How to create a business website

Today, a business website is more than just a necessity – it’s one of the first places your customers get to know you. 

Whether you’re starting fresh or upgrading an existing site, having a well-designed website helps you showcase what you offer, build trust, and make it easy for people to discover what you’re all about.

You don’t have to be tech-savvy either, as there are plenty of ways you can make a professional website without all the complicated coding and jargon. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the key steps to create a professional, effective business website – helping you create a site that not only looks good, but works smoothly, and most importantly, turns visitors into customers.

Check out our guide on the best website builders to find the perfect platform that fits both your needs and budget.

Decide your website’s purpose

Before you jump into designing your website, you’ll need to figure out the purpose behind it. Otherwise, your website will only end up confusing visitors and falling short of delivering real value to your business. Here’s what you should keep in mind when determining your website’s purpose:

Your business goals

Start with what you want to get from your website. For example, are you an ecommerce business trying to sell products? Or are you looking to generate leads through offering services?

Other examples include building credibility through a professional portfolio, sharing valuable content or a combination of several goals. Whatever you go for, make sure that your website supports your main business objectives.

Your target audience

You’ll need to consider your target market as well, including who they are, what they’re looking for, and how your website can solve their problems or meet their needs.

You should also think about the core action you want visitors to take. The key thing to ask is: “If someone visits my site, what’s the ONE thing I want them to do?”

Examples of core actions include making a purchase, booking a call, or signing up for a newsletter. Your entire website should revolve around guiding visitors to that desired action.

Your competitors

Take some time to look into what your competitors are doing. Specifically, look at how they structure their pages, what kind of content they prioritise, and how they guide visitors towards taking action.

Pay attention to features or layout choices that seem effective, as well as areas where their site might be lacking or confusing. This can not only help spark inspiration for your own website, but also find any gaps you could fill.

For example, maybe your competitors don’t offer clear pricing information, or their websites are difficult to use on mobile. Spotting those weaknesses gives you the chance to offer something better.

The type of content you’ll offer

Website content is crucial as it’s what helps attract visitors, build trust and convert them into customers. However, that doesn’t mean you should do everything at once. If your website is overloaded with content, it can quickly become overwhelming, and visitors will be more likely to leave without taking any action.

When deciding what content to include, look back on your business objectives and determine what kind of content will support your goals. For example:

• Blogs and articles for search engine optimisation (SEO) and authority
• Product pages for selling products
• Customer testimonials or a portfolio for building trust
• FAQs/tutorials for service businesses or helping customers through the decision-making process

Pick a domain name

Your domain name is simply the address people type into their browser to visit your website. Once you’ve decided this, you’ll need to register your domain through a registrar. Here’s a quick rundown of how it works:

• Check name availability: go to a domain registrar and search for your desired name. Some popular registrars include GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains and Hover.
• Register your domain: once you’ve found an available domain, you’ll need to choose how many years you want to register it for (usually 1-5 years, renewable) and decide if you want domain protection (this hides your personal info from public databases).
• Pay for your domain: simply fill in your payment details and complete the purchase.

How to decide your domain name

Choosing the right domain name is essential, as it’s one of the first impressions people will have of your brand. Here are a couple of do’s and don’ts to consider to help you pick a name that best suits your business.

What is hosting?

Put simply, hosting is like renting space on the internet where all your website’s files – including images, text, videos and code – are stored. 

In other words, it’s a bit like the home for your website, making it accessible for visitors 24/7. Without hosting, your website wouldn’t have a place to live online.

Most website builders include hosting as part of their service. This means you don’t have to worry about finding a separate company to host your site or deal with technical setup, as it’s all bundled together.

So, when someone types your domain into a browser, the domain name system (DNS) directs them to your hosting server, where your website’s content is stored. Registering a domain means you reserve that web address for your site, while hosting provides the actual space to store your website files.

Choose how to build your website

Now you need to determine how you’ll build your website. Choosing the right option is crucial, and will ultimately depend on your budget, technical skills, timeline and long-term goals.

Below, we’ve broken down three of the most popular options for creating a website – each with its own benefits and drawbacks.

Option A: Website builder

There are many affordable website builders available, but you shouldn’t just pick one at random. Instead, finding the right website builder is really important as you’ll want to make sure it’s easy to use, has the features you need and has good support for when you need help.

You should also consider things like how customisable the templates are, whether the builder offers built-in tools for SEO or ecommerce (if you need them), and how well it integrates with other platforms you might use, such as email marketing tools or social media.

Pros of using a website builder

✅ Easy to use: most builders offer drag-and-drop functionality, with no coding needed.

✅ Fast setup: with ready-to-use templates, you can make your website live in a few hours (or even less).

✅ Affordable: many platforms offer free plans or low-cost monthly pricing.

✅ All-in-one functionality: hosting, security, mobile optimisation and even domain options are usually included.

✅ Templates and design tools: tons of pre-made templates to help you create a professional-looking site without design skills.

✅ Built-in features: things like SEO, contact forms, email marketing integrations and ecommerce options are often built in already.

Cons of using a website builder

❌ Limited customisation: you may struggle if you want full design control outside the builder’s limits.

❌ Less scalable: not ideal for scaling businesses that may need custom functionality later.

❌ Gets expensive over time: while cheap at first, premium features, add-ons, or growing needs can raise monthly costs.

❌ Less control over performance: as you rely on the builder’s hosting environment, you can’t always adjust speed, caching or server settings as you could with self-hosted options.

❌ Platform lock-in: if you ever want to switch platforms, moving your site can be a pain.

Website builders: our personal recommendations

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Wix	Squarespace	GoDaddy	Shopify	Hostinger	1&1 Ionos	Jimdo
BEST FOR Best all-in-one website builder	BEST FOR Design flexibility & businesses looking to scale	BEST FOR Ease of use and simplicity	BEST FOR Ideal for growing your online store	BEST FOR Cheap builder	BEST FOR Reliable servers	BEST FOR Creating a website in under an hour (thanks to its ADI platform)
Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.9	Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.6	Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.2	Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.2	Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.3	Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 3.5	Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 3.3
Price £9-£119 per month £8.10-£107.10 with code “TAKE10”	Price £12-£79 per month, billed annually Use code “SU10” to receive a 10% discount on all Squarespace plans	Price £7.99-£13.99 per month, billed annually (first term discounts available)	Price £19-£259 per month, billed annually Currently £1 per month for the first three months	Price £2.99-£3.49 per month (48-month subscription) Up to 81% discounted with code “STARTUPS”	Price £10 – 28 per month	Price £9-£39 per month
Try Wix	Try Squarespace	Try GoDaddy	Try Shopify	Try Hostinger	Visit site	Try Jimdo

Option B: WordPress

You should consider using WordPress to create a website for your business if you want complete freedom to change and customise your website, have the time to design and build it yourself, and have some level of technical website knowledge.

WordPress is an extremely useful platform that offers thousands of themes and plugins, allowing you to tailor nearly every aspect of your site’s design and functionality. It’s also good for SEO and offers more control over hosting, performance and security compared to most website builders.

However, keep in mind that you’ll need to handle tasks like installing themes, updating plugins, backing up your site, and maybe even tweaking some code. Therefore, it’s best suited for people who are comfortable managing the backend of a website or are willing to learn.

Pros of using WordPress

✅ Full customisation: you can build almost anything – from blogs and portfolios to complex ecommerce websites.

✅ Thousands of themes and plugins: access to a huge library of free and paid tools to extend your site’s design and functionality.

✅ Good for SEO: with the right plugins (e.g. Yoast or RankMath), you get good control over SEO settings and site structure.

✅ Scalable and flexible: it grows with your business – you can start small and expand your site’s features over time.

✅ You fully own it: with a self-hosted WordPress site, you’re in full control of your site and data.

Cons of using WordPress

❌ Learning curve: not as beginner-friendly as website builders – some technical skills or a willingness to learn are needed.

❌ Maintenance required: you’re fully responsible for updates, backup, security, and fixing issues if things go wrong.

❌ Can be slower without optimisation: too many plugins or heavy themes can slow your site down if not managed well.

❌ Hosting and domain not included: you’ll need to find your own web host and register your domain separately, which adds to the set-up time.

Option C: Hire a web designer

Using a web designer is the perfect option for your business if you want a completely custom look, don’t have the time or skills to build the site yourself, or need advanced features that go beyond what DIY website builders can offer. It’s also a good choice if you want professional input on user experience, branding and long-term scalability.

But as you’d expect, hiring a designer is usually more expensive upfront compared to using a website builder, and timelines can be longer – especially for more complex sites.

Pros of hiring a web designer

✅ Custom, professional design: your site will look unique, polished and perfectly aligned with your brand identity.

✅ Tailored functionality: designers can build advanced features and custom integrations that DIY tools don’t offer.

✅ Better user experience: experts focus on usability and conversion, helping turn visitors into customers.

✅ Time-saving: you can focus on your business while they handle the technical and creative work.

✅ Long-term support: many designers offer ongoing maintenance and updates to keep your site running smoothly.

Cons of hiring a web designer

❌ Higher cost: custom design and development usually cost more upfront than using website builders.

❌ Longer timeline: designing and building a website from scratch takes time – often weeks or months, depending on complexity.

❌ Dependence on the designer: you might need their help for updates or troubleshooting, unless you’re comfortable managing the site yourself.

❌ Variable quality: not all designers deliver the same level of skill or professionalism, so choosing the right one is crucial.

❌ Potential for “scope creep”: without clear agreements, projects can expand beyond the original plan, in turn causing delays and increasing costs.

Map out your website pages

Before you start building your website, it’s important to plan out the structure of your pages. This will help you organise your content clearly and make it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for.

Think back to your business objectives and what you want your website to achieve. Are you selling products, generating leads, sharing information, or showcasing a portfolio? From there, you should:

1. List your core pages

Start with the essential pages every website needs. These include:

• Home: your main landing page and often the first impression visitors get. It should clearly explain who you are, what you do, and guide people to the most important areas of your website.
• About: this page should tell your story, including the people behind your team, your core values, and what makes you different.
• Products/services: whether you’re selling items or providing services, this page should clearly explain the benefits and give people a reason to buy or get in touch.
• Contact: make it easy for people to reach you. This page should include your business email, phone number, and possibly your location or business hours.

2. Add supporting pages

Consider adding more pages that support your goals and bring value. For example:

• Blog/news: a place to share updates, helpful content, or industry insights. Good for building authority, keeping your site fresh, and improving SEO.
• Frequently asked questions (FAQs): helps address common queries about your products, services or policies.
• Testimonials or reviews: ideal for showcasing positive customer feedback, helping build credibility and encouraging new visitors to trust your business.
• Portfolio or case studies: good for service-based businesses or creatives, as it shows real-life examples of your work and highlights your skills or results.

3. Organise your pages hierarchically

You should arrange your pages logically. The homepage is the top level of your site, and from there, visitors should be able to easily navigate to your main sections (e.g. Services, Shop, About, or Contact). These top-level pages act like signposts that guide people to more specific information.

Under each main section, you can create subpages to keep things organised and easy to explore. For example, under Services, you might have separate pages for each individual service you offer. Under Shop, each product could have its own dedicated page with details, photos, and pricing.

Choose your template

Now it’s time to design your website. This is what sets the tone for your website’s design – controlling the layout, overall look and how your content is presented.

With so many options available, it can be tempting to just pick something that “looks nice”, but it’s important to go a bit deeper.

The right template shouldn’t just reflect your brand’s style, but also support your goals, offer a good experience for visitors and be easy to customise. Here’s what you should consider:

Matching your industry

Look for a template designed with your type of business in mind. Many builders offer industry-specific options (e.g. for restaurant businesses, online stores or personal portfolios) that come with relevant layouts and content blocks already built in.

Mobile responsiveness

Make sure the template is presentable on mobile and tablet devices. Most modern templates are mobile-friendly by default, but it’s still worth testing them out yourself. According to a study reported by Red, 57% of visitors abandon a website if a page takes more than three seconds to load.

Customisation options

Test how flexible the template is. Can you easily change colours, fonts, layouts, and images to suit your brand? Some templates are more rigid than others, so you should go for one that gives you the creative freedom you need.

Check for built-in features

Depending on your goals, look for templates that include built-in tools like image galleries, contact forms, ecommerce sections or blog pages. The more your template offers upfront, the less customisation work you’ll have to do later.

Add necessary features to your website

Once you have your website structure and template in place, it’s important to include other features to further add to the user experience. Depending on what your site is for, these might include:

Booking elements

If you offer services that require appointments – such as consultations, classes, or repairs – you’ll need to integrate a booking system. This can be a simple calendar tool, an appointment schedule, or a full booking platform that lets customers choose times, pay upfront and receive confirmations automatically.

Sales features and shopping cart

For ecommerce sites, you’ll need features that make buying both easy and secure. These include a shopping cart, product pages with detailed descriptions and images, payment gateways to accept debit/credit cards or other payment methods, and order tracking.

Contact forms and lead capture

If you’re looking to generate leads or inquiries, it’s important to have easy-to-use contact or sign-up forms. Make sure to keep them straightforward and mobile-friendly, and that you ask for the right amount of information without overwhelming visitors.

Use secure payment methods

When selling products or services online, having secure and reliable payment options is a must. Not only do they protect your business and customer data, but they also build trust – visitors are far more likely to buy when they know their payment is safe.

Most secure payment methods

• Stripe: popular for its clean checkout experience and ease of integration. Good for debit and credit card payments, which made up for 2 billion and 334.4 million transactions in February 2025.
• PayPal: widely trusted and easy to set up. 40% of UK consumers also reported that using PayPal gave them confidence that their payment information is safe.
• Square: a good choice for service-based businesses or those selling both online and in person.
• Apple Pay & Google Pay: mobile-friendly options that offer quick, secure checkout for phones and tablets. According to a report by Finder, 68% of the global population is predicted to use digital wallets by 2029.
• Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL): platforms like Klarna and Clearpay can give customers more flexible payment options. It is estimated that 42% of UK shoppers have used BNPL at some point, equating to around 22.6 million people.

How to add payment methods to your website

1. Choose a platform or plugin: most website builders (e.g. Shopify, Wix and Squarespace) come with built-in payment integrations. If you’re using WordPress, you’ll need an ecommerce plugin like Woocommerce.
2. Create an account with a payment provider: sign up with Stripe, PayPal, or whichever service you’re using. You’ll usually need to provide your business details and banking information.
3. Connect to your website: within your website builder, there will be a section for payments or checkout options, which lists all the supported payment providers.
4. Test the checkout: always do a test transaction before going live. Make sure payment goes through, confirmation emails work, and everything works on both mobile and desktop.
5. Show trust signals: show secure payment badges (e.g. “Secure Checkout with SSL” or “Powered by Stripe”) near your checkout button to reassure customers.

Create engaging content

Great content is what brings people to your website and what keeps them coming back. The words, images, and videos on your site should speak directly to your target audience and give them a reason to take action.

So, what makes good content? To break it down simply, your content should be:

Clear and concise

Avoid fluff. Use simple, easy-to-understand language that gets to the point and explains what you do and why it matters. The general benchmark for the average time spent on a website is 52 seconds, so you’ll need to grab visitors’ attention quickly.

Written for your target audience

The tone, style and level of detail should match who you’re trying to reach. For example, a casual tone would resonate well with a younger audience, whereas a more professional and formal style might fit better with corporate clients or B2B services.

Optimised for SEO

Use relevant keywords where they make sense, create clear headlines, and break your content into short, readable sections. This will help both your visitors and search engines understand what your website is about. After all, 49% of business owners say that SEO offered the best return on investment (ROI) of all channels.

Visually appealing

Make sure to break up text with images, bullet points, headings and other formatting to keep things skimmable and easy on the eye. Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without, so this is definitely something you shouldn’t skip.

Common content formats to use

• Website copy: this includes your homepage, product/service descriptions, About page and Contact information.
• Blog posts/articles: good for sharing tips, insights, or how-to guides. Also regularly helps with SEO and builds authority.
• Images and infographics: can catch visitor attention and explain things visually. Always use high-quality images and add alt text for accessibility and SEO.
• Videos: perfect for product demos, explainers or introductions to your brand. When done well, video content can be highly engaging and boost conversions.

Ensure your website is secure

Security is extremely important for any website, especially if you’re handling customer data or accepting payments.

This includes having an SSL certificate. This encrypts the data shared between your website and your visitors, helping protect things like personal details, passwords, and payment information. When your site has SSL, your URL will start with https:// instead of http://, and a padlock icon will appear in the browser bar – reassuring users that your site is safe to use.

Most website builders and hosting providers include SSL automatically, but it’s always worth checking that it’s enabled. If you’re using WordPress, you may need to install an SSL certificate through your hosting provider and then enable HTTPS via a plugin or setting in your dashboard.

Without SSL, not only could visitors see a “Not Secure” warning, but it could also affect your rankings in search engines. Statistics also show that 82% of users abandon a website without a security certificate, so it’s a small but vital step that you shouldn’t skip.

Optimise your website

Once your site is up and running, it’s important to make sure that people can actually find it. That’s where basic SEO comes in, as it’ll help your website show up in search results when people look for businesses like yours.

Here are a few simple ways to optimise your website:

• Use keywords naturally: think about the words people might type into Google to find your business, and include those in your page titles, headings and content.

• Write clear page titles and meta descriptions: these are snippets that appear in search results, so make sure they’re accurate and encourage clicks. Don’t make these overly detailed either, as the maximum characters for a meta description should ideally be 155-160.
• Optimise images: compress images to help your site load faster, and use descriptive file names and alt text so search engines know what they are.
• Make your site mobile-friendly: according to Exploding Topics, 96.3% of users access the internet via mobile, and 63% of website traffic comes from mobile. Google also prioritises mobile-friendly sites in search results.
• Submit your site to Google: you can do this through Google Search Console to help get your pages indexed faster.
• Create or update your Google Business Profile: if you’re a local business, a Google Business Profile is one of the best ways to appear in local search results and Google Maps. It’s also free and lets you share key information like location, hours and customer reviews.
• Get backlinks: links from other reputable websites can help boost your site’s authority and rankings over time.

Start marketing your website

Now that you have a fully functioning website, it’s time to start getting eyes on it. Just building a great website isn’t enough – you’ll need to actively promote your business to attract visitors, generate leads and make sales.

We’ve already covered SEO and having a Google Business Profile, but here are some other marketing must-haves to get you started:

Use social media (smartly)

Pick the platforms that your target market actually uses – whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or TikTok – and post content that’s relevant to them. Make sure to include links back to your site where it makes sense. It was also reported that 38% of UK consumers have discovered brands through social media, proving that it’s a powerful way to get noticed and bring in new customers.

Start building an email list

Add a signup form to your site and offer something useful (e.g. a discount or a free downloadable) in exchange for email addresses. After all, email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to build a relationship and drive repeat traffic, as 37% of businesses cite email as the most effective channel for customer loyalty and retention.

Consider paid ads (if needed)

Platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads can help give you a boost, especially when you’re just starting out. However, you should make sure to set a budget and start small to test what really works before spending too much. A lot of UK companies have wasted 25-40% of their Google Ads budget due to poor targeting or mismanaged campaigns, so you should take the time to set this up properly, and keep a close eye on how much you’re spending.

Conclusion

Building a business website is a mammoth task, but with the right approach and tools, it’s completely doable, and all the effort you put in will pay off – whether that’s through new sales, stronger customer relationships, or simply having a solid online presence that makes you stand out.

Just remember to focus on your business goals, choose a platform that fits your needs, and create content that truly speaks to your audience. Also, don’t forget to keep your site updated and user-friendly, as this will make it easier for visitors to find what they need and take action.

With all the above points in mind, your website will become one of your business’s most powerful tools for growth and success.