You can absolutely build your own website. This is the honest version of how.
Including the step where most people give up, and the maths for when DIY stops being cheaper.
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How to create a small business website in Australia
The seven steps, in order
1/
Buy the domain first
yourbusiness.com.au, about $20 a year. Note: you need an ABN for a .com.au, which is a feature, it proves you are a real business.
2/
Write the words before touching any builder
What you do, who for, where, prices if you can, and what you want visitors to do. The words are the website. Design is how they are dressed.
3/
Pick a builder
For DIY, the boring advice is the best advice: pick whichever you can actually finish a site in. The best builder is the one that ships.
4/
One page done well beats six half done
Start with a single page: what, where, proof, contact. Add pages later.
5/
Proof, everywhere
Reviews, real photos of real work, your licence or registration if your industry has one. Trust is the entire job of the site.
6/
Make the phone number a button
Test it on your own phone. Then hand your phone to someone over 60 and watch them try.
7/
Connect Google
Free Google Business Profile + submit your site in Search Console. This is how you start appearing in searches and maps.
The step where most people give up
It is step 2, every time. Not the technology, the words. People open the builder, drag a template around for an evening, then hit the box that says "describe your business" and stall for six weeks.
If you take one thing from this guide: write the words in a plain document first, before you pay for anything. If you cannot finish the document, that is worth knowing before you have bought a year of builder subscription. It is also exactly the stall our process removes, because you say it out loud and we write it down. Copy written for you is part of every build.
What to do yourself vs what to pay for
Always DIY: the Google Business Profile, collecting reviews, taking photos of real work on your phone (recent phone photos beat old professional photos), and keeping hours and prices current.
Worth paying for the first time: the structure and the words, because they decide whether the site earns anything at all.
Genuinely optional: logo design on day one (a clean text mark does the job), professional photography before you have proof to show, and anything sold as "branding strategy" to a five-person business.
What is the best website builder for small business?
The honest answer nobody selling a comparison table gives: they are more alike than different, and the reviews comparing them are mostly affiliate marketing. Pick on three things only: can you edit it without swearing, does it produce a fast site on a phone, and can you take your domain with you when you leave.
The best builder is the one you will actually finish a website in. If you have restarted twice in different builders, the builder was never the problem.
The honest maths.
- DIY costs $300 to $500 a year in subscriptions, plus your evenings
- A professional build with us: landing pages from $700, most full websites between $1,900 and $3,800, live in 1 to 3 weeks
- You own the site and files either way
If your evenings are worth something, and your builder attempt is on version three, the professional build usually works out cheaper than the fourth attempt. You talk, we build. How our web design process works.
Not sure you need one yet?
Fair question, and the answer is genuinely "not always": do I need a website for my small business? walks through the three signs the answer has become yes.
DIY website FAQs
Can I build my own small business website?
Yes. Budget $300 to $500 a year in tools and a lot of evenings. The most common failure is not skill, it is abandoning it half-finished.
What is the best website builder for a small business?
The one you will finish a site in. They are more alike than their ads suggest.
When should I hire someone instead?
When you are on your second or third attempt, or when an evening of your time is worth more than the difference in cost.
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Book a free 20-minute chat/ Written by Manon Vernay, founder of Creative Baguette · her story