If you run a small business and you've been procrastinating on the website, this guide is for you. It's everything we tell our small business clients in the first conversation — what to build, what to skip, what to budget, and how to know if it's actually working.
What your website actually needs to do
Most small business websites fail because they try to do everything. The honest list of what your site needs to accomplish, in order of importance:
- 1. Look legitimate. (A custom domain, real photos, no placeholder text.)
- 2. Explain what you do, in plain English, in 5 seconds.
- 3. Show how to contact or buy from you.
- 4. Build trust (testimonials, credentials, proof of work).
- 5. Capture leads (a form, a phone number, a booking link).
That's it. If your site does those five things well, it doesn't matter if it has a blog, a chatbot, or a careers page. Skip them.
The minimum viable small business site
Five pages. That's enough for almost every small business:
- Home: what you do, who you do it for, why you're different, how to start.
- About: who you are, why you started, what you believe.
- Services (or Products): what you sell, what's included, what it costs.
- Work (or Portfolio): 6-12 examples of your best work, with context.
- Contact: a form, a phone number, an email, a physical address if relevant.
What to budget in 2026
Real numbers, not aspirational ones:
- DIY (Squarespace, Wix, Framer): $200-500/year total. Time: 20-40 hours.
- Freelancer: $2,000-5,000 one-time. Time: 2-4 weeks.
- Small agency: $5,000-15,000 one-time. Time: 4-8 weeks.
- Boutique agency: $15,000-40,000 one-time. Time: 6-12 weeks.
Anything more expensive than $40k for a 5-page site is either overkill or you're buying services you don't need (custom illustrations, motion graphics, a brand sprint). For most small businesses, $5-15k is the sweet spot.
What to skip
- Custom illustrations (unless they're your actual product)
- Live chat widgets (annoying, low conversion, expensive to maintain)
- A blog (until you have time to write 2 posts a month for a year)
- A multilingual site (until you have real demand in two languages)
- An app (until your website can't do what the app would do)
- Anything that says "AI-powered" without explaining what AI actually does
How to know if your site is working
Four numbers, that's it:
- How many visitors per month (from Google Analytics)
- What % contact you (form submissions + phone calls + emails)
- What % buy (your actual conversion rate, however you measure it)
- Where they come from (search, social, referral, direct)
If your conversion rate is below 1% and you have 200+ visitors a month, the problem is your site. If your conversion rate is below 1% and you have 50 visitors a month, the problem is your traffic. They're different problems with different solutions.
The maintenance you actually need
- WordPress / Webflow: $200-500/year for hosting, plugin updates, security
- Custom site (Next.js etc.): $1,000-3,000/year for hosting, monitoring, dependency updates
- Domain: $15-30/year, renewed annually
- Time: budget 2-4 hours a month for content updates and small fixes
"The best small business website isn't the one that does the most things. It's the one that does the fewest things really well, and makes it effortless for the right customer to become a buyer."