Before you touch a theme, a page builder or a developer's inbox, work through these five questions. They will save you months and thousands of dollars.
1. Who is this website for?
A business website that tries to speak to everyone speaks to no one. Write down a single sentence describing your ideal visitor: who they are, what they’re looking for, and what their frustration is. Every design decision follows from that one person. If you can’t picture them, you aren’t ready to build yet.
2. What is one thing a visitor should do?
Not three. Not seven. One. Pick a single primary action — book a call, buy a product, read the article, fill a form, download a PDF — and design the home page around getting the visitor to do it. Everything else is secondary.
3. Do you have the words first?
90% of ugly sites look ugly because the content was written after the design. Draft every page’s text (even badly) before you touch Figma or WordPress. It will change your layout. It will shorten your sitemap. It will reveal the pages you don’t actually need.
4. Which stack fits your maintenance budget?
WordPress is a safe, flexible choice if you have 1–2 hours per month to maintain it. Static tools (Astro, Hugo, 11ty) are faster and more secure but assume developer help for changes. Website builders (Squarespace, Webflow) remove maintenance but tie you to the platform. The right answer is whichever one you can keep up to date in a year.
5. How will you measure success?
Pick three numbers to track monthly: traffic from search, leads or sales, and conversion rate on the key action. If you don’t measure, you can’t improve. Google Search Console, Plausible or Fathom and your email tool together cover 95% of what a small business ever needs.
Bonus: budget realistically
A professional small-business website typically costs between $3,000–$15,000 to build when done right, with ongoing hosting, maintenance and content costs on top. If you plan to go cheaper, be honest about the trade-offs. A $300 Fiverr theme install is not the same as a strategic website — and a strategic website pays for itself.
Pre-build checklist
- A one-sentence audience description.
- A primary goal with a measurable target (e.g. 15 enquiries/month).
- Draft page copy for home, services, about and contact.
- Your logo in SVG and a 6-colour palette.
- A list of 20 real competitors’ sites you like or don’t.
Final thoughts
Research moves on, prices change, new models and options launch every month. The right pick for you is the one that fits your constraints — budget, use case, climate, time commitment — not the one that scores highest on paper. We update this article at least every six months. If something here is out of date, email [email protected] and we will fix it quickly.
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