If you’re in the early days of starting your business, setting up a website has likely already made it on your to-do list. But where does a website stand in the grand scheme of your small business marketing efforts? Does it come ahead of product or service development or after you craft your elevator pitch? There’s no right or wrong time to build your website, but a few things are true:

You don’t need to pay some fancy designer to build the world’s most beautiful (and expensive) website.
You can get away with DIYing your website as long as you know the right service to use and which key pages to include.

With that, we jump in.

Getting over the “I need to pay for a website designer” hurdle

Don’t you need to hire a web designer and pay thousands of dollars for a website? No! Not for the minimum viable product (MVP). In fact, there are only a few expenses you can’t get away from when it comes to building your site.

Purchasing your domain name. Your domain name is your address on the web, so for us, that’s bigbadmarketing.com. Based on your business name, look for available domain names using a tool like Squarespace Domains (formerly Google Domains).
Hosting your website. If you use a service like Squarespace, the hosting is handled for you, and you pay for it in your subscription. At the time of writing, a basic website on Squarespace costs $16/month, which includes your domain. That means you’ll spend a total of $192 (plus taxes and things, of course) for your website for the year. If you use a service like WordPress that allows for custom development, you’ll need to pay for hosting separately. Depending on who you use, it can be a few hundred dollars a year.

As your business grows, you can look to WordPress or custom website development. But until you get to the point where you really need functionality that these basic services can’t offer, we’d recommend that you save your money for other business investments and DIY.

5 Most important pages for a small business website

Websites should be clear and functional, and above all, they should make it easy for customers to find you and get information about your business.

Period, hard stop. Go ahead and read that one again.

As long as your customers find the information they need, like what hours your store is available, the types of products you have, and how they can get in touch with you, you’re golden. Don’t make it any more complicated than that.

For most websites, you can achieve this user-friendly experience with only five pages.

Home Page

The home page can be your first impression, especially when your site is young.

After you grow, it’s likely people are going to come into your website through landing pages, blogs, etc., and then make their way to your home page as a means of exploration. But in the early days, many people are likely going to Google your business name and land smack dab in the middle of what we hope will be a really great introduction to your business!

Here are a few tips to make your home page great.

Make it about THEM (your ideal customer). As you decide what words to put on your home page, think “what’s in it for me” from the perspective of your ideal customer. If you land on the home page of Big Bad Marketing, you’ll see that we immediately call out a common pain point for small business owners: not having enough money for marketing. So we tell them very clearly, “You don’t need to play small with your marketing; you can stand out and be seen, even on a small business budget.” That can be far more powerful than trying to make it about us by saying something like, “We’re the #1 marketing agency in the Southeast if you survey our closest friends and family. We’re also beautiful and funny.” While, of course, these things are true, they’re about us, not about the people we’re trying to serve.
Make it clear what you do at the top of the page in the H1. The H1 is the primary header of your page. It tells a reader (and a search engine) what you do. This is not the place to mince words or beat around the bush. If you make t-shirts, say you make t-shirts. If you groom dogs, say you groom dogs. Don’t say, “We clothe the backs of hardworking humans everywhere with designer duds that are so stylish they’ll make you dance,” or “We make sure pets smell like fresh lilacs and not like doo-doo.” You can work these types of taglines into copy later, but front and center on your home page ain’t the place for it.
Make it very easy to read. You can use pretty images and fonts, but make sure they’re readable before they’re beautiful. Scripty, flowy fonts are pretty, but they can be challenging to read. Always choose function over aesthetics, especially when it comes to super important things like people being able to read your words!
Don’t overcrowd the home page. You have a lot to say about the important work you’re doing! But you can expand on that on separate pages throughout your website. Keep your home page to 5-6 sections maximum, and be sure to feature your most important happenings. Think of each section as one focus area, so for example you might have a section that links to your services or products page, a section that contains a sign-up for your newsletter, a section with a notification about an upcoming event at your store, or a section with a link to learn more about you on your about page.

2. About Page

Now it’s time to talk about everyone’s favorite person: YOU! Show people who they’re doing business with. Tell them about the vision and mission and the why behind your brand. Weave a tale, tell a story, and make it the most self-obsessed place on your website because it should be. People do business with people they like and trust, and the only way for someone to know you is by offering up an about page.

Be sure to include:

A photo (or several photos) of you and/or your inspiration, family, pets, or hobbies.
Background on how you came to do the thing you do.
What makes you qualified to do that thing. (This can include education, life experience, or links to other work. I.e., if you’re starting a nanny business and you’re a former schoolteacher who published multiple parenting books, this is the right place to plug all of that!)
This can also be a great place to give people your social handles so they can follow along with whatever it is you’re up to on those channels.

People love an underdog story. Tell them about where you came from and what you endured to get to where you are today!
Source: https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/iwt-about-us/

3. Services/Product Page

It’s exceptionally important that your website lets people know what you sell and how they can buy! Even if you don’t offer online purchasing, tell people how they can get your product or service, whether that’s by booking a call, sending an email, or stopping by an in-person location.

Make it easy, make it user-friendly, and make it easy for people to get you their $$$!

If you have 1, 2, or 3 options to work with you, say it right there on the page! Tell people exactly what you do and where to head next.
Source: https://www.syattfitness.com/work-with-me/

4. Contact Page

Your contact page has one purpose: to tell people how to reach you.

Before you plop your phone number and email address onto the page, think for a minute about how you want people to contact you. Would you prefer to route everyone to a generic email address (like hello@yourwebsite.com) instead of giving them your personal email address? Is it better to have people text your phone than call it?

If you have a physical location, add the address to this page and consider using a map functionality so people can quickly see where you are in relation to the larger area.

5. Privacy Policy

If you’re collecting user data, like a name and email address, you need a privacy policy. It tells your website users what data you collect, for what purposes, and if you share it with anyone else. ChatGPT can create this for you. As you grow, and if you’re offering other services on your site, you can pay a lawyer to review it. If you operate in more regulated industries, like financial services or healthcare, get a lawyer to do this for you, as you may be beholden to other laws.

That’s all it takes! Those are the five pages every website needs. They’re straightforward and you can totally 100% DIY this. But if you’d rather pay someone with a bit more experience, we build websites at Big Bad Marketing. Schedule 15 minutes to chat with us and see if we’re the right fit to help turn your website vision into reality.

6 Important Features for your Small Biz Website

These other je ne sais quoi of a website apply to every page you build, now and into the future.

Simple navigation

Keep your menus clear and easy to find. Most websites will have navigation in the header and the footer (and yours should, too!) Make sure nobody ever has to ask where something is, it’s always abundantly obvious.

Mobile friendly

Some studies show that over 65% of website users are using their phone or tablet. If your site is clunky for mobile users, they’ll leave. Most site builders let you toggle the view between desktop and mobile. Be sure to check both before you publish a page!

Brand consistency

Your brand should come through on each page and create a cohesive experience as you navigate the site. Your logo, colors, fonts, voice and tone should be consistent across pages. For more on consistent branding, listen to our podcast episode on building a brand that sticks.

Clear CTAs

From each page on your website, you should be telling your site visitors what to do next. That might be sending someone from the about page to your products section after you tell the story of how your product came to life. Maybe you want someone to schedule a free consultation appointment after you share your available services. Whether you want someone to buy something, book something, or sign up for something, TELL THEM! And then make it easy for them to do the thing.

Basic SEO

Meta elements are the components of your website that are used by search engines. You can often update these in your website settings (they may even show up under a section called SEO). You want to ensure key meta elements are updated for each page of your site, including:

Meta title
Meta description
Image alt tags (help screen readers identify what an image is)

Check out our post on how to do SEO for your small business for more.

Fast load speeds

We’re now living in a high-speed, instant-gratification world. If your website loads slowly, you might lose customers. Test your website speed at https://pagespeed.web.dev/. If you uncover something major, it might be time to loop in platform support (if your hosting is managed by Wix, Squarespace, or another hosting provider) or an independent developer (if you have a custom wordpress site).

Later on, when you’re a resounding success (or just have more time or money), consider these things

Add a resources section

This is a bonus section that serves several purposes. You can educate your ideal customers, build trust in you and the things you know, showcase your expertise as a thought leader in the space, and if done well, can help with SEO efforts, too. Here are the types of things you can include in a resources section.

FAQs: Answer questions, build trust, save time
Guides: Share how to use your product/service or address their pain points
Case studies: Show the results in action
White papers: Show in-depth knowledge and expertise
Templates: Help them do things
Testimonials: Showcase what real people said about working with you/your product

Build out a blog

First, figure out if your business needs a blog. If you feel like it’s the right move, you can create a blog page (often hosted at yourwebsite.com/blog) and then begin to add individual posts. You can let your own creative juices guide your blogging or use a more strategic approach where you search for keywords that pertain to what your audience is looking for.

Create landing pages

A landing page is a page on your website that’s designed with the goal of converting your audience on a particular offer. Landing pages are used a lot with individual marketing campaigns, whether those are run through email or paid advertising channels.

A simple checklist for your MVP website

I know we just dumped a lot on you, but you made it! To keep it simple, here’s a checklist so you can be sure you hit the high notes with your new site. You can download it here (for free!).

Still feel like you’re in a foreign land? We’re happy to help! Schedule your free 15-minute consultation and we’ll talk all things marketing for your website and beyond!

How to Build a Basic Website: A Foundational Element for ALL Small Businesses!