Plain English guide
How to make a
business website
Seven steps, in the order they actually happen. What to decide before you open any tool, what every page needs, what the three routes cost, and how to tell when the thing is finished.
The short answer
There are three ways to get a business website
Every route asks you for the same information. The difference is who does the work, and what happens if you run out of evenings.
Build it yourself
A drag and drop builder gives you a blank canvas and a pile of templates. Cheap in dollars, expensive in weekends, and you write every word.
- Your time
- A weekend, often more
- Cost, year one
- $300 to $800
- Best if
- You enjoy the work
Hire a designer or agency
Someone else builds it to a brief. The result can be excellent. The timeline runs on their calendar, and copywriting is usually a separate line on the quote.
- Your time
- Calls and revisions
- Cost, year one
- $5,000 to $15,000
- Best if
- You need something bespoke
Have it generated
You answer questions about the business you already run and the site is written, built and hosted for you. No editor and no blank page. This is what TurnCage does.
- Your time
- About 10 minutes
- Cost, year one
- Free to start
- Best if
- You would rather be working
Whichever route you take, the rest of this guide applies. The information a site needs does not change based on who assembles it.
Before you open a tool
Six things to have ready
Most website projects stall in the middle because the facts were never written down. Gather these six first and the building part takes an afternoon instead of a month.
Who you are and where you work
Business name, what you do in one sentence, and the towns or counties you cover. The service area matters more than most owners expect, because local searches carry a place name.
What you sell, in your customer’s words
List each service or product by the name a customer would type. Drain cleaning, not advanced hydro solutions. Every item on that list becomes a page later.
Why people choose you
Same day callouts. Twenty years in the trade. A guarantee nobody else offers. Three reasons is plenty, and they belong high on the home page.
Proof
Reviews, licence numbers, insurance, before and after photos, the names of places you have worked. Proof is what turns a reader into a phone call.
How you want to be contacted
Phone, form, text, booking link. Pick the one you will actually answer, and put it in the header, in the middle and at the bottom of every page.
How the brand should look and sound
A logo if you have one, two colours, and a decision about tone. Formal or friendly. That single choice keeps the writing consistent across every page.
Step by step
How to make a business website in seven steps
These run in order. Skipping ahead to the design is the single commonest reason a site never gets finished.
-
1
Decide the one job the site has to do
Every good small business site answers one question first: what should a stranger do after reading it? Call, book, request a quote, order, or walk in. Pick one. That single decision settles your headline, your layout and the button people press.
-
2
List what you sell, one line each
Write out every service or product, using the words a customer would use. Keep the list even if it runs to fifteen items. Each line is a page you can be found by later, and a service buried as one bullet on a crowded page will never rank for anything.
-
3
Gather the six facts
The six above: who you are, what you sell, why you, proof, contact, brand. Put them in one document. Everything after this point is assembly, and assembly is fast when the parts are already on the bench.
-
4
Claim a domain name
Short, easy to say out loud, easy to spell over a noisy phone line. A .com if you can get one, otherwise your trade or your town in the name. Budget $10 to $20 a year. Some plans include the first year, so check before you buy one separately.
-
5
Plan the pages before writing a word
Home, about, contact, and one page for each thing you sell. Sketch the order of sections on each page: what it is, who it is for, why you, proof, next step. A plan on paper takes ten minutes and saves the afternoon you would spend rearranging blocks.
-
6
Write the words, then build around them
Design is easy once the words exist and impossible before. Write the way you talk to a customer on the phone: short sentences, plain terms, prices or ranges wherever you can share them. Then place the writing into a layout, rather than writing to fill a template.
-
7
Publish, then make sure you can be found
Publishing is not the finish line. Check the site on a phone, submit it to Google Search Console, claim your Google Business Profile, and make sure your name, address and phone number match everywhere they appear. People also ask assistants like ChatGPT for recommendations now, and assistants read the same clear page structure that search engines do.
7steps from idea to live
6facts to gather first
4pages a small site needs
$0to see yours before deciding
Structure
The pages a small business site needs
Four pages is a working website. Beyond that, add one page for each thing you sell rather than one longer page about everything.
| Page | What it is for | Leave it out if |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Says what you do, where, and what to do next | Never |
| One per service | Answers the exact search someone typed | You sell only one thing |
| About | Carries the proof: history, licences, faces | Never, people check |
| Contact | Phone, form, hours, area covered | Never |
| Gallery or reviews | Shows the work instead of describing it | Your work is not visual |
| Blog | Answers the questions customers ask before buying | You cannot keep it fed |
A page per service is the part most owners skip and the part that does the most work. A plumber with separate pages for burst pipes, boiler repair and bathroom fitting can be found three different ways. Read more on how that structure is built.
Money
What a business website actually costs
The sticker price is rarely the whole price. Count your own hours too, because a weekend of your time is not free.
| Item | TurnCage | DIY builder | Design agency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain name | Free for year one | $10 to $20 a year | Usually included |
| Hosting and SSL | Included | $60 to $300 a year | Often a retainer |
| Who writes it | We do, you edit | You do, from scratch | Extra line item |
| Design and build | Generated from your answers | Templates you arrange | Custom, on their timeline |
| Your time | About 10 minutes | A weekend, often more | Calls and revisions |
| See it before paying | Yes, a live page | Only what you built | After a deposit |
| First year total | $999 all in on Growth | $300 to $800, plus your time | $5,000 to $15,000 |
Most website builds never get finished
Wix reports more than 272 million sites created across its history. Independent trackers count roughly 8 to 8.5 million live today. The rest are drafts and abandoned accounts.
Total creative freedom sounds generous until you are the one making every decision, writing every word and running out of a Sunday afternoon.
~96%
never go live
Wix’s published creation total set against third party trackers of live sites. They are not directly comparable measures, so treat this as an order of magnitude rather than a precise figure.
Before you publish
The ten minute check
Run through this on a phone, not a laptop. Most of your visitors will be on one.
- Your phone number is visible without scrolling, and it dials when tapped.
- The home page says what you do and where within the first two lines.
- Every page has one clear next step, and it is the same one.
- The contact form has been tested, and the message arrived somewhere you read.
- The address starts with https, so browsers do not warn people off.
- Photos are your own where possible, and none of them take five seconds to load.
- Each page has its own title and description, not the same one repeated.
- Your business name, address and phone number match your Google Business Profile exactly.
- Prices, hours and service areas are current, or clearly marked as a guide.
- Someone who does not work with you has read it and understood what you sell.
That last one catches more problems than the other nine together.
The shortcut
Or answer 10 questions and skip to the finished site
Every step in this guide is work someone has to do. TurnCage does it from your answers. The first page is free, real and live before you decide anything.
Answer 10 questions
Multiple choice and fill in the blank, tailored to your trade, with suggestions offered as you go. Takes about ten minutes.
Keep your page, free
Verify your phone number and the page is yours, along with a free 90-Day Marketing Plan. No card required.
Upgrade when ready
Starter adds home, about and contact. Growth builds ten or more pages, one for every service you named in step two of this guide.
Built for your trade: electricians, plumbers, HVAC, landscapers, lawyers, photographers, and 13 more.
Questions
What people ask before they start
How long does it take to make a business website?
Building it yourself takes most owners a weekend for the layout and considerably longer for the writing, which is where projects usually stall. An agency runs on their calendar, typically four to eight weeks. Answering ten questions and having the page generated takes about ten minutes.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Nobody has needed to write code to publish a small business website for well over a decade. What you do need is the six facts listed above, a decision about what the site is for, and the patience to write the words or a way to have them written for you.
What does a business website cost?
A do it yourself builder runs roughly $300 to $800 in the first year once hosting, a domain and any paid template are counted. An agency site is commonly $5,000 to $15,000. TurnCage gives you one real page free, and Growth is a one-time $400 setup plus $599 a year, which is $999 all in for year one and $599 every year after.
Do I need a domain name first?
Not first, but before you publish. Pick something short and easy to spell out loud, and expect to pay $10 to $20 a year. Both paid TurnCage plans include a custom domain free for the first year, and it renews at cost after that. If you already own one, you can point it at your site instead.
How many pages should a small business website have?
Four is the working minimum: home, about, contact, and services. Beyond that, add one page for each distinct thing you sell rather than lengthening a single page. Ten to fifteen pages is normal for a trade business with several services, and each one is a separate chance to match what someone typed into a search box.
What should go on the home page?
What you do and where, in the first two lines. Then the one action you want, three reasons to choose you, proof such as reviews or licences, and links to your service pages. Everything else is optional. Resist the urge to open with a slideshow that says welcome.
Do I need a blog?
Only if you can keep it fed. An abandoned blog with three posts from two years ago reads worse than no blog at all. If you can answer the questions customers ask you before they buy, one post a month is enough to be worth the effort.
How do I get found on Google and in AI assistants?
Give each service its own page, use the words customers actually search for, keep your name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear, claim your Google Business Profile, and collect reviews. Assistants such as ChatGPT read the same clear page structure, so a site written plainly and organised by service is readable by both.
Can I change the site after it is published?
You should, and often. Prices, hours and photos go stale fastest. On a builder you log in and edit. On a TurnCage site you send a text message with what you want changed, and there is no dashboard to learn.
More on the full FAQ page, or just ask us.
Now you know the steps. You can also just skip them.
Answer 10 questions, keep the page, decide about the rest later. Costs nothing to find out.
Build mine freeNo credit card. About 10 minutes.
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