How to make a website, step by step

Step 1

Decide what the website is for

Before you pick a tool, write one sentence about what a visitor should do on the site. "Call us for a quote." "Book a table." "Buy a print." "See my work and email me." That one action decides which pages you need, what goes at the top of the home page and which features matter.

A site that tries to do everything tends to do nothing well. Start with the single most valuable action and add the rest later.

• Write down the one action you want visitors to take
• List the three questions customers ask you most often: those answers become your first pages

Step 2

Choose how you will build it

There are three realistic ways to make a website. A website builder gives you design, hosting and editing in one place and suits most small businesses and personal sites. A self-hosted platform gives you more control but you manage hosting, updates and security yourself. Hiring a developer or agency gets you a custom result but costs the most and makes every change a request.

Website builders now come in two kinds. Template builders give you a design to fill in. AI website builders write the site for you from a description, then let you edit it. We.Inc does both: templates on the free plan, AI building from $20 a month.

• Check whether you can export or move the site later
• Check what the price renews at, not just the first-year price

Step 3

Pick a domain name

Your domain is your address on the web, such as yourbusiness.com. Keep it short, easy to say out loud, and close to your business name. Avoid hyphens and odd spellings, because people will mistype them.

You can launch without one: builders with a free plan, including We.Inc, publish on their own address first. When you are ready, connect your own domain on a paid plan. On We.Inc you can also buy a domain inside the app.

• Say it out loud to a friend and see if they can spell it
• If the .com is taken, a local or industry ending can work

Step 4

Plan your pages

Most small business websites need only five pages: Home, Services (or Menu, or Work), About, Reviews and Contact. A single-page site with those sections is also fine when you are starting out.

Give each service its own page if you want to be found on Google for it. Someone searching "emergency plumber" should land on a page about emergency plumbing, not a list of everything you do.

• Home: who you are, where, and the one action
• Contact: phone, email, address, hours and a map

Step 5

Write the words before you design

The words do the selling. Lead with what you do, who it is for and where: "Family dentist in Austin, open Saturdays." Then prices or a way to get a price, proof such as reviews, and the action.

Write the way you talk to customers. Short sentences, plain words, real details. Real details are what make a page believable and what help it show up in search.

If writing is the part you dread, this is where an AI website builder helps most: on We.Inc's paid plans, you describe the business and the AI writes every page, which you then correct.

Step 6

Choose a design and add your photos

Pick a template made for your kind of business, then change it to fit you: your logo, your colours, your photos. Your own photos of your work, your team and your premises beat stock images every time.

Check the design on a phone before anything else. Make sure the phone number is tappable and the main button is easy to reach with a thumb.

Step 7

Build the site

In a template builder, you open the template and replace the text and photos section by section. In the We.Inc builder, you can click on any heading, paragraph or image on the page and change it right there.

In an AI builder, you type a description such as "a dog grooming salon in Leeds with online booking", review the site it builds, and ask for changes in chat: "add a pricing page", "make the colours warmer".

Step 8

Set up the basics for Google

Give every page a clear title and description that says what it is and where you are. Use one main heading per page. Add alt text to your images. Make sure the site has a sitemap and is not blocked from search engines.

Then create or update your Google Business Profile and link it to the site. For a local business, that profile and your reviews often matter as much as the website itself.

We.Inc sets page titles, a sitemap and share images for you when you publish.

• Put your town or area in the home page title
• Ask your happiest customers for a review

Step 9

Publish, then test it like a customer

Publish the site, then open it on your own phone and walk through it as a stranger would. Tap every button. Send yourself a message through the contact form. Check that the phone number dials and the map points to the right place.

Ask two or three people who do not know your business to find one specific thing on the site and watch where they get stuck.

Step 10

Keep it up to date

A website is never finished. Update prices, hours and photos when they change, add new reviews, and add a page when customers keep asking about something new.

Put a reminder in your calendar once a month to check the site. Out-of-date opening hours cost more customers than an old design.