A first website has one job, which is turning people who find you into people who contact you. That needs perhaps six pages, honest photographs, a phone number that works on a phone, and copy that says what you do and where. Most of what drives price beyond that is scope you can add later once the site has proved it produces work.
Start from what it has to do
The common approach is to look at competitors' sites and try to match them. That produces a list of features rather than an objective, and features are what make projects expensive.
A first site has one job. Someone hears your name, or finds you in a search, arrives with a problem, and needs to conclude within about thirty seconds that you handle that problem, you cover their area, you seem competent, and contacting you is easy.
Everything that serves those four conclusions is worth building. Everything else can wait until there is evidence it is needed.
The pages a first site needs
| Page | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Homepage | Says what you do, where you do it, and routes people to the right service |
| One page per main service | Matches what people actually search for and answers the questions that come with it |
| About | The verification step. Real names, real photographs, how long you have been doing this |
| Contact | Number, form, hours, service area, and where you are based |
| Privacy policy | Needed in practice as soon as a form collects anything |
For most small businesses that is five to eight pages. A trades business with three services and one area sits at the bottom of that range and is not missing anything.
What actually persuades people
Photographs of your own work
The single highest-return item and it costs nothing but a habit. Real jobs, photographed on a phone in daylight with the area tidied first. Purchased stock images are recognisable and they undermine everything around them.
A phone number that is tappable
Visible on every page, not only in the footer, and set up as a link so tapping it dials. A number placed as plain text or inside an image is a phone call you did not receive.
Your service area, in writing
Named places, on the page. This is one of the two questions every visitor has and it is missing from a remarkable number of small business sites.
Something that proves other people used you
Even two or three genuine reviews, quoted with a first name and a place. New businesses without any should say what they can evidence instead: years in the trade before going independent, certifications, or a guarantee.
Some sense of price
Not necessarily a figure. Naming the variables that move a price, or giving a typical range, answers the question people most want answered and that most competitors avoid entirely.
What drives the price
Quotes for what sounds like the same project vary widely, and the difference is scope rather than margin.
- Who writes the words. The most common gap. If it is you, the project waits on your evenings. If it is not, that is real work being purchased.
- Whether design is original or a template configured. Both are legitimate and they cost differently.
- Whether search groundwork is included, meaning page titles, descriptions, structure, and the local details. Cheap builds routinely omit this and the site is then invisible.
- How much is tested, particularly real devices and a genuine form submission that is confirmed to arrive.
- What happens after launch, since something always needs adjusting in the first fortnight.
- What you receive at the end. Files, credentials, and the domain in your name, or a rental you cannot move.
What to leave for later
Not because these are bad, but because they are answers to problems a new site does not have yet.
- Online booking, unless your work has a standard length and price.
- A blog, until the pages that capture demand exist and are working.
- Live chat, which is only useful if someone is actually available to answer it.
- An online store, unless you genuinely sell products.
- Video, which is powerful done well and worse than nothing done cheaply.
- Dozens of location pages, before you have done work in those places.
The ongoing costs nobody mentions
A website is not a one-time purchase, and the recurring side is small but real: the domain annually, hosting annually, and some provision for maintenance.
The one people forget is content. Hours change, services change, prices change, and a site nobody updates becomes actively misleading within about two years. Budgeting an hour or two a quarter, or a small retainer, is the difference between an asset and a liability with your name on it.
The test before you sign
Ask three questions of whoever is quoting. What is excluded. Who writes the copy. And what do I receive at the end if I want to move elsewhere.
The answers separate proposals faster than the prices do, and a firm that answers all three clearly and in writing has told you a good deal about how the project will actually run.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages does a first website need?
Usually five to eight: a homepage, one page for each main service, an About page, a contact page, and a privacy policy. A business with three services and one service area sits at the lower end and is not missing anything.
What matters most on a small business website?
Photographs of your own work, a tappable phone number on every page, your service area named in writing, evidence other people have used you, and some indication of price.
Why do website quotes vary so much?
Scope rather than margin. Who writes the copy, whether design is original, whether search groundwork is included, how much testing happens, and what you receive at the end all differ between quotes that look similar.
Should my first website have a blog?
Not usually. Build the pages that capture demand first, confirm they work, then add articles. A blog started before the service pages exist tends to produce traffic that was never going to enquire.
What are the ongoing costs of a website?
The domain and hosting annually, some provision for maintenance, and time or budget for keeping content current. A site nobody updates becomes misleading within about two years.
What should I ask before signing a quote?
What is excluded, who writes the copy, and what you receive if you want to move elsewhere. Those three answers separate proposals more reliably than the prices do.
West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.
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