How to Build a Website for a Small Business, Step by Step

To build a website for a small business, decide what the site has to do (usually: get people to call, book or buy), register a domain, choose a platform that matches who will edit it, write five to seven core pages, cover the basics of SEO and EU privacy law, then test and launch. A simple site done yourself on a website builder takes a few weekends. A professionally built one takes four to six weeks and, with us, starts at €1,000.

The rest of this guide goes through each step in the order you should do them, with the decisions that actually matter at each one.

Step 1: Decide what the website is for

Write one sentence before you touch a builder: "A visitor should leave having ___." For most small businesses the blank is one of these:

• called or emailed us (trades, consultants, clinics, agencies);
• booked an appointment (salons, coaches, restaurants, therapists);
• bought something (shops, makers, food producers);
• found our opening hours and address (local shops and cafés).

That sentence decides everything after it. A plumber needs a phone number in the header on every page and a list of areas covered. A coach needs a booking calendar. A shop needs a checkout. If you skip this step you end up with a site that looks fine and does nothing.

Also note who will update the site and how often. A menu that changes weekly and a brochure that changes once a year call for different platforms.

Step 2: Register a domain name

Your domain is your address and your email (name@yourbusiness.com looks more established than a free mail address). Good rules:

• Use your business name, or the closest short version available.
• Prefer .com or your country domain (.hu, .de, .co.uk) if you mainly sell locally.
• Avoid hyphens, numbers and spellings you have to explain on the phone.
• Register it in your name and your own account, not a freelancer's. Losing control of a domain is one of the most common and painful small-business website problems.

Turn on auto-renewal. A domain that lapses can be bought by someone else.

Step 3: Choose a platform, honestly

This is the decision people ask about most, and there is no single right answer. Here is how the four realistic options compare.

Option	Best for	You give up
Website builder (Wix, Squarespace, Webflow)	Brochure sites, portfolios, simple booking	Some flexibility; you rent the platform
WordPress	Sites you publish to often, blogs, most service businesses	You (or someone) must keep it updated
Shopify	Selling products online	A monthly fee and app costs that add up
Custom build (e.g. Next.js)	Sites closer to an application: portals, platforms, unusual logic	Cost, and you need a developer for changes

Website builders

Hosting, security and updates are included in a monthly subscription, and you edit by dragging things around. For a five-page site that needs to look professional and get enquiries, a builder is often the sensible choice, and doing it yourself is realistic. Webflow sits at the more design-led end of this group and suits a designer or agency build that your team then edits.

WordPress

WordPress (the free software from wordpress.org, installed on your own hosting) runs a large share of the web, and any developer can pick it up. It is the right call if you will publish regularly or need a specific plugin, such as bookings, memberships or multiple languages. The cost of that freedom is maintenance: core, theme and plugins need updating, and an unmaintained WordPress site is an easy target. Budget for someone to look after it.

Shopify

If selling products is the point of the site, Shopify has already solved payments, tax, shipping and stock. You pay a monthly plan plus apps for extra features, and you work within its structure. For a small product catalogue it is usually faster and safer than building a shop on WordPress with WooCommerce.

Custom code

A custom build makes sense when the site is really software: a customer portal, a booking system with unusual rules, a marketplace. For a typical small business brochure site it is more than you need, and anyone who pushes you there without a reason is selling hours.

If you are unsure, the default for most small service businesses is a website builder if you will do it yourself, and WordPress if someone is building it for you.

Step 4: Plan the pages every small business site needs

Most small businesses need five to seven pages. More pages only help if each one answers a question people actually ask.

1. Home. What you do, for whom, where, and the one action you want (call, book, buy). All of that should be visible without scrolling.
2. Services or products. One page per main service is better than one page listing everything, because each page can then rank for its own search.
3. About. Who is behind the business, real photos, why you are worth choosing. People buy from people.
4. Reviews or work. Testimonials with real names, photos of finished jobs, case studies.
5. Contact. Phone, email, a short form, address and map if customers visit you, opening hours.
6. Pricing or "how it works" if your prices are fairly standard. It filters out bad-fit enquiries.
7. Legal pages: privacy policy, cookie policy, and, depending on your country, an imprint or company details page (see step 7).

A blog is optional. Only start one if you will keep it going; an abandoned blog with three posts from two years ago makes the business look closed.

Step 5: Write the content before you design

Design around real words, not placeholder text. Practical rules:

• Lead with what the customer gets, not your history.
• Use the words customers use. If people search "emergency plumber Budapest", say that, not "fluid infrastructure solutions".
• Put a clear call to action on every page, and make the phone number tappable on mobile.
• Use your own photos where you can. Stock photos of smiling handshakes do nothing for trust.
• Keep paragraphs short. Most visitors are on a phone.

For the design side (layout, navigation, readability), our guide to how to build a great website goes into more detail.

Step 6: Cover the SEO basics

You do not need an SEO agency to get the fundamentals right at launch:

• One clear topic per page, with a page title and meta description written for that page.
• Headings that describe the content (one H1 per page, then H2s for sections).
• Your town or region in the text if you serve a local area.
• A Google Business Profile. For local businesses this often matters more than the website itself for showing up in map results. Link it to your site and keep the hours current.
• Google Search Console. Verify the site and submit the sitemap so you can see whether pages are indexed and which searches show them.
• Speed and mobile. Compress images before uploading them and check every page on a phone.

If you are replacing an old site, set up redirects from every old URL to its new equivalent before launch. Skipping that is the most common way a new site loses the rankings the old one had.

Step 7: Legal requirements for EU businesses

If you are in the EU, or have EU visitors, a website comes with obligations. This is a practical summary, not legal advice.

• Privacy policy. If you collect any personal data (a contact form counts, so does analytics), the GDPR requires you to tell people what you collect, why, how long you keep it and who you share it with (Articles 13 and 14).
• Cookie consent. Under the ePrivacy Directive (Article 5(3)), non-essential cookies, such as analytics and advertising, need consent before they are set. A banner that only says "we use cookies" is not enough; visitors must be able to refuse as easily as accept. Strictly necessary cookies (a shopping basket, a login) do not need consent.
• Company details. The E-Commerce Directive (Article 5) requires your business name, address, email and, where they apply, your registration and VAT numbers to be easy to find. Germany and Austria enforce this strictly through the Impressum page.
• Selling online. Shops need clear terms, prices including VAT, and the 14-day withdrawal information required by the Consumer Rights Directive.
• Accessibility. The European Accessibility Act has applied to e-commerce services since 28 June 2025. Microenterprises (fewer than 10 staff, and annual turnover or balance sheet of no more than €2 million) are exempt for services, but building accessibly from the start costs far less than retrofitting.

Use a consent tool that actually blocks scripts until consent is given, and have your privacy policy reflect the tools you really use.

Step 8: Launch checklist

Before you announce the site, go through this list:

• Every page checked on a phone, a tablet and a desktop browser
• Contact form tested end to end: the message arrives, and so does any auto-reply
• Phone numbers and email links work when tapped
• No placeholder text, broken links or "lorem ipsum" left anywhere
• Page titles and meta descriptions written for every page
• Favicon, social sharing image and business logo in place
• HTTPS working, with no "not secure" warnings
• Analytics installed, and loaded only after cookie consent where required
• Privacy policy, cookie policy and company details published
• Redirects from the old site in place, if there was one
• Sitemap submitted in Google Search Console
• Google Business Profile updated with the new URL
• Backups running, and you know who to call if something breaks

After launch, look at Search Console and your enquiries after a month. The first real visitors will show you what to fix.

If you want a second pair of eyes on a site you have built yourself, we do a free website roast: a short video teardown with design and conversion feedback.

How much it costs and how long it takes

Costs fall into three groups.

Doing it yourself on a builder. You pay for the domain and a monthly subscription, plus any paid features such as online booking or a shop. Your real cost is time: expect a few weekends for a simple site if you already have the words and photos.

WordPress yourself. Hosting, a domain, possibly a premium theme and plugins. Cheaper per month than a builder, but you are responsible for updates and security.

Hiring an agency or freelancer. For reference, our own rates are €25 to €45 an hour with a €1,000 minimum project. A landing page is typically €1,000 to €2,000, a five to fifteen page marketing site €3,000 to €7,000, and e-commerce €6,500 to €16,000. Our pricing page lists every band and what moves the number, and our 2026 benchmark of business website costs in Europe compares agency, freelancer and DIY options more widely.

Timelines. We quote four to six weeks for a standard business site and six to twelve weeks for e-commerce or a custom build. The thing that slows almost every project down is not the build; it is waiting for content, photos, logins and feedback. Have your text and images ready before you start and the job shrinks.

DIY or hire someone?

Do it yourself if: your budget is under about €1,000, you need a simple brochure site, you are comfortable with tools like Wix or Squarespace, and you have the time to write the content properly.

Hire someone if: the site has to do real work (bookings, payments, multiple languages, integrations), you are replacing a site that already gets traffic, you sell online, or your time is worth more running the business than learning a builder.

A middle path works well too: have a professional set up the structure, design and technical SEO, then edit the content yourself. That is how most of our small business websites are handed over.

FAQ

What is the easiest way to make a website for a small business?

A website builder such as Wix or Squarespace. Pick a template close to what you need, replace the text and photos with your own, connect your domain and publish. You can have something presentable in a day, although a good one takes longer because of the writing.

What is the best way to build a website for a small business?

The best way is the one that matches who will maintain it. If you will run it yourself, use a builder. If you publish often or need specific features, use WordPress. If you sell products, use Shopify. Start from what the site must do (step 1), not from the platform.

Can I build a small business website for free?

You can build one on a free plan, but it will usually carry the builder's branding and a subdomain such as yourname.wixsite.com, which looks less professional. Budget at least for your own domain.

How many pages does a small business website need?

Five to seven covers most businesses: home, services, about, reviews or work, contact, and the legal pages. Add a page when it answers a real question customers ask.

Do I need a cookie banner?

If you use analytics, advertising pixels, embedded videos or other tools that set non-essential cookies, and you have EU visitors, yes. If the site uses only strictly necessary cookies, you do not, but you still need a privacy policy if you collect any personal data.