daily basis, you’ll need to ensure it’s a comfortable place that provides all the technological features you need.
If you’re interested in starting your own blog, check out our free blogging course . It’ll walk you through all the required steps to get your blog off the ground.
For other types of content creators, from those who produce video essays to podcasters, having a website that can house your in-depth content, as well as link it to all the other platforms for users to engage with it, is vital. Not all website builders come equipped with this capability or make it easy to navigate. Making sure you find the right fit is essential.
If you want to create a portfolio website to showcase your artistic work, then design control may play a more important role when choosing software. Most web building software platforms make design simple by offering a wide variety of templates from which to choose.
For content-focused websites we recommend the Bluehost Website Builder . Bluehost allows you to host and build your WordPress website with an intuitive drag-and-drop builder, including access to WordPress Admin and advanced features.
Considering everything we’ve recommended so far, you may start to wonder why we suggest some tools over others. This section will provide a bit more context to help you make a better decision on which web hosting or building platform to use as you create your website.
We’ll begin with the WordPress platform as WordPress can be a bit tricky to untangle and understand. WordPress is not a website builder, per se, but more along the lines of a content management system (CMS) that can also build websites. Tricky, we know, but stick with us!
Then we will dive into a general overview of traditional website builders, what they typically offer, and how to find the right one for you.
We will also discuss important requirements and resources that will largely impact your final decision. The major decision factors when choosing the right website builder or platform include:
- Required Skill Level – How much do you know about building websites?
- Required Resources – How much time, money, and patience do you have?
- Flexibility – How complex are the needs of your website?
- Sustainability – Will the complexity of your website grow as your business grows?
WordPress is an extremely flexible, open-source, website-building platform. Since its launch in 2003, WordPress has improved and expanded many times. Its massive plugin marketplace — a collection of more than 50,000 third-party applications — makes WordPress an even more adaptable platform. Overall, WordPress powers over 40 percent of the world’s websites.
So, why would anyone choose not to use WordPress?
Because with all that flexibility also comes much complexity. In order to begin creating your website using WordPress, you must:
- Register a domain name (URL) with a domain registrar.
- Find a suitable web hosting provider to store and serve up your website’s data.
- Choose a WordPress theme that offers the design and functionality your business needs.
While these steps aren’t particularly difficult , you should understand that building a WordPress website is a modular process. Each time you want to add something to your site beyond the core functionality of WordPress, you must either install a third-party plugin or find a custom-coded solution to make it happen. Even something as simple as getting started usually requires two to three purchases from separate companies.
However, as more web hosts begin to implement corresponding website building capabilities, it’s becoming easier to navigate the complexities of WordPress. This is why we recommend platforms like GoDaddy , Bluehost , and Kinsta . Using services such as these make it easy to get started, build your website, and never worry about having to stay on top of pesky updates for plugins and themes.
WordPress Summary
- Required Skill Level – Medium. You should have some web experience before creating a WordPress website.
- Required Resources – Medium. You’ll either need quite a bit of time and patience if you plan on doing it all yourself or a significant cash investment to have an expert build it for you.
- Flexibility – High. You can build almost anything you want on WordPress.
- Sustainability – High. If built properly, your website can scale to infinity on WordPress.
WordPress isn’t for beginners unless you opt to use a web host with an easy to use website builder included. This is why we recommend Bluehost for your hosting and building needs.
Website Builders
Website builders also have been around for quite some time. Modern builders like Wix and Squarespace have grown more popular in the past few years due to their increased quality and ease of use.
Unlike WordPress’s complicated feel, these website builders offer an all-in-one solution for building your business website. Generally, you select an available domain name within a website builder’s platform and then the tool will lead you through a series of questions about your business. After answering those questions, you’ll have a working shell of a website — all within about five to 30 minutes.
The trade-off for this colossal boost in simplicity is reduced flexibility. But, this only matters if you need complex features in your website. Ninety percent of small businesses won’t miss that expanded flexibility, which can sometimes slow the process of getting your site up and running.
Website Builder Summary
- Required Skill Level – Low. You don’t need any prior web development experience, but basic computer operational experience will come in handy.
- Required Resources – Low. Website builders charge extremely affordable monthly fees. Plus, because you won’t need to hire a developer, your time represents the main cost.
- Flexibility – Medium. Depending on the platform, you’ll probably find the options you need to operate your website. But, don’t expect to see a simple solution for every wild feature you can imagine.
- Sustainability – High. Website builders can sustain almost all websites built using their software for the lifetime of the site. If not, you can always migrate your site elsewhere.
If you’re a beginner or just need a simple website to represent your business online, then a website builder will provide the best option for you.
Best Website Builders
After selecting the software platform on which you’ll build your website, you must choose a template or theme to give your site a design and layout that fulfills your business needs.
WordPress uses themes to change the look and feel of your website. The best and most useful themes come from third-party companies. These themes control not only the design of your site, but also its back-end functionality in many cases. Check out our article on the Best WordPress Themes to learn more.
Website builders use templates , which mainly control your site’s look and feel. Your template choice won’t impact your site’s back-end layout or capabilities.
Your choice of theme or template will vary, depending on the type of business you operate and your style preferences. Use the following attributes to help guide your decision on which theme or template to choose.
Functionality and Simplicity
The most important attribute of a theme or template is its user-facing functionality and simplicity .
If people visit your website and can’t figure out how to navigate its pages or find the information they seek, then your site becomes a liability instead of an asset.
We’ve all been “trained” over the past few years to recognize some key elements of a well-designed website. You should, for example, find navigation bars and buttons in the expected locations so visitors don’t have to hunt around for answers to their questions. Well-designed websites also avoid crazy color combinations that make their text difficult to read on a variety of screen sizes.
Most themes and templates don’t stray too far from the median, so you should easily find one that satisfies all of these functions.
Brand and Visuals
Once you ensure your customers will find your chosen theme easy to use, you should look for an option that conforms to the visual elements of your business branding. Many new businesses actually derive their brand visuals from their websites instead of the reverse.
If you’re unsure about your business’s overall brand or style, just use your logo as a starting point. If you don’t yet have a logo, check out our free logo maker tool.
If you’re not even to that point yet, check out our business name generator or business ideas generator to start the process of creating your business from the ground up.
Websites consist of a carefully curated set of pages. Each page should have its own value and reason to exist. Without overcomplicating things, all websites need certain core pages while you’ll also want to add other pages specifically tailored to your type of business.
Pages Every Site Needs
Here are the five pages every website needs:
- Home Page : As the front page of your website, this should briefly describe your business’s purpose and how to interact with your business. It also should provide any other information you deem important for your customers to know.
- About Page : This page should provide an overview of your business, its people, its vision or mission statement, and any other identifying information you want to share with your customers.
- Contact Page : This page tells customers how best to contact you. Many sites feature contact forms, but you also should give customers direct ways to reach you. In addition, you may choose to include your hours of operation and business address on this page.
- Privacy Policy Page : While customers may rarely visit this page, it’s important to include if you collect any customer information in the daily operation of your business.
- Terms and Conditions Page : Similar to a privacy policy page, this page essentially outlines an agreement between you and your customers regarding how your business and/or website operates.
You should find it fairly easy to create your site’s Home, About, and Contact pages on your own. If you need some inspiration, check out these beautiful websites built with GoDaddy .
The Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions pages will require a bit more work. If your business has an attorney, ask them to help you draft proper language for these pages. If you don’t have an attorney or don’t want to spend lots of money to consult one, check out Rocket Lawyer . It offers a variety of forms, including templates for such pages, for a fraction of the cost of an attorney.
On the topic of lowering liability and protecting your business, if you haven’t started a limited liability company (LLC) for your business yet, check out our guide on How To Form an LLC in any state.
Pages Specific To Your Business
Along with the pages that every website needs, you may want to add a variety of other pages tailored to your specific type of business.
While not an exhaustive list, here are some page types that may make sense for your business website:
- Product Page : This type of page describes a product you sell. If you run an ecommerce store or have a physical shop, then a product page can help your customers understand the product and may offer them a chance to purchase the item.
- Pricing Page: Popular among businesses that sell services, a pricing page describes a company’s different service level offerings and their related prices. You’ll typically find a link to a pricing page on a website’s top-level navigation bar.
- Menu Page: If you operate a restaurant, then you absolutely need to create a menu page. You don’t want your customers to only find blurry images of your physical menu when they look for your menu online.
- Service Page : If your business offers more than one type of service, a service page provides a great place to provide a detailed list of these services.
- Blog Page : Every type of business can have a blog. In most cases, people start business blogs to help with their site’s search engine optimization (SEO) .
Whether or not you choose to add these pages to your site will depend on what type of business you operate. You also can get creative and combine or add any of these page types as you see fit. Just remember that internet users expect to see certain patterns so stepping too far outside the norm may do more harm than good.
Calls To Action
While not a specific page type, calls to action are an extremely important part of any properly functioning website.
A call to action (CTA) is an element or object on your website that tells users what action to take next. A CTA could take the form of a “Buy Now!” button, a “Fill Out This Form” heading, or a “Click here for more details” link.
If you’re wondering if this type of action might make your website appear slightly deceiving, just know this is a necessary component of providing a good user experience. Offering these types of actions helps point site visitors in the direction they are supposed to go. Look at it more like offering help than running an advertisement.
Besides, sites without strong CTAs can end up encouraging customers to travel elsewhere to find what they need.
How To Create a CTA
Creating strong CTAs really depends on the action you want customers to take. Different situations call for different tactics, but, in general, effective CTAs take the form of a button or link that moves a customer further down the purchasing funnel. Here are some examples:
- A brightly colored button that reads “Buy Now” or “Add To Cart” can provide a strong CTA for customers visiting your product pages.
- Text that reads, “How To Reach Us” alongside a phone number or contact form can make an effective CTA for customers on your contact page.
- A button that reads “Schedule an Appointment” can spur action from customers who land on your services page and want to book an appointment.
As you can see from the above examples, creating strong CTAs isn’t rocket science. Almost every page on your website should have a CTA. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and try to anticipate what action they should take next to make them happy.
After you determine and build the pages your website needs, it’s time to go live.
You only need to follow two key rules when publishing your website for the first time:
- Test Everything. Go through each page you created for your site. Read all of the text, press every button, and fill out every form. This quality control review will ensure your site works properly when your first users visit.
- Don’t Wait for Perfection. The most important feature of your website is whether or not it’s live. Creating a website for the first time is a learning process. You’ll inevitably find something about your site you don’t like. You may want a button to appear six pixels to the left, for example, but can’t figure out how to move it there. You’ll also likely find broken links you thought you already fixed. But, perfection doesn’t exist so there’s no point in waiting to publish after you complete an initial round of testing.
Successfully launching your business website doesn’t mean your job is done. Throughout the lifetime of your business, you should continue to look for ways to improve your website. Even if you choose not to make large enhancements, you must still ensure the site remains current.
The level of hands-on maintenance required will differ based on the software platform you used to build your website. In most cases, WordPress’s modular architecture will require more consistent input than a website builder platform.
You’ll need to perform other types of optimization tasks no matter what platform you use to create your site.
Remember to consider the items discussed below as you plan for the future of your website.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is the practice of making your website’s pages rank higher in search engine results pages. Depending on how you market your business, improving your Google rankings and increasing your online visibility could have a monumental impact in your success .
SEO is a major topic much too large to cover in this article, so check out our beginner’s guide: SEO 101 .
Plugins and Updates
If you choose to build your site on WordPress, you must ensure your theme, plugins, and core WordPress software stay current with all relevant updates. While this involves a manual process, it’s generally as simple as logging in and making a few clicks.
Due to the modular nature of WordPress, each plugin will have its own update schedule. While some will have more updates and patches than others, you’ll need to update all of them from time to time. These updates generally fix bugs and prevent security issues, but also can add new features and functionality.
If you choose to use a website builder to create your business website, you generally won’t need to worry about updates.
The all-in-one structure of these tools enables their developers to work behind the scenes to update your site with almost no input from you. This is one of the major advantages of using a website builder.
Start Your Business Website
Building a business website is easier than ever before. The availability of high-quality, intuitive tools should make your job much easier than you may have thought.
Based on our recommendations above, you should now have a good idea of which software platform will best suit your business.
If you’re ready to learn more about the different tools themselves, check out these other articles to get started:
- Best Website Builder Review
- How To Build a WordPress Website
- How to Make a GoDaddy Website
- How to Make a Bluehost Website
CONTROL PANEL LINKS
- Manage Domains
- Manage Website Builder
- Manage Hosting
- Manage SSL Certificates
- Manage Email
INBOX LINKS
- Sign in to Office 365 Email
- Sign in to GoDaddy Webmail
GoDaddy Website Builder
Your free website is just the beginning..
Create a mobile-friendly, free website for your business, then watch it take off with built-in marketing.
No credit card required.*
How to create a website
- Start creating your free site or store by picking a template.
- Add your content, products and business info to make it yours.
- Use built-in marketing to let people know you’re open for business.
- Manage everything — reviews, orders, social — from 1 dashboard, on any device.
- Buy premium features — store add-ons, SEO, appointments — as you need ‘em.
What's included with your free website?
- Email and social media marketing
- One-time appointments
- Start selling with GoDaddy Payments
- SSL certificate to keep your site secure
- 24/7 customer support
- Branded content creation with GoDaddy Studio
Upgrade when you're ready for more.
- Connect a custom domain
- Offer flexible shipping options
- Get Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Set up recurring appointments
- Add a full-featured online store
- Get email and text appointment reminders
- Sell on Amazon, eBay and Etsy
- Accept online payments for services
- List products for free on Google Shopping
- Sync orders and inventory across channels
Website Templates
Whatever you do, it'll look good..
Online Store
- Coming Soon
- Fashion & Beauty
- Home Services
- Health & Fitness
- Restaurants & Food
A powerful website builder at your fingertips.
Click to easily edit or add entire sections — like a photo gallery, menu, or price list — in seconds, from any device.
Create Content
Design beautifully branded content for social media, email marketing and beyond using GoDaddy Studio.
Set up your online shop for free using professional ecommerce templates, then upgrade to a paid plan to start selling.
Manage everything – reviews, orders, social – from one dashboard, on any device.
Premium Website Builder Features
Unlock more as your business grows..
With marketing and business-building tools baked in, you get to start for free right now, then upgrade when you’re ready for more.
Custom Domain
Give your website the address it deserves with a custom domain.
A domain is the address where your website lives online. A custom domain looks more professional and makes it easier for people to remember your business name.
Build a full-featured online store your shoppers will love.
Our easy-to-use Online Store lets you sell anything, everywhere. From products and downloads to virtual and in-person services, sell it all on Etsy, Instagram, Amazon and beyond. And now, GoDaddy Payments gives you a fast, secure way to get paid when customers buy from your store.
Appointments
Upgrade from one-time to recurring appointments whenever you’re ready.
Customers can book and pay for your virtual or in-person services right on your site, at any time. That means you get to fill up your calendar without picking up the phone.
More Marketing
Grow faster with expanded email and social media marketing.
Engage customers and keep them up to date on how to stay connected to your business with advanced email and social media marketing tools.
Search Engine Optimization
Get found on Google and beyond with a perfectly optimized site.
Boost your site on Google and other search engines with keyword suggestions and tracking that'll help you monitor your ranking over time.
Trusted by 21+ million customers around the world.
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GoDaddy obviously is the 'go to' website builder. They make everything so easy to get set up and ready... I highly recommend them to anyone that's starting a business and that's needing a website... Thanks...
Rick Bowers
Worthy website builder
I’ve used plenty of website builders and always hated them, I now use Wordpress. When I started my detailing company I didn’t want to have to set another store up as there was a lot of moving pieces. I rate the website builder 9/10. Customer service is 10/10
Website builder and customer service is great!
Website builder is amazing and customer support is doing a great job in explaining products and services in godaddy
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Very happy to be working with GoDaddy
Very happy to be working with GoDaddy. Their website builder was very easy to use and I ended up with a final product to be proud of.
Cathy Eastman
Go Go Daddy!
I Love Go Daddy! I have been a satisfied Go Daddy customer for many years! The Website Builder is amazing and the perfect choice for growing your business. The ability to access and edit your website 24/7 and connect directly to social media is a huge plus for me. I also appreciate Website Builder's functionality, active components and creative options! The US tech support team is great - Thank You Go Daddy!
Go Daddy Fan
From customer service to website…
From customer service to website building, their service is awesome 👌. I would recommend any website builder to use this site.
Risul Rashed
I love the user-friendly website…
I love the user-friendly website builder. Anytime I want to make changes, I can do so pretty quickly, and have it published at the same moment, without any inconvenience. Best thing ever!
EDUARDO HERNANDEZ
I began using another website but…found GoDaddy more user-friendly
I began using another website but switched over to GoDaddy. As a first-time user of the GoDaddy website builder, I found it easy to use and understand, it gives good options to upload images, videos, podcasts and more. I was very happy with the customer service and she found me a great deal for my domain. Highly recommend GoDaddy :-)
I LOVE GoDaddy!
I've never had a bad experience with GoDaddy and I've been a customer of theirs for many years. If there's an issue, they either fix it or walk me thru it. Website Builder is awesome and very easy to use. LOVE GODADDY! Wouldn't even think about going elsewhere.
Jeanne Wokurka
GoDaddy website builder and marketing…
GoDaddy website builder and marketing tools have been really nice for my business by saving me time allowing me to basically throw up a website that works! Thank you very much go Daddy and thank you Jesus!
Warren affordabledoorrefinishi
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Still not sure what you need? Give us a call. We’re happy to help, even if you’re not a customer. Call us at 1-480-366-3546 and we'll chat — or get back to you as soon as we can.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why should i have a website, what is godaddy website builder.
GoDaddy ’s website builder, formally called Websites + Marketing, is an online editing and publishing tool that helps you make a responsive website with no technical knowledge required.
How to create a website with GoDaddy ’s Website Builder:
- Create a GoDaddy account.
- Pick a design and use the drag-and-drop editor to add your own images and text or create a contact form. You can make your website as simple or complex as you’d like.
- Publish your website.
- Expand your website as you grow. You can add a full online store complete with product listings, coupons, shopping cart, shipping and multiple payment options.
What is GoCentral website builder?
Is my website really free, can i customize my website, can i add a shopping cart to my website, can i connect a custom domain to my free website, does godaddy website builder include an ssl certificate, can i connect my social media and website, are seo (search engine optimization) tools included with website builder, how do i start selling online.
You can design your online store for free and start taking payments in minutes with GoDaddy Payments, but if you want a fully-featured online store, you’ll need to purchase the Ecommerce plan. H ere’s what you do:
- Click any of the Start for Free buttons on this page.
- Take a few seconds to create an account so we can save your work.
- When prompted, select your industry and name your site.
- Click View Plans in the banner at the bottom of the screen.
- Choose and purchase the Ecommerce plan to start using your store.
How do I create a website?
Creating a website is a relatively small effort that can have a huge impact on your business’ bottom line. Here’s how to start building your website:
- Get organized
- Choose a website template
- Customize your website
- Choose your domain
- Optimize your website for search engines
- Launch your website
How does GoDaddy Website Builder stack up against other website building providers?
Comparing website builders helps you decide which features are important to you and what type of website builder will best fit your needs. So, our team researched available plans, spoke with support agents, factored in ease-of-use, design, and pricing, and put together a side-by-side comparison of the best website builders.
Spoiler alert: GoDaddy Website Builder offers high value at a low price and our customers give us great reviews on Trustpilot.
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Home » Building Websites » How to Build a Business Website in 2023: 8 Simple Steps
How to Build a Business Website in 2023: 8 Simple Steps
Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers. Learn more
Building a business website is now easier than ever, and we’re here to help you out every step of the way.
When it comes to building your website, there are two methods we recommend: using a website builder like Wix or a content management system (CMS) like WordPress.org . The former is a dream for tech beginners, whilst the latter requires a little more hands-on management.
They’re both excellent options, but their setups are slightly different. Using our 10+ years of website-building experience, we’ll take you through the key steps of each to get your business online in no time. And if you’re not quite sure which to choose, we’ll cover that, too!
This guide will focus on the DIY website building route, but if you are interested in hiring a web designer, we’d highly recommend using this web design service comparison tool built by our trusted partners at Expert Market. It’s 100% free for Website Builder Expert readers to use, and you can view tailored pricing information with zero obligation.
What to Do Before You Build Your Website
Before you start building your website, there are a few things you need to decide on. You might be excited to dive straight in and begin, but taking a moment to do some serious planning will save you a lot of trouble further down the line! Peter Erlandsson, founder of allguitarstuff.com , highlights the benefits of getting your ducks in a row before you get started:
‘As boring as the planning phase might be, it will serve you well in the future. A well planned site has consistent branding, a setup that makes it easy and seamless to grow and develop, and lots of content that is optimized for SEO (search engine optimization) with the right keywords in mind.’
Below, we’ve listed a few key elements to consider before you let your creative juices flow. Click on the plus icon next to each header to find out more.
Determine the Main Purpose of Your Website
Websites have the tools to accomplish a number of different goals, so knowing what you want yours to do is the best way to avoid confusion and provide a smooth customer experience. After all, no one wants to go to a Chinese restaurant expecting to eat Italian food – only to be served sushi!
Identify Your Target Audience
Work out your budget.
Cost is also an important factor when deciding whether to use a website builder or WordPress to build your site . Builders tend to be more expensive, but they have a set price – beginning from as little as $16 per month – that makes it simple to track your outgoings. Although WordPress might seem cheaper on the surface, there are more costs to consider (such as hosting), so you could end up spending more in the long run.
Website builders and WordPress both offer monthly plans, making it easier to spread the cost. However, they also allow you to pay annually. In the short term, this is more expensive, but committing to a full year means you’re more likely to receive a discounted rate, bringing the total amount you pay down.
Do Some Competitor Research
Doing thorough competitor research, then, can give you a good idea of what you should and shouldn’t be including in your business website. You don’t have to limit your investigations only to websites in the same industry as you, either. Take a look at some of your personal favorites, and ask yourself what it is about them that you like. Is there anything you can incorporate into your own site to make your business stand out from the rest?
Catherine Cooke, founder and CEO of Upskillwise.com , had this to say about the importance of checking out the market before you get started:
“When building a business website, it’s important to look at what your competitors are doing. You want to stand out against your competition, but you also want to align yourself with industry standards. Find three or four elements of their web design that you can mimic, and find another three or four elements where you think you can do something completely different. This will tell users who visit your website what kind of service or product you offer and help you stand out and stick in their memory long after they’ve clicked away.”
Prepare Your Content
Building a website isn’t just a case of putting the platform together, and then chucking the content on at the end. Instead, you’ll often find yourself having to add various elements as you go.
Advice From the Expert
“In the post-Covid world, having a digital presence for your business is arguably more important than having a physical presence, at least in the case of some industries. And one of the simplest ways to have an online presence is by buildi ng a website. It is inexpensive yet so effective.”
Should You Use a Website Builder or WordPress to Create your Business Website?
Once you’ve ticked all the items off our pre-building checklist, it’s time for your next big decision: a website builder or WordPress?
Before you can make your choice, it’s important to understand the fundamental differences between the two. Although both result in a beautiful website at the end, the way you get there – and the skills required – are different.
Website builders are pretty easy to use, mostly because they don’t require much, if any, coding knowledge. They’re ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions, offering a range of templates and covering all of the tricky tech bits, like hosting and security, for you. However, they do have their drawbacks.
WordPress is an open-source platform, which means you’ll need to use code to create your business website. However, the creative possibilities are endless. It’s more of a ‘DIY’ fix that provides a framework for you to build a totally personalized website.
Both platforms will help you build a business website to be proud of, but the one you choose comes down to your own personal preference, and the level of technical skill you have.
If you’re not sure whether you have the technical prowess to tackle WordPress, we recommend taking both methods of building a website out for a spin to see which you prefer. Plus, you can always switch to the other platform later on if you decide that your first choice wasn’t quite right.
Want Someone to Build Your Website for You?
Option 1: using a website builder, how to build a business website with a website builder.
1. Get a domain name 2. Create an email address 3. Choose a business website builder 4. Pick a template 5. Add content 6. Integrate apps 7. Optimize your site for search engines 8. Publish, monitor, and update
Step 1: Get a Domain Name
- What a domain name is
- How to choose a good one
- How much they cost
A domain name is your website’s unique address. It’s often the first thing that potential customers will see, so it’ll play a very important part in forming their first impressions.
Because of this, it’s a good idea for businesses to have domain names that are the same as, or similar to, their company name. For example, our domain name is websitebuilderexpert.com .
When choosing your domain name, make sure you do your research to check that there aren’t any similar ones floating around. You also want it to be fairly short and easy to spell. We’d recommend avoiding abbreviations or unnecessary hyphens, too. This will reduce the risk of errors and make it easier for customers to spell your domain name!
You’ll need to pay an initial cost to register your domain, and then pay a yearly fee to keep it registered going forwards. Doing this will secure your domain name and make sure that nobody else can take it.
A domain name typically costs around $10 to $12 per year . You can usually get your domain directly through your website builder, or via a separate domain registrar. Popular domain name providers include Domain.com and NameCheap .
Most website builders (such as Wix ) include a free domain name for the first year. For any subsequent years, you can pay for your domain name directly through your builder.
When choosing your domain name, make sure you also think about your top-level domain (TLD), too. This is the bit at the end of your address, for example, .com or .org. Different TLDs have different prices, with the most common ones usually costing the most. When your business gets a bit bigger, it’s worth purchasing as many TLDs associated with your domain name as possible, so that other businesses can’t buy them and divert customers away from your website.
Further Reading:
- What is a Domain Name? – Take a look at our thorough guide to domain names. You’ll find everything you need to know right here!
- 5 Best Domain Name Registrars – We’ll take a look at some of the best domain name registrars on the market, so you’ll know where to go to pick yours out.
- How Much Does a Domain Name Cost – Get clued up on the ins and outs of domain name pricing so you can factor this in when setting your budget.
Step 2: Create an Email Address
- Why you need a business email address
- How to get one
- How much it will cost
To make your business look more professional and established, you’ll need a custom email address. For example, [email protected] instantly looks more credible than [email protected] .
The most common way to format business email addresses is to include the business’s domain name.
For example, our email address is [email protected] .
Getting a custom business email address is quick, cheap, and fairly easy. We recommend using G Suite , which is powered by Google.
It’s basically Gmail for businesses, except you have a personalized email address. You get the user-friendly interface, reliability, and security of Gmail, with prices starting at $6 per month for each business email address.
Step 3: Choose a Website Builder
- Our top three website builders
- The features they offer
- Who they’re best for
Now, on to one of the most important steps: choosing your website builder!
It’s important to mention at this point that there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to choosing the right business website builder. Different businesses will have vastly different needs – a trendy new restaurant, for example, will require something totally different from a small law firm.
That said, having tested over 50 website builders, we can confidently say that Wix is our top choice for building a business website, with Squarespace and Weebly also offering great options. You can’t go far wrong if you pick any one of these platforms, but you can check out our best website builders for small business ranking to see even more options.
Below, we’ll give you a quick rundown of each of our top website builders, so you can judge the one that’s best for you.
4.5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5 stars
Best Overall Website Builder
Learning how to use Wix is really simple. That’s probably why Wix is the builder that users were most likely to recommend following our user testing. It comes with over 800 professionally designed templates covering a huge array of industries – including food service, which is partly why Wix also earns the title of best restaurant website builder.
Wix at a glance:
- Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans start at $16/month (billed annually)
- Design: Extensive collection of over 800 templates , covering pretty much every industry you can think of
- Features: Massive app market with over 260+ apps for adding niche functionality to your site
- Support: Includes phone, email, forum, and help center
Who is Wix best for?
- Users that need a lot of design help and guidance. Wix offers pre-populated template designs , so you can easily swap in your own business images and content instead of starting from scratch. Alternatively, you can use Wix ADI – this is an artificial intelligence design software that simply asks you what you like, then takes your ideas and builds a custom website design for you.
- Users that need more flexible tools for a specialty business website. If you need apps – for example, an online booking/reservation app or a restaurant/order takeout app – Wix is a safe bet. Its app market is one of the most extensive in the industry.
Do You Like the Sound of Wix?
- Wix Review – a full breakdown of its features, prices, and more
- Wix Pricing – take a closer look at how much Wix costs, and the additional charges you should be aware of
2. Squarespace
4 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Designs, and Ideal for Scaling Your Business
Squarespace is like the Apple of business website builders. It can help you create visually stunning, minimalist business websites that capture your visitors’ attention. Learning how to use Squarespace isn’t quite as straightforward as it is with Wix, but its award-winning templates are worth the slightly steeper learning curve.
Squarespace at a glance:
- Monthly Plans: Paid plans start at $16/month (billed annually). There’s no free plan, but you can take a 14-day free trial
- Template Designs: Squarespace takes a ‘quality over quantity’ approach to template design, offering a curated selection of 60 templates across key industries
- Features: No app market, but good quality inbuilt features (although less choice than with Wix)
- Support: Includes 24/7 email, live chat, and help center
Who is Squarespace best for?
- Users who want to create a visually stunning website for businesses in more creative industries, such as photography or design. You can see some examples here .
Written by:
Designing and creating your website (especially your first one) is not a simple task. If you're a designer like me, then you're already way ahead of the game. But what if you're one of the 99% of business owners who are not technical or creative? I want to share my website design expertise with you to help you build a professional looking website to grow your business.
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How to create a website for your business · Choose your business website template and customize your design. · Secure a custom domain name for your business.
Sign up for a free website builder. Choose what kind of website you want to create. · Customize a template or get a website made for you. Choose your starting
Building a Business Website: A Small Business Guide · 1. Determine the primary purpose of your website. · 2. Decide your domain name. · 3. Choose a
Make it easy to spell. · Keep it as short as possible. · Use the proper domain extension. · Avoid numbers and hyphens. · Make the address broad to
How To Make a Website: A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You Going · 1. Pick a Domain Name · 2. Register Your Domain and Pick Your Design and Hosting
Create your website · Go to your Business Profile. Learn how to find your profile. · Select Edit profile and then Business information. Tip: On your desktop
How to make a website for your business · Sign up and choose a business domain name. · Connect your social media accounts. · Add your logo and choose your colors.
What Kind of Website Do You Need?
Start creating your free site or store by picking a template. · Add your content, products and business info to make it yours. · Use built-in marketing to let
1. Get a domain name · 2. Create an email address · 3. Choose a business website builder · 4. Pick a template · 5. Add content · 6. Integrate apps · 7