How to build a website when you are starting from nothing

What to have ready before you open anything

Most of the work of a website is knowing what to say. Gather these before you start and the rest goes quickly.

You do not need a domain on day one. The site goes live on a free address until you connect your own. Buy the domain later, or bring one you already own.

• Your services, in the words a customer would use, not your trade's jargon
• The areas you serve, by town, county or radius
• Who you serve, and what makes you different from the shop down the road
• Your phone number, and the address you want shown, if any
• Your existing website address or a Google Sheet of services and prices, if you have either

The three ways to get a site made

The first way is an editor. You pick a layout, drag things around and write every line yourself. It works if you enjoy that and have the hours.

The second way is to hire someone. You write a brief, wait, review drafts and pay for changes. The result is only as good as the brief and the person.

The third way is to have the site written from a conversation. You answer questions about your business, the builder writes the pages, and a check runs on every one before it publishes. That is what Website Builder Studio does, and the rest of this page walks that route.

The list of what to have ready helps with all three ways. Whoever writes the pages, they need the same facts from you.

Step one, you answer questions about your business

The in-app assistant asks what you do, where you do it, who you do it for, and what makes you different. You answer in plain words, the way you would on the phone.

If you already have a website, the assistant can read its address to fill gaps. It can also read a Google Sheet of your services, areas and prices through a read-only share, with no Google sign-in.

Say the true, specific things. The page about drain repair should sound like you, not like a brochure.

Step two, you approve the plan and what it costs

Before anything is built you see the planned pages and what the build costs. Nothing runs until you say yes.

This is the moment to catch a missing service or an area you no longer cover. It is far cheaper to fix the plan than to fix the pages later.

Step three, the builder writes and checks every page

Each page gets its own title, description, heading, copy, an answer capsule near the top, and the questions people ask. Pages link to each other, and the site gets breadcrumbs, a sitemap and structured data that says who you are.

Then a check that runs before anything publishes measures each page. It is validated against Google Search Essentials and modern web standards. A page that fails does not publish, and the assistant tells you why.

The uniqueness check strips the city, state and industry names before it measures. So two pages cannot be the same words with the town swapped.

Step four, you go live on your address

Your site is live on a free address right away. When you are ready, connect your own domain with one DNS record at your registrar, and the SSL certificate is issued for you.

The assistant walks you through that record for your registrar, screen by screen. If you would rather publish at a set time, schedule it for a date and time in your own time zone.

What happens after the first publish

A lead form is on every page. Each submission is delivered to your CRM, Slack, Microsoft Teams, SMS, email or any webhook. Page views and conversions are counted on the server, so no cookie is added to your site.

Every publish keeps a version you can roll back to. To change anything, tell the in-app assistant. It edits the copy, sets your brand color and logo, adds a page, and runs the same check again.

From here the site is a thing you keep, not a project you finished. Add an About, Contact or FAQ page in one click when you need one.