Guides

Small Business / Websites

Your First Business Website: What Actually Matters

A few months ago a gardener called me. He'd paid £1,200 for a website two years earlier and had no idea where the login was, whether anyone was maintaining it, or even who was hosting it. The site had been down for six months and he hadn't noticed because nobody had visited it anyway. He needed something simple — a page that told people what he did, showed photos of his work, and let them get in touch. We built it in an afternoon. This guide is everything I wish someone had told him before he spent £1,200.

Published 27 June 2026 · 6 min read

1. Your domain name — the only one that matters

Your domain is your address on the internet. It's the www.yourbusiness.co.uk bit. This is one of the few things in business websites where cutting corners genuinely hurts you. Here's what actually matters:

  • Get a .co.uk if you're UK-based. It tells customers and Google you're local. A .com is fine too, but .co.uk often ranks better for UK searches. Avoid .uk (the short one) — it confuses people who expect .co.uk.
  • Use your business name. If you're "Dave's Gardening" in Nottingham, get davesgardening.co.uk. If it's taken, add your town — davesgardeningnottingham.co.uk. Don't get clever with hyphens (daves-gardening.co.uk) — people forget them and go to the wrong site. Don't abbreviate (davesgdng.co.uk) — nobody will remember it.
  • Buy it yourself. This is critical. Don't let a web designer or agency buy the domain in their name — I've seen businesses lose their domain when they fell out with their designer, and there's basically nothing you can do about it. The domain should be in your name, with your email, on your credit card. You can give your designer access to manage DNS records without giving them ownership.

Where to buy: Namecheap, GoDaddy, 123-Reg, or Google Domains (now Squarespace). It genuinely doesn't matter which — they all sell the same product. Pick whichever has a control panel you find least confusing. A .co.uk domain costs £8-£15 per year including privacy protection (which hides your home address from the public WHOIS database — always get this).

2. Hosting — where your website lives

Hosting is the computer that stores your website and sends it to visitors. For a small business website, you have three realistic options:

Option A: A website builder (Squarespace, Wix, Shopify)

Cost: £12-£30/month. Everything-in-one — hosting, templates, drag-and-drop editor. No separate hosting bill, no technical setup. The trade-off: you're locked into their platform. If you want to move later, you rebuild from scratch. For non-technical people who want it done in an afternoon, this is usually the right choice. Squarespace has the best templates. Shopify is the right choice if you're selling products online.

Option B: Managed WordPress hosting (SiteGround, Kinsta, WP Engine)

Cost: £5-£25/month. These companies run WordPress for you — updates, backups, security. You log in, write content, change photos. More flexible than a builder, less technically demanding than DIY hosting. WordPress powers about 43% of all websites, and there are thousands of themes and plugins. The downside: you still need to learn WordPress basics, and if a plugin breaks, you'll need help.

Option C: DIY hosting (buy hosting, install WordPress yourself)

Cost: £3-£10/month. Cheapest option. You buy hosting from a company like Hostinger or Ionos, install WordPress with one click, and manage everything yourself. Only do this if you're comfortable logging into a hosting control panel and following instructions. If you've never heard of cPanel or phpMyAdmin, this isn't for you.

My recommendation for most small businesses: use Squarespace or a similar builder if you just want it done. If you want more control and are willing to learn a bit, use managed WordPress hosting. Avoid the cheapest hosting — the £3/month plans are slow, their support is terrible, and your site will go down when you get a rush of visitors.

3. SSL — the green padlock

SSL is what gives your website the little padlock icon and "https://" in the address bar. Without it, browsers show a "Not Secure" warning that scares off customers. Google also ranks sites without SSL lower in search results.

The good news: SSL is free and usually automatic. Let's Encrypt provides free SSL certificates, and most hosting companies and website builders install them by default. If you're using Squarespace, Wix, or any modern host, SSL is already handled — you don't need to do anything. If your site still shows "Not Secure", contact your hosting company's support and ask them to enable the free SSL. It's a 5-minute job on their end.

Don't pay for SSL certificates. Companies like GoDaddy will try to sell you a £60/year SSL certificate. You don't need it. The free Let's Encrypt certificate is identical for 99% of small business websites. The only exception is if you're processing credit card payments directly on your site (which you probably shouldn't be — use Stripe or PayPal instead).

4. Mobile-friendly — non-negotiable

Over 60% of website visits now come from phones. If your website doesn't work properly on a mobile screen, you're losing more than half your potential customers before they even read a word. Google also explicitly uses mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor — if your site doesn't work on phones, it won't show up in search results.

What "mobile-friendly" actually means:

  • Text is readable without zooming. Nobody should need to pinch-zoom to read your opening hours or phone number.
  • Buttons are tappable. Links and buttons should be at least the size of a fingertip. Tiny "click here" links are a usability disaster on phones.
  • No horizontal scrolling. The page should fit the screen width. Scrolling sideways to read cut-off text is infuriating.
  • Phone number is tappable. If someone taps your phone number on your website, their phone should open the dialler. This is basic but surprisingly many sites miss it.

Any modern website builder or WordPress theme handles this automatically. If you're having a site built for you, test it on your own phone before paying the final invoice. Zoom in, scroll around, tap every button. If anything feels broken or fiddly, tell them to fix it.

5. Privacy policy — the legal bit nobody reads

If your website collects any personal data — and it almost certainly does, even if just through a contact form or Google Analytics — you're legally required to have a privacy policy under UK GDPR. This isn't optional. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) can fine you up to £17.5 million, though in practice they go after big companies, not sole traders with a one-page website.

Your privacy policy should say:

  • What data you collect — typically name, email, phone number from contact forms, plus anonymous analytics data about visits.
  • Why you collect it — to respond to enquiries, to understand how people use your site.
  • How long you keep it — indefinitely for business records, or delete after X months.
  • Who you share it with — your hosting company (they store it), Google (analytics), nobody else.
  • How to request deletion — email you at your business address.

Don't copy-paste a privacy policy from another website — it won't match what you actually do and that can cause problems. Use a generator like privacypolicygenerator.info (free) or write your own in plain English. Link to it from your website footer. That's it.

What you don't need (yet)

Small business websites are full of things that seem important but aren't. Here's what to skip:

  • A blog. Unless you're going to write at least one article a month for a year, don't bother. An abandoned blog with a single post from 2023 looks worse than no blog at all.
  • A booking system. Unless you take online bookings as a core part of your business, a phone number or contact form works fine. Third-party booking tools (Calendly, Setmore) are free and better than anything built into your website.
  • SEO packages. Web agencies love selling monthly SEO for £200-500. For a local business, good content, a Google Business Profile (free), and a working website are 90% of SEO. Spend the money on good copy, not keyword optimisation.
  • A custom design. Nobody cares that your website is "unique". They care that it loads fast, looks professional, and tells them what they need to know. A Squarespace template that loads in 2 seconds beats a bespoke design that takes 8 seconds to appear.
  • Chatbots and live chat. Small businesses don't need automated chat. A WhatsApp link and a phone number work better — people want to talk to a human, not a bot that says "I didn't understand that" three times.

DIY or hire someone?

If you're comfortable with computers and have an afternoon free, you can build a perfectly good small business website yourself. Squarespace or Wix will walk you through it. You'll end up with something that looks professional, works on phones, and costs £150-300/year all-in.

If you'd rather not — if the idea of choosing a template and writing copy makes you want to close your laptop — hire someone. But be specific about what you want:

  • A one-page site (what you do, photos, contact details, location) should cost £200-£500 from a freelancer, or £500-£1,500 from an agency. The freelancer will give you the same result as the agency — the agency just has more overhead.
  • A multi-page site (separate pages for services, about, gallery, blog) runs £500-£2,500 depending on complexity.
  • An online shop starts at £500 for a simple Shopify setup and goes up from there.

Always ask three questions before hiring: who owns the domain (you), who owns the content (you), and what happens if we stop working together (you get all the passwords and files). If they can't answer these clearly, walk away.

What Vengera charges for a business website

I build straightforward, fast-loading websites for small businesses — nothing fancy, nothing bloated, nothing that needs three plugins to display your phone number. Here's what that looks like:

  • One-page site (what you do, photos, contact): £200-£350. Includes domain setup, hosting for the first year, SSL, mobile-friendly design, contact form, Google Business Profile setup, and basic SEO (page titles, descriptions, sitemap).
  • Multi-page site (services, about, gallery): £400-£800. Everything in the one-page package plus up to 5 custom pages, a photo gallery, and a blog section if you want one.
  • Website rebuild (replace your old site): £250-£500. I'll rebuild your existing site with modern design, better mobile support, and faster loading — keeping your content and domain.

No ongoing contracts. I'll show you how to update text and photos yourself so you're not paying someone every time your opening hours change. Ongoing maintenance (updates, backups, security) is £15-£30/month if you want it — entirely optional.

As always, the first chat is free. Tell me what your business does and I'll tell you honestly whether you need a website at all, and if so, whether it's a DIY job or worth paying for.

Frequently asked questions

Do I even need a website if I have a Facebook page?

Yes. A Facebook page is rented space — Facebook can change the rules, limit your reach, or delete your page at any time. A website is yours. It also looks a hundred times more professional. When someone Googles "plumber in Long Eaton" and finds your website, you look like a real business. When they find a Facebook page with three posts from 2022, you look like a hobby. You don't need anything fancy — a single page with what you do, where you are, and how to contact you is enough.

Can I just use a free website builder?

Free website builders (Wix free plan, Google Sites) give you a URL like yourbusiness.wixsite.com/sitename. This looks unprofessional and tells customers you won't spend £10 on a domain. It also means you don't own anything — the builder owns the site, the domain, and the content. If they change their terms or shut down, you lose everything. Spend the £10/year on a proper domain. It's the cheapest credibility upgrade you can buy.

How long does it take to build a website?

Using a builder like Squarespace: an afternoon. Hiring someone like me: 3-7 days for a one-page site, 1-3 weeks for a multi-page site. The actual building is quick — what takes time is getting the copy (text) and photos right. If you have your text written and your photos ready when you contact a designer, you'll save days and probably some money too.

What's the ongoing cost of running a website?

For a basic small business site: domain £10-15/year, hosting £60-150/year, SSL free. Total: £70-165/year. That's it. If someone tries to sell you a "website maintenance package" for £50/month for a simple brochure site, they're taking advantage of you. The only ongoing costs above hosting are if you want someone to update content, manage security, or run backups — and even then, £15-30/month is reasonable.

Can people find my website on Google?

Eventually, yes — but not on day one. Google takes days to weeks to discover and index new websites. A Google Business Profile (free, 15 minutes to set up) gets you showing up in local searches much faster than waiting for your website to rank. For a local business, the combination of a website and a Google Business Profile is far more effective than either alone. I set up the Business Profile as part of every website I build.

Need a business website that actually works?

One person, no contracts, honest prices. I'll build a fast, mobile-friendly site that tells people what you do and makes it easy to contact you — and I'll show you how to update it yourself so you're not locked in.

Get in touch Back to guides