Domain name and hosting
A domain name is your website's address. I register through Hover, which includes free WHOIS privacy and a DNS interface that does not fight you. Those are the settings that point your domain at your hosting and email.
Think of hosting like a foundation. It has to match what you are building on it.
A simple brochure site with light, steady traffic does not need much. Budget hosts like Bluehost or GoDaddy are cheap and get the job done. The tradeoff is slower speeds and thinner support when something breaks.
A site that is growing, running e-commerce, or handling real traffic is worth moving to managed WordPress hosting. Kinsta and WP Engine are built for exactly that, with faster infrastructure and support that actually knows WordPress.
It costs more. A slow, unreliable site costs more still, in visitors you never hear from.
Free email ending in @gmail.com does not look professional on a business card.
Google Workspace gives you the same Gmail interface with your own domain on it. Business Starter runs $7 per user each month on an annual plan, or $8.40 month to month, and includes Drive storage, Calendar, and Docs.
It is what I set up for every client, mostly because it is the email platform people already know how to use.
Content: media, text, and logo
A wall of text is not a website. It is a document.
Use real photos where you can, and a royalty-free source like thestocks.im where you cannot.
What you write matters less than how little of it there is. Nielsen Norman Group's eye-tracking research found people scan pages in an F-shaped pattern instead of reading line by line. Dense paragraphs on a homepage mostly go unread.
Save the longer writing for pages people seek out, like About or Company History. Keep the homepage, contact, and product pages short.
A logo does not need to be elaborate. It does need to be deliberate. If the budget allows, hire a designer through Fiverr, Upwork, or Dribbble. Better still, find one locally. Someone you can sit down with is easier to bring back for revisions than someone you only ever emailed.
Choosing a platform
WordPress powers 40.7% of all websites, more than every other platform combined. That comes down to its plugin ecosystem and how easily the built-in blog doubles as an SEO engine. It is what I build almost everything on.
Shopify is the better call when the site's main job is selling physical products. It handles payments, shipping, and inventory natively, where WordPress needs plugins to approximate the same thing.
Squarespace and Wix trade flexibility for simplicity. One monthly fee bundles hosting, templates, and support, which suits a straightforward site somebody wants to run entirely on their own.
Whichever you are weighing, look at real sites built on it and read what current users say first. Most of what I build is WordPress, but the right platform depends on what the site has to do.
SSL
SSL is the padlock and the "https" in the address bar. It encrypts the connection between your site and its visitors.
It matters even if you sell nothing directly. Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014, and most browsers now flag plain HTTP sites as "not secure" right in the address bar. That is not the first impression you want.
Most hosts include a free certificate through Let's Encrypt, so there is rarely a reason to skip it.
Common questions
What platform should I build my business website on?
I build almost everything on WordPress, which powers 40.7% of all websites, mostly for its plugins and the built-in blog. Shopify is the better call when the site's main job is selling physical products. Squarespace and Wix trade flexibility for simplicity, which suits a simple site you run yourself.
What kind of hosting does a small business site need?
Match the hosting to the site. A simple brochure site does fine on a budget host like Bluehost or GoDaddy. A growing site, e-commerce, or real traffic is worth managed WordPress hosting like Kinsta or WP Engine. It costs more, but a slow, unreliable site costs more still.
Do I really need SSL if I'm not selling anything?
Yes. Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014, and most browsers now flag plain HTTP sites as not secure right in the address bar. That's not the first impression you want. Most hosts include a free certificate through Let's Encrypt, so there's rarely a reason to skip it.
How much text should go on my homepage?
Less than you think. Nielsen Norman Group's eye-tracking research found people scan pages in an F-shaped pattern instead of reading line by line, so dense homepage paragraphs mostly go unread. Keep the homepage, contact, and product pages short, and save the longer writing for pages people seek out, like About.
Does your homepage pass the three second test?
A visitor decides in about three seconds whether your site is for them. Put your address in and I will send you what a stranger actually takes from it, and the specific things to fix.
Scan my site free →Where to start
Once the site is built, marketing it is the next step, and my SEO services cover that. Or if the technical side above sounds like more than you want to take on, gravityGone builds and maintains websites for small businesses across Jacksonville and Northeast Florida, starting at $250, no long-term contracts.
Mike is the founder of gravityGone, where he helps small businesses in Northeast Florida grow through Web Development, SEO, and Marketing Automation.
