How to put your small business online in an afternoon
Customers look you up before they call, visit or buy. A simple website with the right details wins you those customers, and it doesn't have to take weeks or cost hundreds of dollars. Here's a plan you can finish this afternoon.
What your site needs
Most small business sites need only a few things. Get these right before anything fancy:
- What you do and where, in one sentence at the top
- Your services with prices, or your menu
- Opening hours and address, with a map link
- A phone number people can tap to call, and an email
- A few photos and reviews from real customers
Build it
Start from the Local business or Restaurant template, or describe your business to the Website Designer. Then tell the AI your real details: "Change the name to Rosa's Bakery, put our hours as 7am to 3pm Tuesday to Sunday, and use these prices..." You can paste in text you already have, like a menu or a flyer.
Make contacting you easy
Ask for a big "Call us" button that dials your number on a phone, and an email link. Once your site is published, whatever customers send through its booking or contact form arrives in your Messages: open the Website Designer and tap the inbox button on your site. Check it every day, or put your phone number next to the form for anything urgent.
Get found
Publish your site, then put the link everywhere customers already look:
- The website field of your Google Business Profile
- Your Instagram, Facebook and TikTok bios
- Business cards, flyers and your shop window, as a QR code
- Your email signature and receipts
Keep it fresh
New hours, a holiday special or a price change takes a minute: open your site, tell the AI what changed and publish again. The link stays the same.
When you grow
The Team plan, $10 a month, lets up to three people work on your sites and share one pool of AI credits. On Pro and Team you can also download your site's code or push it to GitHub, so it's always yours.