Small Business Website Design
Done right, with search built into every page
As a small business web designer, I plan, write, design, and build your website, with search worked into every page before the design begins. One person handles your site from the plan to launch and can keep it running afterward. Your part is a handful of decisions.
What a good website does for a small business
A good website gets found, earns trust, and makes the next step easy.
A small business website has three jobs. People who need what you sell have to find it. Once they arrive, they have to trust what they see. When they’re ready, getting in touch has to be easy. A site that does all three brings in work. A site that misses one of them mostly sits there.
People find it.
Most people find a business by searching for what they need, like "deck builder near me," "estate planning attorney," "insurance for a restaurant." Your site has to show up for those searches on Google, on Google Maps, and more and more in AI tools like ChatGPT.
People trust it.
Customers often check your website after a friend recommends you or after they spot you on the map. In a few seconds, they decide whether you look like the business they heard about. Real photos of your work, clear words about what you do, and a site that works well on a phone do most of the convincing.
People get in touch.
Every page should make the next step obvious, with a short form, a button that says what happens when you press it, and your service area stated plainly. When someone is ready to call or write, they shouldn't have to hunt for how.
Every page is a way in.
Many visitors skip your homepage. They land on whichever page matches what they searched. Someone looking for kitchen cabinet refacing should arrive on a page about cabinet refacing, with photos of that work, answers to the questions people ask about it, and a way to request a quote. When each service has a page like that, each one can bring in its own customers. A single "Services" page that lists everything gives Google one page to rank and gives the customer one long page to dig through.
The plan comes before the design.
Each page's purpose is settled before any design starts.
Most websites that disappoint went wrong before anyone chose a color. The design came first, and the content got squeezed into whatever boxes the design left. Pages ended up with a heading and two sentences because that’s what fit.
I start with the plan. Before I design anything, the site plan settles five things:
- Which pages the site needs, usually one for each service and each kind of customer you serve
- What each page has to do, and what a visitor should do next
- Which searches each page should show up for, based on what your customers type
- How the pages link to each other, so visitors and Google can move through the site easily
- What each page needs: the words, the photos, and the questions it answers
You review the plan and approve it before any writing or design starts. After that, the design has a clear job. It presents each page’s content in the plainest, most useful way. Choices about layout and color get easier, because each page’s purpose is already settled.
How I approach small business web design
Simple, built for your customers, easy to find, and easy to understand.
Keep it simple.
A simple site is easier to use, faster to load, and easier to keep up. I cut what doesn't help the visitor, like extra menu items, sliders that rotate before anyone can read them, and pages that exist only because a template had a slot for them. What's left gets the room to do its job well.
Build for the person using it.
I design for your customers. They're often on a phone, often in a hurry, and usually trying to answer one question. Can this business do what I need? Do they work in my area? How do I reach them? The layout puts those answers where people look first.
Make it easy to find.
Search is part of the plan for each page, from the page's web address to its title to the words in its headings. Building it in from the start is far easier, and works far better, than adding it to a finished site.
Make it easy to understand.
I write in plain words. If a customer has to stop and work out what a sentence means, they move on. Your site should explain what you do the way you'd explain it to a customer standing in front of you, without the trade terms your customers don't use.
"Josh built a new website for our construction company from scratch. We had previously dabbled with a few other web designers, but no one came close to giving us the personalized touch and care that Josh showed us through this process. Josh is a great designer and has a good feel for what's 'the latest and greatest,' but what impressed me the most was the interest he took in understanding our company values and how he was able to portray that on our website! I would recommend him to anyone looking to build a website and will be using him in the future."
The details that keep a site working
The parts nobody sees on launch day keep a site working for years.
- Forms tested
- Old links redirected
- Headings in order
- Images sized
- Business details match
None of this shows up in a screenshot of your homepage. Together, it decides whether the site keeps doing its job long after launch day.
What's included in a small business website
Every small business website includes the planning, the writing, the design, the build, the search setup, and the launch. We settle exactly what yours needs on a short call.
A site plan
Every page, its purpose, and the searches it should show up for. You approve it before writing starts.
Words for every page
I draft every page from our call and your discovery answers. You correct the facts and change anything.
Design for every screen
Every page is designed around your content, your photos, and your brand, then checked on phones and desktops.
Photos
Your own photos come first. Where a page needs one you don't have, I choose licensed stock photos.
Search setup
Page titles and summaries written for Google, plus headings, image descriptions, and file names on every page.
Structured data
Code that tells search engines and AI tools your services, service area, and answers to common questions.
Local search setup
Your service area stated on the site, and your business details matched to your Google Business Profile.
Contact forms
Short, tested forms on the pages that need them, and every request goes straight to your inbox.
Testing
Every page, link, and form checked on a phone and a desktop, plus load speed.
Your review
You review the finished site and tell me what to change. I make the changes.
Launch
I move the site to your domain, redirect old addresses, and tell Google it's live.
Care after launch
A care plan covers hosting, updates, backups, and security.
If you need a logo, it can be designed in the same project, so the brand and the site come together from the start. If you have one service or one offer, a one-page site may be the better place to begin.
Have a site in mind?
Tell me about itBuilt to be found on Google, on the map, and in AI answers
Search shapes the site from the plan onward, and the work covers five parts.
Research before writing
I look up the words your customers use and how often they search them. Owners often call a service one thing while customers search for another, like "bath renovation" and "bathroom remodel." Each page is written around your customers' words, and matched to searches it has a real chance to rank for, given your town and your competition.
Pages Google understands
SEO, short for search engine optimization, means making each page clear enough that Google can match it to the right search. Each page gets one topic. Its title, its main heading, its web address, and its opening paragraphs all say what the page is about, and the page answers the questions customers ask about that service.
Local search and the map
For a business that serves a town or a region, the map results are often the first thing a customer sees. Your Google Business Profile, the listing that appears on Google Maps, decides much of how you show up there, and your website backs it up. I make sure the site states where you work, matches the details on your profile, and gives the profile's website link a strong page to land on.
AI answers
More people now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google's AI Overviews to recommend a business. Those tools draw on sites that state plainly what a business does, where it works, and how it answers common questions. Clear pages, FAQ sections, and structured data give them all three.
Checked at launch
At launch, I connect the site to Google Search Console (Google's free reporting tool for site owners) and submit a sitemap, the list of every page on the site. Google finds the new pages quickly, and you have a record of how people search for you from the first week.
Search is part of the plan from day one
Love and Beauty Maui
For Love and Beauty Maui, a wedding hair and makeup studio, search went into the site from the first page. Inquiries are up 51 percent on the year before launch, with no ad campaign, and the studio is first on Google Maps in Kihei for wedding hair and makeup.
Small business websites I've built
Each project below is a website I designed and built. Each one has a full case study.
Medrock Pharmacy
A logo and website, built to grow from one location to three.
Read the case study
Family Value Flooring
Flooring store
Read the case study
Troyer Transformations
Cabinet refacing and custom cabinetry
Read the case study
Therm-A-Guard
A product for electric utilities, with an online store
Read the case study
Maconachy Stradley Insurance
Insurance agency
Read the case study
Teledata
Telecom and cloud company. Website and logo
Read the case studyWhy working across industries helps your site
What works in one industry often solves a problem in another.
I’ve stayed a generalist on purpose. Since 2011, I’ve built websites for builders, flooring stores, a law firm, insurance agencies, a wellness travel company, and a technology company. What works on one site often solves a problem on the next.
A wedding studio’s site gives each kind of booking its own page, so weddings, elopements, and photo shoots each have one. The same structure gives a contractor’s kitchens, baths, and decks a page each, with the right photos and the right questions on each one. A specialist sees how one industry does things. A generalist can bring a good idea from wherever it started.
The same goes for the parts of a website. On your project, one person writes the words, designs the pages, plans the search, and builds the site. A headline gets written knowing which search it has to win and how much room the design gives it. A photo gets chosen knowing what the page around it needs to prove.
Industries I've built websites for50+
- Auctions
- Cabinetry
- Churches
- Coaching
- Compounding pharmacy
- Construction
- Consulting
- Countertops
- Dermatology
- Design-build
- Disinfection services
- Electrical utility supplies
- Fashion
- Financial advisors
- Flooring
- Functional medicine
- Grocery stores
- Home care
- Home fixtures
- Inns
- Insurance
- Jewelry
- Law
- Lending
- Lumber
- Magazines
- Marketing agencies
- Med spas
- Medical supplies
- Motorcycle tours
- Music
- Ophthalmology
- Outdoor furniture
- Picture framing
- Publishing
- Radiology
- Recruiting
- Salons
- Spine care
- Telecom and cloud
- TV and home design
- Vending machines
- Veterinary medicine
- Wedding beauty
- Wellness
- Wellness travel
- Youth sports
How a project runs
Six steps, and your part fits around running your business.
Six steps take your site from the first request to launch, and your part fits around running your business.
- 1
You send a request
In the Start a project form, tell me what your business does and what you need.
- 2
A short call
You and I talk for 20 to 30 minutes. If we're a good fit, I walk you through how we get started.
- 3
Discovery and the site plan
You answer my questions in writing, at your own pace, while I research your business and your competitors. By the end, I know your business well enough to build your site as if I were you. Then I turn what I've learned into the site plan, and you approve it before any writing starts.
- 4
The content sheet
I draft the words for each page. You correct them, fill in anything I missed, and send your photos.
- 5
Design and build
I design and build the site on a private test site. Nothing changes on your current site while I work.
- 6
Your review, then launch
You review the whole site and tell me what to change. I make the changes and launch the site on your domain.
Ready for step one?
Send a request"My son and I purchased a small company in 2018 and Josh helped us rebrand with a new logo and website. Josh took the time to understand what we do which helped him create our new logo first, and then our website. He has a great mix of technical and creative skills. We are attempting to foster a different culture within our company and our website depicts that culture as well as clearly defines what we do. We have been really pleased with his work, good work Josh!"
Questions about small business website design
Still have a question?
Ask me directlyWhat comes in a small business website design package?
A small business website design package should include a site plan, the words for every page, the design, the build, the search setup, testing, your review, and the launch. Mine includes all of it, with each page set up for Google, local search, and AI tools, and checked on phones and desktops before you see it. Your own photos come first, and licensed stock photos fill any gaps. The number of pages and any extra features, like an online store, are set on our call to fit your business.
How much does a small business website cost?
The cost of a small business website comes down to three things. Those are how many pages the site needs, how much writing and photography it takes, and whether it needs extra features like an online store. A site with a page for each of a dozen services is a bigger job than a site for one service in one town. On our call, we go over what your site needs, and I walk you through how we get started. I aim for the right blend of price and quality.
How long does it take to build my website?
The time it takes to build your website depends mostly on two things. One is how many pages it needs, and the other is how quickly the draft words, photos, and decisions come back. A site with a page for every service and every location you serve takes longer than a five-page site. We set the timeline for your site on our call, once we know the page list.
How much of the work do I have to do?
Your part of a website project with me is a handful of decisions and some light editing. You send the form, talk with me for 20 to 30 minutes, answer my discovery questions in writing, approve the site plan, check the draft words, send your photos, and review the finished site. You don't write the pages. I draft every page from our call and your answers, and you correct the facts. Everything between those steps is my job.
How many pages should a small business website have?
A small business website should have a page for each service you offer and each kind of customer you serve, plus a homepage, an about page, and a contact page. Many visitors skip the homepage and land on whichever page matches their search, so each service page gets its own chance to show up on Google. If you serve several towns, a location page helps too. The site plan settles the exact list before any design starts.
How do you design a small business website that converts visitors into customers?
A small business website that converts visitors into customers does three jobs. People find it, they trust it, and getting in touch is easy. Finding it takes a page for each service, written in the words your customers search. Trust comes from real photos of your work, clear words about what you do, and a site that works well on a phone. Getting in touch takes a short form and a button on every page that says what happens next.
What is responsive web design, and does my site need it?
Responsive web design means the layout adjusts to the screen it's on, so the same site reads well on a phone, a tablet, and a desktop. Every small business website needs it, because many customers look a business up on their phone, often in a hurry. I design every page for phones and desktops and check each one on both before launch.
Should I hire a freelancer or an agency to build my small business website?
A freelancer is usually the better fit for a small business website, because one experienced person can plan, write, design, and build a site that size. With me, the person on your first call does all of the work, with no account manager or junior designer in between. Nothing gets lost in a handoff, and the questions you ask go straight to the person building your site. I've built websites since 2011, and my largest build is more than 130 pages.
Do I need a web designer near me?
You don't need a web designer near you, because a small business website can be planned, written, and built entirely by call and email. I've built sites for businesses in Ohio, Indiana, Florida, and Hawaii. What matters for local search is that your site names the towns you serve and matches your Google Business Profile, and I research your area and your competitors as part of the plan. I live and work near Denver.
Can I update my website myself?
Yes, you can update your site yourself in a visual editor, without touching code. You can change text, swap photos, and add news or blog posts. I build on the most widely used website platform in the world, which grows from a few pages to a few hundred. If you want to edit the site, I walk you through how. If you'd rather not, you can send me a one-off update request at any time.
What happens to my old site in a redesign?
In a redesign, the new site keeps what the old one already does well. Before anything changes, I look at the pages that bring in visits from Google and the links other sites point to. Every old page address is redirected to its new page, so bookmarks and search results still work. The old site keeps running until the new one replaces it on launch day.
Can my website include an online store?
Yes, your website can include an online store. Therm-A-Guard sells its product for electric utilities through the store on the site I built for the company. A store changes the plan, the pages, and the timeline, so mention it in the form when you send your request.
What happens after my website launches?
After your website launches, I connect it to Google Search Console and send you a short summary of the launch. Search Console is Google's free tool that shows how people find your site. From there, care is optional, and I recommend it. A website care plan covers hosting, updates, backups, and security, and your requests go to the person who built the site.
Do you design websites for medical practices?
Yes, I design websites for medical practices at Joshua Paul Design, my sister brand. It's built just for independent practices, with its own portfolio, and it goes deep into the extra search and setup work medical sites need. Same person, same process. Start there, and you'll be working with me either way.
Start your new website.
Tell me what your business does, who your customers are, and what your current site does or doesn’t do for you. Every request reaches me directly, and my reply sets up a short call. From there, I lead you through a simple process built around your schedule, and you come out with a website you’re proud of. Your website starts with the form.