Creating a simple, well-designed business website could be the difference between winning clients and losing out to your competitors. Not only does it build trust and authority, it lets consumers know what’s important to you as a brand.
This quick-start guide will help you choose a website builder, weigh up the pros and cons, and check different business website costs. The best bit? Many of these website builders have completely free plans and are suitable for absolute beginners. Keep reading to find out more.
Creating a business website: in summary
- get a domain name that reflects your brand
- define your website’s goals – will it be an online shop or a portfolio, for example?
- choose a website builder (like Wix or WordPress) and a hosting provider to store your website’s data
- plan your website’s structure – decide what pages you need and how they connect to one another
- create great content – add high quality images and engaging text to bring your website to life
- promote your website through social media or pay-per-click advertising
- track your website’s performance and make improvements to optimise results
7 steps to creating a website for your business
Before you start building a website, make sure you have a clear marketing plan and brand identity. You’ll want all of your channels to follow the same tone of voice and visually look like a unified brand.
Here’s how to make a business website for your small business in the UK:
Promote and monitor your business website
- Buy a domain name
- Decide the purpose of your business website
- Find a hosting provider
- Choose a business website builder
- Plan your site map
- Add photos and words
- Promote and monitor your website
1. Buy a domain name
Your domain is your website address and is how people will be able to find you online. It should be easy to remember and closely related to your trading name.
It’s a good idea to buy a domain as soon as you register your business name, even if you’re not ready to build a website yet.
Bear in mind that more competitive domain names may be taken or will be expensive.
How to choose a domain name
Consider the last section of the domain and how it can impact people’s impression of your business. Familiar domain extensions (.co.uk and .com) can be more expensive to buy but they can give authority to your business, both in terms of showing up in search results and earning trust of users.
| Top-level domain extension | Why use it? |
| .co.uk | Popular and a trusted option for UK businesses. Can help with local SEO, meaning you’ll be more visible for people searching in the UK |
| .uk | Alternative to .co.uk and can be used by individuals and organisations as well as businesses |
| .com | Relevant for businesses with an international audience and ambitions to scale beyond UK |
| .org | Traditionally used by not-for-profit and government organisations |
| Regional extensions (.london, .scot, .wales, .cymru) | Option for local businesses who want to emphasise regional appeal in London, Scotland, or Wales |
| .ltd and .plc.uk | Used by UK-registered limited companies and public limited companies |
You can buy a domain name in the UK through a range of low-cost providers, such as:
2. Decide the purpose of your business website
Once you’ve registered your domain, you need to decide the main purpose of your website.
Is it to show potential clients your portfolio of work? Do you want to have a blog? Or do you just need a simple site that highlights your services and how people can get in touch?
If you’re looking to sell products online or take payment, you’ll need to use a website builder that has ecommerce functionality.
3. Find a hosting provider
Next, you need to choose the hosting company that will store your data, and make it available on your domain.
Your choice of hosting provider will depend on a range of factors including storage limits, bandwidth, and business website costs – which could include an annual or monthly hosting plan.
Check if your hosting provider will also manage your SSL certificate for you, or if you need to install your own. This is a piece of code that keeps information secure if you’re asking people to share sensitive information with you.
It’s also good to check what content management systems offer a hosting company as well, for example WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal. We’ll go into more detail on this in the next step.
Make sure you also are aware of data protection and website privacy laws.
4. Choose a website builder
There are plenty of free and paid-for platforms you can use to build a website, without the need of a professional designer and web developer.
Most are set up so you just drag and drop components like contact buttons, enquiry forms, photo galleries, and videos.
From WordPress to Wix to Squarespace, here’s a rundown of some of the most popular website builders out there. We also have another guide to choosing a website builder that goes into more detail.
| Website builder | Free plan available | Costs | Features |
| WordPress | yes | Premium plan £7 a month / £84 a year | Drag-and-drop editor Advanced customisation Blog Extensive themes Flexible |
| Canva | yes | £13 a month / £100 a year | Drag-and-drop editor Professional templates Simple customisation Quick setup AI tools |
| Squarespace | no | £12 a month | Drag-and-drop editor Highly visual Professional templates Blog Analytics + SEO tools Ecommerce features Great for creatives and service-based businesses |
| Wix | yes | Core plan £16 a month | Drag-and-drop editor Extensive templates Suitable for range of businesses Analytics Blog |
| Shopify | no | £19 a month (£1 a month for first 3 months) | Go-to option for online shops Drag-and-drop editor Ecommerce platform Scalable Integrates with other shopping apps |
WordPress
WordPress is both a website builder and a hosting provider used by businesses of any size.
In fact, it’s said that 43 per cent of the web is built on WordPress.
You can install one of thousands of business website templates and themes available. Or if you have coding experience, you can build your own on the platform.
WordPress has a free option, along with a range of paid-for options depending on your needs. For example, the commerce plan is £36 a month and gives you access to premium templates, analytics, and SEO tools.
| Pros | Cons |
| WordPress software is free, so lower startup costs | Initial setup can be more complex, so difficult for beginners |
| Customisable with thousands of themes and plugins – from contact forms and booking calendars to ecommerce functionality | Too many plugins can slow down your website |
| Built-in blog features so you can appear in Google searches | Website speed is dependent on hosting provider |
| Scalable as you grow, from simple sites to bigger ecommerce platforms | Needs updating regularly to avoid security risks and out of date software |
Canva
Canva has a free tool to help you create your business website using custom templates. It’s best-suited to one page websites, for example landing pages, portfolios, or single page brochures.
Canva’s website builder comes with a library of templates that you can edit and customise without the need for developer or design skills. It’s free to create a basic website but you’ll need the paid-for plan to get custom domains, analytics, and brand colour palette.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to use – drag-and-drop functionality | Limited functionality without any blogging or ecommerce integrations |
| No coding experience needed | Only suitable for one-page business websites, so not very scalable as you grow |
| Quick to set up using pre-made templates | Deep analytics and performance measurement not possible |
| Free domain | Might be harder to rank in search with limited ability to add SEO elements |
Squarespace
Squarespace is a popular website builder, particularly for the creative industries. It has a range of beautifully designed templates that are responsive – so they look great on any device.
This makes it particularly popular for freelancers building a portfolio, as it helps display your work in creative ways.
Websites on Squarespace are easy to customise and have the option to add ecommerce features, from adding products and taking payment to creating discounts and pop-ups.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to edit pages and learn how to use | No free plan, and costs more than other website builders |
| Ability to add a blog and ecommerce functionality | Templates can impact page loading speed and slow down your website |
| Professional templates to create a visual website | Advanced customisation not always possible |
Wix
Wix is a template-based website builder that offers designs suitable for almost every business and industry.
Much of Wix’s functionality is available for free, but premium plans are also available if you want to do things like remove Wix ads and add a customised favicon – the little image that appears in the browser tab.
It’s popular amongst small firms thanks to its simple drag-and-drop interface, meaning that you can simply pull elements of your site around the screen to see how they’ll fit together.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free plan available | Limited flexibility beyond templates |
| Easy to use and wide range of templates to choose from | Less suitable for shops as ecommerce functionality isn’t ideal |
| No coding experience needed | Fixed templates – you can’t switch once you’ve selected one |
Shopify
Shopify is designed for businesses needing built-in ecommerce software, and is particularly popular among dropshipping businesses.
They say you can have your website built in minutes with thousands of themes and integrations. It’s simple to get set up and customise with its drag-and-drop functionality.
It’s worth knowing that you’ll need to use Shopify Payments to process payments, and if you want to use any third-party payment providers then you’ll need to pay a transaction fee with every sale.
| Pros | Cons |
| Designed for product-based businesses and online shops | Expensive plans (starting at £19 a month) with optional upgrades |
| Grows with your business | Advanced customisation would probably need a developer’s help |
| Connects orders across channels (Facebook, Instagram, Google etc) | Not ideal for content management and blogging |
5. Plan your site map
Your next step is to map out the pages you want to include on your website. This will vary depending on the type of business you have, but there are common pages people expect to see.
For example, a simple website might include the following pages:
- Home page
- About us
- Services
- Contact
Of course, your website might be more complex than this, especially if you’re including an ecommerce function.
Make sure you include a clear call to action button (such as ‘buy now’ or ‘contact us’). Many people will also be looking for links to your social media pages.
Remember, having a website that’s easy to navigate will also help improve a customer’s overall experience. Mapping the customer journey can help you understand what they need at each stage of the buying process.
6. Add photos and words
Once you’ve decided the basic structure of your website and pages you’ll need, you can start thinking about content and how these pages link together.
This might include:
- a list of products and prices
- your contact details
- information about the services your business offers
Telling your story of how you got started is an important part of showing the small business owner behind the business. You might also want to mention any awards and testimonials to give potential customers a reason to choose your business.
Throughout this process, you should think carefully about SEO (search engine optimisation). Using relevant terms in your website copy will help your site to appear higher up in search engine results pages.
7. Promote and monitor your business website
As well as good SEO practices, you should consider promoting your website through pay-per-click advertising. These are ads you see at the top of your Google search results for example, or on social media. With even a small budget, this can be a great way to increase the visibility of your business website.
But if you’re on a tight budget, there are still a number of ways you can promote your business for free.
You’ll then want to review the analytics for your site on a regular basis, making sure to keep content up to date and relevant.
Read more small business guides
- How to refresh a brand
- Social media marketing for small businesses
- Tips for writing a vision statement
- How to take good product photos
- How much does a TV advert cost?
- What is retail visual merchandising?
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