How to make a website for a small business

Making a website for a small business is mostly words and decisions, not software. Decide what the site is for, choose your pages, write them the way you'd say it, get a web address in your name, add your own photos, then check it on a phone before it goes live. Here are the seven steps, whichever way you build it.

Before you start: what to have ready

• Your business name, exactly as it is on the van or the sign.
• What you do, in the words you'd use on the phone.
• Where you work: your town, and the villages or areas you cover.
• Three to six services, with a “from” price for any you're happy to show.
• Your phone number and email, the ones you actually answer.
• Your hours, or when you pick up.
• A few photos of your own work, taken on your phone in daylight.

Step 1: Decide what the site is for

Pick the one thing you want a visitor to do. For most trades it is ring you. For a café it is visit. For a maker it is go to your shop. Every page should make that one thing easy, with the button in the same place each time.

Step 2: Choose your pages

Three pages are enough for most small businesses: home, services and contact. If you only do one thing in one place, one page can be enough. Here is one page or three pages compared, and what goes on each of the three.

Step 3: Write it the way you'd say it

Put your trade and town in the first line: “Plumber in St Neots” beats “Welcome to our website”. Use plain words, short sentences and the terms your customers use. Say what you do, where, and how to reach you, in that order. Our small business website examples show what that looks like on five kinds of business.

Step 4: Pick a web address, in your name

Choose a .co.uk that matches your business name, and make sure it is registered in your name as the registrant, not your web designer's. Here is how to choose a domain name, and how to check who owns yours.

Step 5: Photos

Use your own photos: finished jobs, your van, your shop, you at work. Take them in daylight, hold the phone steady, and clear the clutter out of the shot. Give each one a few words about what it shows, so people using screen readers and search engines know what it is. Only use photos you took or have permission to use.

Step 6: Choose how to build it

A DIY website builder

Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy are good tools, and you can build as many pages as you like. The time is yours, though, and plenty of sites are started and never finished. See 3 Wee Pages vs Wix, Squarespace and DIY builders.

A web designer

A good freelancer or agency does the work for you, for more money and a few meetings. Make sure the domain is registered in your name. See 3 Wee Pages vs hiring a freelance web designer.

Answer questions and watch it build

With 3 Wee Pages you build a website for your small business by answering the questions above in eight short steps, and your three pages build beside them in one of six looks. You see all three before you pay, and a person checks your site before it goes live on a .co.uk in your name. How it works, step by step.

Step 7: Check it before it goes live

• Ring your own number from the site on your phone. Does it dial?
• Read the first line: does it say your trade and town?
• Every page has a next step: a call button, directions or a link to your shop.
• Open it on a phone, not just a computer. That is where most customers will see it.
• Check your hours, prices and areas are right today.
• Ask someone else to read it. They will spot the typo you've read past ten times.

What it costs

Building it yourself on a builder is a monthly fee plus your time; a web designer is a bigger one-off or a monthly plan; 3 Wee Pages is £149 to launch, then £49 a year. Here are real UK prices, with a three-year total for each, and what our package includes. Wondering about time rather than money? Here is how long a small business website takes, and where the weeks usually go.