How To Create a Website for Your Business

Creating a website is one of the first things you should do when starting a business. Even a simple one-page website can legitimize your operation.

And thanks to new AI website builders, it’s never been easier to create a website for your business, no coding experience required. In this guide, we’ll cover everything from registering your domain name to choosing a website builder and creating the most important pages for your site.

Why should you create a business website?

Business websites are among the most important links between your company and your customers. They tell potential customers what kind of business you operate, and they can help you establish credibility in your chosen industry.

Today, no-code website builders make creating a site easy. Small businesses that use Shopify, for example, can take advantage of the platform’s professionally designed business website templates to get started quickly. “Anybody within the Shopify space can go and find a template and start selling from their online store within an hour,” founder and CEO of design and development agency on/Sight Brooks Bostic says.

Shopify has more than 800 customizable templates, and Shopify’s new theme foundation, Horizon, offers 10 templates with advanced customization features like an AI tool that lets you create unique website blocks.

How to build a business website

1. Define your target market and goals
2. Register your domain
3. Secure web hosting
4. Select a website builder
5. Build relevant pages
6. Add your branding
7. Add content
8. Optimize for search engines
9. Launch, monitor, and improve your site

You don’t need to be tech-savvy to create a top-notch website for your business. However, you do need a plan and a clear sense of your brand identity. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a business website:

1. Define your target market and goals

Start by asking a few simple questions: Who are you trying to reach and who is your target audience? Do you want visitors to contact you? Buy something? Book an appointment? Having answers to these questions will help you structure your site, from the overall look and feel to individual website pages.

For example, if you want to build an email list ahead of a brand launch, you might create a simple landing page using Shopify Forms. If you have a photography business, you probably want to create a portfolio website with samples of previous work and a contact page.

2. Register your domain

Your domain name (e.g. thisismybusiness.com) is your web address. Before you go live, you’ll need to register your domain. You can think of it like signing a lease for your spot on the internet.

You can register your domain name with website builders like Shopify when you start setting up your site. If you’re not ready to choose a website builder yet and just want to secure your domain name, you can use a domain registrar like GoDaddy or Bluehost.

Here are a few considerations for choosing a domain name:

• Keep it short: A concise domain name can be easier for customers to remember. Try to keep it less than 15 characters.
• Use your brand name: Incorporate your business name to ensure site visitors know they’re looking at your company’s website and to reinforce your brand identity. You don’t need to register as an LLC to buy a domain name, and it’s fine to use a domain name that’s different from your legal business name (if you have one). 
• Avoid special characters: Customers might have a hard time remembering where numbers and hyphens go in your domain name, which can lead to typos. Plus, mobile users will need to switch keyboards to access these special characters, which could be frustrating.

You can use Shopify’s domain availability checker to see whether your desired domain is already in use. You might even take this step before you name and register your business so you can ensure your company and domain names match, but it’s not a requirement. For example, branding agency Gander uses the url takeagander.com, and cookware company Anyday’s domain is cookanyday.com.

3. Secure web hosting

In addition to registering your domain name, you’ll also need to secure web hosting—a service that stores your website files and makes them accessible online. Website builders like Shopify can host your site for you, which keeps everything consolidated and can cut down on subscription costs to multiple service providers. Some domain registrars also offer hosting.

If you use another website builder, like WordPress, you’ll need to choose your own website hosting provider, which will carry an additional subscription cost. These include platforms like IONOS, Dreamhost, or HostGator.

4. Select a website builder

There are a number of website builders to choose from, including Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress. Here are a few things to consider as you decide on the best website builder for you:

Themes and templates

Professionally designed themes and templates make it easy to build a website without coding or graphic design skills. Browse different website builders’ available themes and look for contemporary, polished designs that could mesh with your business’s visual brand identity.

You’ll also want to make sure your website builder offers templates with responsive web design to ensure your website displays well on different screen sizes. Even if you expect most of your site visitors to view your site on desktop, responsive web design can benefit you down the line.

“Depending on which marketing channels you end up using for your business in the future, suddenly your audience can shift quite drastically from one device to another,” says Rembrant Van der Mijnsbrugge, web developer and co-founder of Mote Agency.

For example, maybe you launch an Instagram campaign, and most of your website traffic starts coming from phones. “You don’t want to have to catch up when that happens,” says Rembrant. “You want to be able to meet your customer with marketing at the right place, with the right message, at the right time.”

Ecommerce functionality

A few essential tools make it easy to sell products on your website. Look for:

• Native shipping tools (like Shopify Shipping) to receive shipping discounts, print labels, and track deliveries
• Integrated payment processing (with a service like Shopify Payments, Stripe, or Square) to facilitate secure transactions
• Advanced ecommerce analytics to help track data like purchasing trends
• Inventory management tools to help keep track of your product catalog

Note that some website builders—like WordPress—aren’t custom built for ecommerce and don’t allow you to accept online payments at lower subscription tiers. Others, like Shopify, let you sell products at the lowest subscription tier. If you’re comparing prices between platforms, be sure to look at the tiers you’ll need to use.

AI tools

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can help you do everything from draft onsite content to choose the right theme. Shopify Magic, for example, can streamline your store creation process by helping you create landing pages. write product descriptions, and more.

The new Shopify theme foundation, Horizon, has additional AI features that help you customize your site with unique content blocks.

Digital products, subscriptions, and appointment booking

If you’re selling more than singular physical products, look for a website builder that can accommodate different types of sales. Shopify, for example, lets you sell digital products and subscriptions.

If you run a service business on Shopify and need appointment booking functionality, you can add an app like BookX to start accepting appointments on your site.

App store

Choosing a website builder with a large app store can benefit you down the line: As your business changes and grows, you might find that you need specific features that aren’t natively available in your website builder.

Shopify, for example, has more than 8,000 apps that can help you add functionality like restock notifications and video reviews to your site. These apps can also help you integrate your store with third-parties like dropshipping partners.

Social media and marketplace integrations

Listing your products on social sites like Instagram and Facebook and marketplaces like Etsy can give you access to a wider audience of potential customers. If you plan to sell on these sites, look for a website builder that integrates with them. This will simplify the processes of listing products, managing inventory, and tracking sales across more than one platform.

Shopify has tools like the Facebook and Instagram app and Marketplace Connect app that streamline cross-platform selling, allowing you to manage cross-site inventory and sales directly from your Shopify admin.

Email marketing tools

Email marketing can be incredibly effective: It has a return on investment of 36, meaning that for every dollar you put into it, you can expect $36 in return, according to Hubspot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report.

Many website builders integrate with popular email marketing services like Mailchimp and Klaviyo. Shopify even has a native tool, Shopify Email, which can help you save money on an external subscription cost.

Integrating your email marketing software with your website can be important because it allows you to send personalized automated emails like abandoned cart reminders and shipping updates. These softwares can also help you capture leads and nurture customer relationships by sharing promotions, longform newsletter content, and more.

5. Build relevant pages

It’s not too early to start thinking about your site structure. Start thinking about where you’ll place links to vital pages like your About and Contact pages, and where you’ll position essential site elements like navigation. You’ll also want to consider where you’ll include important information like your return policy and store hours.

If you use Shopify as your website builder, you can start with a template that includes predesigned versions of important pages, then simply add additional pages as you go. You’ll just need to populate text and images.

Here are a few essential website elements to include (we’ll cover what content to add to each later):

• Homepage
• About page
• Contact page
• Product pages
• Collection pages
• Header
• Footer

As you organize your site, consider the sales funnel. “Traditionally speaking, you land on the homepage, go to the collection page, go to the product page, go to the cart page, then move through checkout,” says Mote co-founder Sara Mote. “As you move through each of the templates or pages that you’re designing, take a step back and think about what’s going to make the experience most successful.”

To help you think through your layout, you might consider making a preliminary drawing called a wireframe. “Wireframes are basic sketches or diagrams showing the layout and structure of a website—you can think of it as a blueprint,” says Sara. “You’ll focus on how things are arranged without the details of design. That allows you to focus on overall structure, navigation, and the arrangements of interface elements that you want to prioritize.”

6. Add your branding

Add visual branding elements like your logo, brand colors, typography, and photography style across your webpages. This can help site visitors get an idea of your brand personality.

You’ll ideally use these same visual elements across your packaging and other marketing materials. Start collecting these design assets and organizing them into your brand guidelines. This is a playbook with details on the different elements that constitute your brand identity.

This brand toolkit holds “the ingredients that we use to make a great website,” notes Ky Allport, creative director at branding agency Outline. “If you don’t have that established to start with, the website can only do so much.”

If you set up your business website with Shopify, you can easily upload your logo, choose between existing fonts or import your own, and change preset template colors to match your brand colors.

As you start adding color to your site, keep legibility top of mind. You can make text more legible by choosing text and background colors with high contrast. To make sure your site is readable, run your site through a web accessibility tool like the WebAIM Contrast Checker.

As you expand your business operations, make sure the design of your website matches that of other customer touchpoints like product packaging and paid ads. This ensures brand consistency. “It builds trust in your consumers and customers, if they feel like you have a clear, consistent point of view,” says Ky.

7. Add content

Add written content to the pages you’ve added to your template, and don’t forget about your header and footer. Here’s what to include for each element:

Homepage

Your website homepage could be a potential customer’s first introduction to your company, so make sure it quickly and clearly communicates your brand identity and explains what you sell. You’ll also want to make sure your homepage is easy to navigate, since visitors will use it as an entryway into the rest of your site.

You don’t need to overload your homepage with information. “Ensure that when someone lands on your homepage, they have a clear sense of your brand and your product offerings,” says Sara. “Then as they journey through the site, you offer more detail.”

Here are the core characteristics of a great homepage:

• Streamlined user experience. Make sure your homepage loads quickly, looks good on mobile devices, and has easy-to-use navigation features so visitors can quickly get to other parts of your site.
• Branding. Incorporate branding elements like your logo, color palette, and signature fonts to quickly communicate your visual brand identity.
• Call to action (CTA). What do you want site visitors to do? Clearly communicate the next step with a CTA that reads something like “Shop now,” “Book an appointment,” or “Learn more.”
• Attention-grabbing photography and media. High-quality media elements can grasp viewers’ attention and help you communicate your brand identity. Consider including lifestyle photography or videos to convey your brand identity and showcase your products or services in use.

About page

Your business’s About page is a chance to tell your story and share your brand values and mission. Here’s what to include:

• Brand story. How did you get where you are today? Telling your brand story can help readers emotionally connect with your company.
• Founder. If you have a public-facing founder or other company representative, this is a place to talk about them.
• Who you serve. Talk about your customers and explain how your product solves a problem for them.
• How you work. Delve into any unique characteristics of your business model. For example, maybe you only use sustainable materials or only work with local manufacturers.
• CTAs. CTA stands for “call to action.” Think about what you want your readers to do next. That could be signing up for your newsletter, following you on social media, or heading to your blog, for example. Make sure your CTAs point them to complete that action.

Contact page

Make your contact page easily accessible by linking to it in your main navigation bar or footer. Here are a few tips for crafting an effective contact page:

• Provide multiple communication options. Instead of just providing an email address, note whether customers can also contact you via phone or social media direct message.
• Add a contact form. A contact form lets customers submit a message without having to navigate away from your site. 
• Note response time. How long will it take for your business to respond? Include your response time to set clear expectations.
• Include location and store hours. If you run a physical shop, add your address and store hours. You can also embed a map to make it even easier for site visitors to find you in real life.

Product pages

Product pages are where you’ll showcase individual products and include CTAs encouraging customers to buy those items. Here’s what to include:

• High-quality product images. These might include detailed shots of specific product features or lifestyle images of your product in use.
• Compelling product description. A great product description convinces readers of the product’s value and touches on product specifications without overwhelming readers with too much information.
• Social proof. Include social proof like customer testimonials, star ratings, and even user-generated content to show potential customers that people already love your product.
• CTA. Add a clear CTA directing viewers to purchase the product. This might be a button that says, “Buy now” or “Add to cart.”
• Answers to customer concerns. Address any objections potential customers might have to finalizing their purchase. For example, maybe you conduct a survey and learn that people are concerned about the warmth of your lightweight down jacket. You could address this concern in the product description or in an FAQ section at the bottom of the page.

As you add these different elements, make sure they work together. Sara notes that information on your product pages should be “integrated in a way that feels intuitive.”

“Focus on the most important piece of information first for anyone who’s considering a product, then ask, ‘What are the deeper pieces of information someone might want to know?’” Sara explains. For example, maybe you provide your short product description at the top of the page, then include information on individual materials and your return policy in subheaders.

Collection pages

Organize your products, then assemble them into collection pages. This will make it easier for customers to find what you’re looking for. If you sell women’s clothing, for example, you might create separate collection pages for jackets, dresses, and shirts. You could also create collection pages for new products or seasonal items.

If you’re wondering how exactly to group your products, consider using a search engine optimization (SEO) tactic: match your product categories to popular internet searches.

“It’s one of the simplest, most effective ways of growing organic traffic and revenue without even having to add any more products,” says Kyle Risley, a senior lead of SEO at Shopify. “The reason for that is Google tends to rank collection pages more often than product pages for commercial queries because they give the user lots of options.”

To make your collection pages rank high in search results, you need to align your collection pages with ones that are currently ranking. Kyle gives an example: Let’s say you’re creating product collection pages for high-waisted bottoms. You’re considering two collection pages, one for “high waisted pants” and one for “high waisted jeans.”

“Look at what’s ranking in Google. Look at both of the terms, and then see if it’s the same pages ranking or if it’s different pages ranking,” says Kyle. “That should guide your page creation strategy.”

In this case, those two search terms yield different collection pages. The “pants” search yields trousers, and the “jeans” search yields denim. This means you’ll want to create two different product collection pages for “high-waisted pants” and “high-waisted jeans.”

Header

In most cases, your website header should include your company name and logo, making it clear that this is your business’s website. You’ll also want to include a navigation bar and search bar to ensure customers can easily navigate to other parts of your site, no matter which page they’re on.

You can also add a banner above your header to share timely information on seasonal sales, free shipping promotions, and more.

Footer

Your footer is a critical part of your website. This is where you can nestle links to vital information on everything from your shipping and return policies to your physical location to how customers can contact you. This is also a great place to link out to your social media profiles and include a sign-up form for your email list.

As you add content to your site, remember to keep it simple. Sara describes the concept of cognitive ease, or making your site easy for visitors to understand. “Giving them all the information at one time on one page can just be too much,” she says. Sara uses the example of a return policy—a customer might want to learn more about it before making a purchase, but you don’t need to include it on every page.

“It should be somewhere that’s locatable, and it should be somewhere that can be referenced without digging too much,” she says. “But at the same time, think about where you can represent that information so that someone’s not cognitively overwhelmed with too much to consider at one time.”

8. Optimize for search engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your website rank higher in search results. The technical structure of your pages can help you with SEO, and most website builders include search-engine-optimized structures in their templates (so you won’t need to worry about coding). Make sure to add page titles and meta descriptions to make sure you’re utilizing these SEO-friendly templates.

Another vital SEO strategy is using keywords. Keyword research helps you identify the terms potential customers might type into search engines to find your business and products, which can help you uncover users’ search intent. You can incorporate certain keywords (which you can find with an SEO tool like Surfer or Semrush) into your content to rank higher.

Content marketing can also help you incorporate keywords and address common search queries while simultaneously helping you provide valuable information to your site visitors. A great way to start content marketing is by adding a blog to your site.

Once your site is live, use tools like Google Analytics to track your website’s performance on search engine results pages (SERPs) and make adjustments as needed.

9. Launch, monitor, and improve your site

Test your website thoroughly before launch. Once your site is up and running, regularly monitor website traffic and user behavior using analytics tools. You can also use performance monitoring tools to make sure your site is functioning properly from a technical perspective (for example, is your site loading quickly enough?).

You should also regularly conduct website audits and update your content to keep it feeling fresh. Note that platforms like Shopify come out with frequent updates, like the new Horizon theme foundation, that you can use to keep your site looking contemporary.