When it comes to how to plan a small business website, most people start the wrong way. They start with colors.

I get it. Colors are fun. Picking a font is fun. But building a website by picking colors first is like building a house by choosing the curtains. Nice curtains. No walls.

I’ve seen the same story more times than I’d like: a business owner gets excited, hires someone, and three months later they’re still “almost done.” The site has a beautiful homepage and no idea what it’s supposed to do.

So let’s do it the other way around. This is how I plan a website for a small business, step by step, in the same order I’d use with you if we sat down for coffee.

Step 1: Decide what the website has to do for you

Before anything else, answer one question: when someone visits your site, what do you want them to do?

Not “look nice.” Not “be professional.” Something you can count.

• A barbershop wants people to book a chair.
• A bakery wants orders for Saturday.
• An auto shop wants the phone to ring.
• A cleaning service wants people to ask for a quote.

Pick one main action. Maybe a second one. That’s it. Every page, every button and every photo will work for that action. If something doesn’t help, it goes.

A few questions that help here:

• Who are your best customers? (Age, neighborhood, language.)
• How do they find you today? Word of mouth, Google, Facebook, walking by?
• What do they always ask before they buy?
• Do some of them prefer Spanish? (If you serve a Hispanic community, the answer is probably yes, and that changes the plan.)

Write the answers down. On paper is fine. This page is worth more than any design.

Step 2: Be honest about the budget

Let’s talk money, because nobody likes to.

A website isn’t a box on a shelf with a price tag. It’s closer to a car: there’s a basic one that gets you to work, and there’s one with leather seats. Both drive.

What moves the price is mostly:

• How many pages you need.
• Custom design or template.
• Extra features: online booking, online store, forms that do something special.
• Who writes the text and takes the photos.
• Two languages or one.

To give you real numbers from my own work: a simple bilingual site of 1 to 3 pages starts at $900. A complete business site with local SEO starts at $2,000. An online store starts at $3,500. And keeping it all running costs $60 a month. Other people charge more, some charge less. That’s fine. What matters is knowing what you’re paying for.

If you want the full breakdown, I wrote about it here: How much does a website cost?

Step 3: Choose the right size of site

Not every business needs ten pages. Some need one.

• One page works when you have one service and one main action. Think food truck, a personal trainer, a single-chair barbershop.
• A multi-page site makes sense when you offer several services, want to show up on Google for each one, or need a menu, a gallery and a contact page.
• A landing page is different: it’s a single page built for one campaign or one ad. It’s not your main website.

I explain the difference with examples here: One-page vs. landing page vs. multi-page site

My rule: start with what you need today, built so it can grow tomorrow. Don’t pay for ten empty pages.

Step 4: Template or custom design?

A template is like a rented apartment. You move in fast, it’s cheaper, but you can’t knock down walls, and it looks like the apartment next door.

A custom design is like a house built for your family. It takes longer, it costs more, and it fits.

Templates aren’t evil. For a very small budget they can be fine. The problems show up later: they’re often slow, they carry code you don’t use, and they break when something updates.

What I’d keep from the “big company” playbook, even on a small site:

• A clean, consistent layout. Things line up. Spacing is the same everywhere. It sounds boring, but it’s what makes a site feel trustworthy.
• Readable text. Big enough, with enough contrast. If your customers squint, they leave.
• Proof instead of claims. “Best tacos in town” means nothing. A photo of the tacos, your hours and real reviews mean a lot.

More on this here: Custom website vs. template

Step 5: Organize your pages like a good store

Imagine walking into a grocery store where the milk is next to the motor oil. You’d leave. Websites are the same.

Keep your menu short. Five or six items, tops. A typical small business site looks like this:

• Home
• Services (or Menu)
• About
• Gallery or Work
• Contact

Each service that brings you real money deserves its own page. That helps your customers, and it helps Google understand what you do.

Want to go deeper? Read What is information architecture (it’s simpler than the name).

Step 6: Plan for the phone first

Think about how your customers find you: standing in line, sitting in the car, at night on the couch. On their phone.

So the phone version isn’t a “smaller copy” of the site. It’s the main version. That means:

• Big, easy buttons. Thumbs aren’t precise.
• Call and WhatsApp always visible.
• Short paragraphs. Nobody reads a wall of text on a phone.
• Photos that load fast, even on a weak signal.

I go into detail here: Mobile-first design for business websites

Step 7: Get your content ready (this is where projects get stuck)

Here’s a secret: most websites aren’t late because of the designer. They’re late because the text and the photos never arrive.

Before we start, try to have:

• Your logo (the best file you have).
• Photos: your place, your team, your work. Real ones beat stock photos every time.
• A short description of each service, even if it’s rough. I can help you polish it.
• Your hours, address, phone and WhatsApp.
• Two or three reviews from happy customers.
• If you want a bilingual site: who checks the Spanish? Machine translation alone sounds weird to your customers.

Here’s the full checklist: What you need to build a website

Step 8: Set a realistic timeline

How long does it take? It depends, but here’s what my projects usually look like:

• A simple site: about 2 weeks.
• A complete business site: 3 to 4 weeks.
• An online store: 4 to 6 weeks.

Those times assume the content shows up on time. If the photos take a month, the site takes a month more. No magic there.

More details here: How long does it take to build a website?

Step 9: Think about Google from day one

A website nobody finds is like a beautiful sign inside a closet.

You don’t need to become an SEO expert. But from the start your site should have:

• One clear page per service.
• Titles and descriptions that say what you do and where.
• A fast site.
• A Google Business Profile that matches your website (same name, address, phone).

That’s the base. I wrote a full guide on it: Local SEO for small businesses

Step 10: Plan what happens after launch

Launching your website isn’t the finish line. It’s opening day.

Plugins need updates. Backups need to happen. Prices change, hours change, photos get old. A site nobody looks after slowly breaks, like a car that never gets an oil change.

Decide now who’s going to take care of it: you, someone on your team, or someone like me. Read more in Website maintenance for small businesses.

How to plan a small business website: mistakes I see all the time

Quickly, so you can skip them:

• Starting with design instead of goals.
• Too many menu items. If everything is important, nothing is.
• Hiding the phone number. Put it everywhere.
• Stock photos of people shaking hands. Nobody believes them.
• Forgetting the phone. Most of your visitors are there.

There are more here: 7 costly website mistakes

What I’d do if I were you

If you’re starting from zero, this is my honest advice:

1. Spend one evening answering the questions in Step 1.
2. Start small: a good one- to three-page site, in both languages if your customers speak both.
3. Put your energy into real photos and clear text.
4. Set up your Google Business Profile the same week.
5. Grow the site when the business asks for it, not before.

If you want me to help you plan it (or build it), that’s exactly what my Starter plan is for. Or just ask me for a free quote and we’ll talk it through, no pressure.

Frequently asked questions