How to DIY Your SMB Website

How to create a website for your small business

This step-by-step guide for businesses taking a DIY approach to their website. They will not only help you get a branded site up and running, but they will also provide a positive user experience (UX) that keeps customers engaged and coming back for more.

Define your goals and calls to action (CTAs)

Before you start building your site, you need to determine what you want it to accomplish for your business. Will it primarily be for lead generation, e-commerce sales, brand awareness or a combination of all those things? Clarifying these goals will shape your entire website strategy, so it’s important to have them in place to guide you.

You’ll also want to determine what CTA will be most effective at achieving your overall website goals.

“Consider what kind of CTAs to emphasize on your website, whether it’s phone calls, form submissions or any special deals you can offer your audience, such as free estimates,” said Peter Heise, president of Correct Digital, Inc.

Research your target audience and competitors

Understanding the website strategies of other businesses in your industry goes hand-in-hand with establishing goals and CTAs. Heise advised carefully researching your target audience and competitors to determine what kind of website your audience will expect to see. 

“If [a small business’s] top competitors all have top-tier websites and theirs is low-quality by comparison, they will struggle to convert,” he added.

Choose a user-friendly web design tool

Once you know the type of website you’re looking to create, you’ll need to choose the best website builder for your business goals, needs and budget. The key is finding a platform that balances ease of use, flexibility and room to grow.

“Small businesses should consider not only what their current web needs are, but what they might need in the future as their business scales,” said Dana Jung, founder and CEO of Moon Priestess Design. “Doing this legwork before your site is built helps you to future-proof and streamline your website and business.”

Here are a few key features when choosing your website builder:

• Ease of use: Look for intuitive, drag-and-drop tools, a no-code interface and customizable templates that will make your web design process as seamless as possible. Jung advised test-driving the interface before committing to help you uncover a platform’s quirks and bugs. “They all have them,” she said. “The question is, will this one in particular drive you bonkers every time you have to make an update?”
• Responsive design and mobile optimization: Creating a mobile-optimized website is nonnegotiable in the modern world, so the platform you choose should make this easy. Jung noted that most no-code platforms allow you to easily toggle between desktop and mobile view when building, but some allow more flexibility to customize elements in the mobile view.
• Built-in hosting: A good website builder should include web hosting with custom domain options so you don’t need a separate provider.
• E-commerce and/or payment tools: Being able to accept payments or make sales directly through a website is important for a lot of small businesses. Having everything for payments all in one place, rather than connecting different tools to your website, makes it that much easier for you and your customers.
• Analytics and search engine optimization (SEO) tools: Your chosen platform should include performance tracking and SEO features to help your site grow and stay visible.

One popular and powerful DIY website builder that checks all these boxes is Squarespace. Known for its sleek templates and intuitive drag-and-drop interface, Squarespace makes it easy for entrepreneurs to create beautiful, responsive, no-code websites. It also includes built-in tools for SEO, email marketing, e-commerce and analytics — functionalities that usually require third-party plugins or platforms on other website builders.

One thing small business owners with limited web design experience will appreciate is Squarespace’s Blueprint AI tool, which offers a personalized, step-by-step website creation experience. Instead of sorting through hundreds of premade templates, you simply answer a few questions about your business, goals and brand personality. Based on your answers, Blueprint AI generates curated content, web design recommendations and structure tailored to your unique needs. For example, you’ll get:

• A color palette and font pairings that reflect your brand.
• Suggestions for what pages and sections to include based on your business goals.
• High-quality, artificial intelligence-generated imagery and copy curated by Squarespace’s in-house design team.

From there, you’ll be able to preview your design options in real time as you build your site. 

Plan out and build your site with mobile responsiveness and SEO in mind

Before you start creating any pages on your new website builder, take time to think about the overall structure to guide your process. Your focus should be on creating a cohesive UX that’s seamless to navigate.

“I map out the design and functionality before any building so that I can easily see potential issues and problem-solve ‘on paper,’” said Jung. “Planning ahead also allows me to use workflow processes during the build like templatizing pages and sections so I can easily reuse them throughout the site.”

If you’re using a platform like Squarespace, you can also templatize sections and reuse them across your site to keep fonts, spacing and calls-to-action consistent.

As you build, keep mobile optimization and SEO at the forefront of your mind. Take advantage of your website builder’s mobile view to ensure your pages will appear correctly on a mobile device. Jung recommended adjusting each page’s mobile layout as you go, rather than waiting until the end and risking duplicated design issues across your site.

Finally, name your URL slugs with clear, descriptive names and fill in basic metadata like page titles and descriptions. These small steps improve your site’s visibility in search engines and create a cohesive, well-structured experience for visitors.

Test and refine before publicly launching your site

Testing your website is a critical final step before you unveil your new site to the public.

“Things might look perfect in the website editor but funky in an actual browser,” said Jung. “Test each page in different browsers and ask your friends and family to do the same. It’s better to catch mistakes in this early stage before a customer does.”

You’ll also want to test any forms, payment portals and links to make sure everything is functioning properly before a real customer tries to use them. If you or any of your testers spot errors or inconsistencies, address them before publicly announcing your new website on social media, an email newsletter or other marketing channels.

Monitor performance and update your website regularly

After your website goes live, Heise advises monitoring its performance with analytics tools like Google Analytics 4 and conversion tracking. 

“With conversion tracking for meaningful events like form submissions and phone calls, [you] can effectively optimize pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and measure advertising performance,” he said. “However, [you] may need a marketing professional to help set this up.”

Similarly, Arias WebsterBerry, CEO of WebsterBerry Marketing, recommended regularly reviewing your site performance so you can update content and refine the UX based on the data you collect.

“The biggest mistake businesses make is thinking their website is ‘done,’” said WebsterBerry. “It should always be evolving.”

Taking your small business website to the next level

A small business website with a strong home page, about section and an online storefront (if applicable) is a good start, but how can you make it truly great? Below are some ways to improve your website while getting more play on search engine result pages (SERPs) and social media:

• Create a blog: Regularly blogging on your website can help it rank higher for keywords on SERPs while establishing your business as a trusted source. “Blogging continues to be a powerful tool in 2025 to help boost your organic search engine rankings,” Heise said. “You can display topical authority in your niche with extensive blog work. This perceived expertise helps your landing pages rank higher in search engines.”
• Establish a community: Community forums give people places to ask questions and interact with one another — boosting website engagement while keeping your brand at the forefront. “The best websites don’t just provide information — they build relationships and keep people coming back,” said WebsterBerry.
• Create landing pages: Landing pages promote specific products, services or events. Consider creating landing pages around the products your audience is searching for or actions you want them to take, such as signing up for an email newsletter or loyalty program. “Think about the pages you bookmark or visit frequently [and] what draws you there,” said Jung. “In this vein of thinking … [include] a resource library to house relevant content. [This] adds value, encourages engagement and optimizes SEO all at once.”
• Have a linking strategy: Internal links help readers easily navigate your website and explore related content. Meanwhile, linking high-quality external sources boosts credibility, signals authority to search engines and associates your brand with reputable names. “Use both internal and external links within any pages you create to drive more engagement and optimize your SEO,” Jung suggested. “For example, I might link to an article I wrote about responsive design within my blog about building websites to keep users more engaged within my site.”
• Launch an email newsletter: With its unpredictability and oversaturation, relying solely on social media to share your business’s message can be difficult. Offer consumers an alternative communication outlet by providing valuable content through a newsletter, created using your platform’s built-in email marketing tools or one of the best email marketing services. 

When do you need to hire a web developer?

While most small businesses can create the site they need with a web design tool like Squarespace, there are some cases where a web developer’s insight might come in handy, including: 

• When you need advanced functionality: DIY web design tools, by nature, don’t typically allow for extensive customization or more complex features. For example, businesses that need to accept multiple currencies or integrate web pages with industry- or product-specific tools would benefit from consulting with a web developer.
• When you want to fine-tune your SEO: Technical SEO digs into a site’s backend and architecture with the goal of improving search rankings. Elements like crawlability, site speed and indexing all fall under the umbrella of technical SEO. Having a web developer who can control everything under the hood can help you get the most out of your SEO efforts.
• When you want to give your PPC campaigns an extra boost: If you’re looking to maximize the results of your PPC campaigns, Heise advises hiring a professional for their expertise. “Beyond creating a basic website … there is a whole world of advanced strategies that can make or break a small business,” Heise said. “Rest assured that any established competitors in your niche are already utilizing these strategies.”

If you do choose to hire a web developer, finding the right fit is essential. Before making any decisions, first consider whether you need creative support, implementation support or both.

“Not all web developers are designers and vice versa,” said Jung. “If possible, I highly suggest working with someone who can do both for a more consistent and streamlined creative process.”

Beyond that, Jung recommended seeking a web developer with an aesthetic that aligns with your vision, as well as a proven track record in your industry.

Why small businesses love Squarespace

For small business owners without the time or expertise to build a website from scratch — or the resources to outsource to a professional web developer — Squarespace has a lot to offer. Here’s why web development professionals recommend it for small business DIYers:

• It’s a simple but powerful website building platform. “Small business owners don’t have time to learn how to code or deal with complex website setups,” said WebsterBerry. “They need something that looks professional, works seamlessly and helps them get customers without the headache. Squarespace delivers that right out of the box.”
• It’s affordable and user-friendly. “Squarespace is a user-friendly ‘drag-and-drop’ website builder with fairly advanced e-commerce functionalities,” said Heise. “It is a good alternative to Shopify and more affordable.”
• It has all the tools you need to run an online business in one place. “The platform’s no-code editor and template library make it easy for users of all levels to create a beautiful website, with rich functionality like e-commerce, appointment booking and email marketing,” said Jung.

To learn more and start your free website trial, visit squarespace.com.