First Business Website: How to Build It

A good small-business website does four jobs on day one: explains what you do, proves you’re credible, makes it easy to contact or buy, and loads fast enough that visitors don’t bounce. You don’t need a giant build — just the right pages, clean navigation, and a few must-have technical and legal basics. Google’s own starter guide still boils SEO down to clear content, crawlability, and helpful markup, which means you’ll win faster by getting fundamentals right rather than chasing hacks. Accessibility isn’t optional either: the ADA expects businesses open to the public to provide accessible web content, and the latest WCAG 2.2 criteria clarify what “accessible” means at a practical level. Because many U.S. businesses collect email addresses, you’ll also want an email footer that satisfies CAN-SPAM: truthful headers/subjects, your physical address, and a visible one-click opt-out. Round it out with basic privacy/security hygiene, structured data so search can understand your business, and a short launch checklist so nothing slips.

Pages & Content: The Minimum Viable Site That Converts

Your homepage should say “what you do, for whom, and the outcome” in the first screen — no jargon. Keep navigation short: Home, Services/Products, About, Proof (testimonials/case notes), and Contact. The services page should list 1–3 offers with scope, price or “from” pricing, and a clear next step (calendar link or contact form). Your About page earns trust with a photo, short origin story, credentials, and any relevant certifications. The proof page is where you put mini case notes; if you use testimonials, follow the FTC’s updated Endorsement Guides by disclosing material connections and avoiding claims that suggest unrepresentative results are typical. For email capture, be explicit: what they’ll get and how often; then make sure any marketing emails comply with CAN-SPAM (truthful headers/subjects, identification as an ad when applicable, physical address, an easy opt-out you honor promptly). Write in plain language, use descriptive headings, and keep paragraphs tight — Google’s starter guide emphasizes clarity and helpfulness over keyword stuffing. Finally, add a simple footer with your business name, address, essential links (Privacy, Terms, Accessibility), and your preferred contact methods to boost credibility and meet compliance expectations.

Accessibility & User Experience: WCAG 2.2 and Core Web Vitals (What You Actually Do)

The ADA’s web guidance explains that businesses open to the public should provide accessible web content; a practical way to meet that expectation is to design toward WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Concretely, that means adding alternative text to meaningful images, ensuring sufficient color contrast, making all functionality keyboard-accessible, labeling form fields clearly, and avoiding content that jumps around as it loads. WCAG 2.2 adds success criteria like Focus Appearance and Dragging Movements that make interactive bits easier to use; it’s worth scanning the W3C’s “What’s new in 2.2” page so your designer doesn’t miss subtle changes. On performance, Google’s Core Web Vitals (LCP for loading, CLS for visual stability, and INP for interactivity) capture how fast your site feels to humans, and Google explicitly recommends achieving “good” scores to align with what its ranking systems reward. You don’t have to chase perfect lab numbers — measure real-user data where possible and fix the biggest offenders first (oversized hero images, render-blocking scripts, layout shifts from late-loading ads or fonts). Keep pages lightweight, compress images, lazy-load non-critical media, and reserve space for embeds to prevent layout jumps. Accessibility and speed work together: readable text, keyboard navigation, and predictable layouts improve everyone’s experience, not just assistive-tech users. If you buy a template, ask the vendor about WCAG 2.2 AA support and check headings, focus states, and form errors before you push live. These basics are often enough to satisfy both legal expectations and user patience.

Docs: Google SEO starter & CWV; robots/sitemaps; Organization/LocalBusiness structured data; ADA.gov & WCAG 2.2; FTC CAN-SPAM; FTC privacy/security.

Search Fundamentals: Make It Easy for Google to Understand and Discover You

Google’s SEO starter guide remains the best short playbook: write helpful, people-first content that matches search intent, establish clear site architecture, and use descriptive titles, headings, and internal links. For discovery, publish an XML sitemap and submit it in Search Console; large sites can use multiple sitemaps or a sitemap index, but most small sites need just one file linked in robots.txt. Remember what robots.txt is and isn’t: it tells crawlers where they may go, but it’s not a way to hide pages from Google — use noindex or authentication for that. Add basic structured data so search understands who you are; Organization markup on your homepage can clarify your brand details (and logo), and LocalBusiness markup can help with hours, addresses, and other location signals when you serve customers in person. Google’s docs include examples and stress validating markup with the Rich Results Test before launch. Finally, measure performance over time; Core Web Vitals are explicitly recommended as a success signal both for users and alignment with Google’s ranking systems, so keep images lean and scripts under control. When in doubt, ship clear content and clean HTML first; technical enhancements help, but they can’t salvage copy that doesn’t answer a user’s question.

{
"@context":"https://schema.org",
"@type":"LocalBusiness",
"name":"Acme Plumbing",
"url":"https://www.acmeplumbing.com",
"logo":"https://www.acmeplumbing.com/assets/logo.png",
"image":"https://www.acmeplumbing.com/assets/van.jpg",
"telephone":"+1-555-0100",
"address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"123 Main St","addressLocality":"Mesa","addressRegion":"AZ","postalCode":"85201","addressCountry":"US"},
"openingHoursSpecification":[{"@type":"OpeningHoursSpecification","dayOfWeek":["Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday"],"opens":"08:00","closes":"18:00"}],
"sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/acmeplumbing","https://www.linkedin.com/company/acmeplumbing"]
}

Legal & Trust Basics: Email, Reviews/Endorsements, and Privacy

If you send marketing emails, the FTC’s CAN-SPAM guide requires accurate headers and subject lines, a physical postal address, identification of the message as an ad when applicable, and a clear, conspicuous opt-out mechanism you honor promptly. If you feature reviews or testimonials, the FTC’s updated Endorsement Guides (2023) require clear disclosure of any material connections and prohibit deceptive practices around fake or paid reviews; the agency also offers plain-language pages for influencers and small businesses. For privacy and security, the FTC’s guidance boils down to “collect only what you need, protect what you keep, and dispose when you’re done,” with special rules in certain sectors (kids’ data, health, finance). There isn’t a single U.S. federal privacy law that covers everything; state laws exist (e.g., California), so keep your privacy notice honest about what you collect and why, and avoid dark patterns around consent. If you publish affiliate links, label them near the link rather than burying disclosures in a footer. None of this requires heavy legalese; short, specific language beats vague boilerplate and makes trust visible.

Launch Plan: 14 Days to a Credible, Compliant, Search-Ready Site

Days 1–3: Draft homepage headline/subhead, write Services/Products with one clear CTA, and assemble an About + proof snippets.
Days 4–5: Choose an accessible template and test headings, focus states, and form labels against WCAG 2.2 basics; compress hero images and set width/height to prevent layout shifts.
Day 6: Wire up the contact form and a simple calendar link; add a footer with address and legal links.
Day 7: Add Organization or LocalBusiness structured data and validate it; create robots.txt and an XML sitemap.
Day 8: Open Search Console and submit the sitemap; fix any coverage errors.
Days 9–10: Write a plain-English privacy notice and configure email capture with a compliant footer; send yourself a test campaign to review headers, subject line, and the opt-out.
Days 11–12: Measure Core Web Vitals; trim render-blocking scripts; lazy-load non-critical media.
Days 13–14: Do the QA table below — then ship. After launch, publish one helpful article that answers a real customer question; internal-link it from your homepage for faster discovery.