Small business website design

A small business website has one job: turn a stranger into a phone call, a booking or a message. Good design here is less about looks than about order: what the visitor sees first, what they need to trust you, and how quickly they can reach you. This page covers the pages you need, the first screen, and how a design project runs. For prices, see how much does a website cost.

The first screen decides most visits

Most people will see your site on a phone, and many never scroll. Before anything else, the first screen should show:

• What you do and where, in plain words: "Hair salon in Madison, WI", not a slogan.
• One clear next step: call, book or ask for a quote. One, not four.
• Your phone number, tappable on a phone.
• A real photo of your work, your place or your team.

Our example sites are all built around that first screen; open one on your phone and you will see it.

The pages you need

• Home: the first screen above, then a short version of everything else, each part linking to its page.
• One page per service you want more of: what it involves, how long it takes, what affects the price, and the questions people ask before they call. A list of service names on one page sells nothing.
• The area you serve: towns, neighborhoods or ZIP codes, and a page per area only where you truly work and have something local to say.
• About: who you are, how long you have done this, licenses and insurance where your trade has them.
• Prices, or at least how you price: a call-out fee, a free estimate, a starting price. Plain pricing filters out the wrong calls.
• Reviews and photos that are real and yours.
• Contact: a short form, your phone, your hours, and a map if people come to you.
• Privacy policy and accessibility statement. Short, true, and linked from every page.

What makes it look professional

• Few fonts and colors, used the same way everywhere. Consistency reads as care.
• Space. Short paragraphs, headings that say what follows, nothing crowded.
• Your own photos. Stock photos of smiling models are recognized at a glance; a slightly imperfect photo of your real van builds more trust.
• Speed. A page that takes seconds to appear on a phone signal loses people before they read a word.

Designed to be found

Nobody can sell you a ranking. What helps is a site that search engines and AI assistants can read as it is: one clear topic per page, the same business name, address and phone everywhere, and structured data that states your business type, hours and area as facts, following Google's guidance for local businesses (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business).

How a design project runs with us

1. You tell us what you do and where you do it. Your services, your area, the questions customers ask you.
2. We design and write the pages around that. Nothing goes live that you have not read.
3. You see the whole site on your phone at a private address, and ask for changes.
4. It goes live on your domain, registered in your name.
5. After launch, the monthly plan keeps it hosted and updated, with an editing page of your own for prices, hours and photos.

The site is plain HTML served from Cloudflare's network, with automated checks before every publish: every page within its weight budget, no image over 200 KB, alt text on every image, one main heading per page, no cookies.

A new website is USD 1,500 once; if you already have one, a rebuild is USD 1,800 once and keeps every old address working. The monthly plan is USD 79 a month. Photography, logo design and paid ads are not included, and we say so before you commit.

Examples

These are example sites we built for made-up businesses: a dental practice, a hair salon, an HVAC company, an electrician and a landscaper.

Tell us what you do and where you do it.

Written with AI help. Sources: Google's local business guidance linked above and our own published services and prices, checked 2026-10-29.