Guides
Create a Website: The Guide for Businesses
A business website can go live quickly these days. Whether it actually brings in enquiries, however, is decided by planning, content and technology. In this guide, we show you step by step how to create a website that is found on Google and in AI search engines and turns visitors into customers.
Key points at a glance
- First define your goal, your target audience and the most important action on the site, for example an enquiry.
- Plan a separate page for each service and a clear navigation with no more than seven main items.
- WordPress is the most flexible system for most businesses; website builders suit very small projects.
- A legal notice, a privacy policy, cookie consent and accessibility must be in place before launch.
- Fast loading times, clear answers and structured data make your site visible to Google and AI.
Contents
- What should your website achieve?
- Which pages does a business website need?
- Which system is the right one?
- How do you write copy that convinces customers?
- What matters in design?
- Which legal obligations apply?
- How do you make your website fast and technically sound?
- How does your website get found on Google and in AI search engines?
- What happens after launch?
- Which mistakes should you avoid?
- Checklist: is your website ready to launch?
1. What should your website achieve?
A good website has one clear main goal, usually enquiries, calls or sales. Everything else, from the structure to the design, follows from this goal. A website that is only meant to “look good” rarely delivers measurable results.
Before you start, answer three questions in writing:
- Who should visit the site? Describe your most important customer groups and their questions.
- What should visitors do? For example, fill in a form, call you or book an appointment.
- How will you measure success? For instance by the number of enquiries per month, not by page views.
These answers form the basis of every agency quote. The more clearly you put them, the more precisely the effort can be planned.
2. Which pages does a business website need?
A business website usually needs a home page, one page per service, an about us page, a contact page, plus a legal notice and a privacy policy. Separate pages for each service matter because each page can be found for its own search terms.
| Page | Purpose | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Home page | Says in one sentence what you offer, for whom and where | Make your key services visible straight away, with links |
| Service pages | Each explains one service in detail | Answer common customer questions directly |
| About us | Builds trust through people and experience | Show real photos, your background and how you work |
| Contact | Makes getting in touch easy | Phone, email, form and address in one place |
| Guides or blog | Answers questions before the purchase decision | Only start one if you can deliver content regularly |
| Legal notice, privacy policy | Fulfil legal obligations | Reachable with one click from every page |
Keep the main navigation lean. Five to seven menu items have proven effective. Place additional pages in a submenu or connect them through internal links.
3. Which system is the right one?
WordPress is the best choice for most businesses because it is flexible, widely used and independent of any single provider. Website builders are quicker to set up but hit their limits sooner when it comes to design, SEO and extensions.
| WordPress | Website builder (e.g. Wix, Jimdo) | Custom development | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flexibility | Very high, thousands of extensions | Limited to the provider’s features | Unlimited |
| Maintenance by you | Easy in the editor | Very easy | Usually only by developers |
| SEO and AI visibility | Very good, e.g. with Yoast SEO | Basic features | Depends on the implementation |
| Dependency | Low, your content belongs to you | High, moving is complex | Dependent on the developer |
| Suitable for | Businesses with growth plans | Very small sites | Specialised applications |
If you want to add a shop later, WordPress can be extended with WooCommerce. You can read more about this in our guide Create an Online Shop.
4. How do you write copy that convinces customers?
Good website copy answers your customers’ questions directly and in their language. Start each section with the most important statement and explain the details afterwards. That way readers, Google and AI systems find the answer immediately.
- Write from the customer’s point of view: which problem do you solve, and what is the benefit for them?
- Phrase subheadings as questions that customers actually ask.
- State concrete facts: experience, region, process, duration.
- Keep sentences short, on average under 20 words.
- Include a clear call to action on every page, such as “Book a free initial consultation”.
Copy from AI tools can make a good first draft. But always check it and add your own expertise and real examples. Interchangeable copy convinces neither visitors nor search engines.
5. What matters in design?
Good design guides visitors straight to the goal and works just as well on a smartphone as on a computer. In many industries, more than half of all visitors now arrive on mobile devices.
- Legible fonts, sufficient contrast and plenty of white space
- Consistent colours and fonts that match your brand
- Real photos instead of generic stock images, especially of you and your team
- Contact options clearly visible on every page
- No pop-ups that cover the content on smartphones
6. Which legal obligations apply?
Every business website needs a legal notice, a privacy policy and, for cookies or tracking, visitors’ consent. For websites aimed at customers in Germany, the obligation to provide a legal notice (Impressum) follows from Section 5 of the German Digital Services Act (Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz, DDG). The obligation to provide a privacy policy follows from Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- Legal notice: name, address, contact details, register entry and VAT identification number
- Privacy policy: which data you collect, for what purpose and which services you use
- Cookie consent: for analytics and marketing cookies before they are set, with an equally prominent option to decline
- SSL encryption: the entire site must run over HTTPS
- Accessibility: since 28 June 2025, the German Accessibility Strengthening Act (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz) has applied to many online services for consumers, such as shops and bookings. Micro-enterprises providing services are partly exempt.
Have your legal texts drawn up and kept up to date by a lawyer or a specialised service. This guide does not replace legal advice.
7. How do you make your website fast and technically sound?
A fast website loads its main content in under 2.5 seconds and responds without noticeable delay. Google measures this with the Core Web Vitals. Slow pages lose visitors and rankings.
| Metric | What it measures | Target value |
|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | How quickly the largest content element becomes visible | under 2.5 seconds |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | How quickly the page responds to clicks | under 200 milliseconds |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | How much content shifts while loading | under 0.1 |
The most important levers are good hosting, compressed images in WebP format, few extensions, caching and locally hosted fonts. You can check your scores for free with Google PageSpeed Insights.
8. How does your website get found on Google and in AI search engines?
A website becomes visible when it answers its target audience’s questions better than other pages and is technically easy to read. This applies to Google just as much as to ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
- Research search terms: what are your customers searching for, for example “tax adviser Larnaka”?
- Define one main topic per page with a matching page title and meta description
- Put clear answers at the start of each section and add an FAQ section
- Add structured data (schema) for your business, services and FAQ
- Set up Google Search Console and submit your sitemap
- Create a Google Business Profile if you operate locally
How to appear in AI answers in a targeted way is explained in our guide Get Visible in ChatGPT & Co. You will find the fundamentals of search engine optimisation in SEO Basics.
9. What happens after launch?
A website is never finished: regular updates, new content and analysis of visitor numbers determine its long-term success.
- Update WordPress, your theme and extensions regularly and check your backups
- Analyse enquiries and traffic sources monthly, for example with Google Analytics 4
- Review content for accuracy at least once a year
- Answer new customer questions as content on your website
How to set up privacy-compliant tracking is covered in our guide Tracking with GA4.
10. Which mistakes should you avoid?
Mistakes when creating a website are rarely caused by technology; they usually stem from a lack of planning and unclear content. These are the mistakes we see most often in practice:
- The home page does not explain in one sentence what you offer and for whom
- All services are crammed onto a single page instead of getting pages of their own
- There is no clear call to action and no visible phone number
- Images are uncompressed and slow the site down
- The website formally belongs to the agency, not to the business
Pay particular attention to the last point: the domain, hosting access, WordPress administrator and all accounts such as Google Analytics should be registered to your business. That way you stay independent if you change service provider.
Checklist: is your website ready to launch?
Check before launch
- Every page has exactly one main heading (H1) and its own page title
- All forms work and enquiries arrive
- Legal notice, privacy policy and cookie consent are complete
- The site runs over HTTPS and is easy to use on a smartphone
- Images have alt texts and are compressed
- Google Search Console is set up and the sitemap has been submitted
- For a relaunch: redirects from old to new URLs are in place
Are you renewing an existing website? Then read our guide Website Relaunch Without Losing Rankings first.
Frequently asked questions about creating a website
How long does it take to create a website?
A small business website with five to ten pages is usually finished in four to eight weeks. The copy and photos generally take the longest. If content is prepared and decisions are made quickly, it goes considerably faster. Larger projects with a shop, several languages or interfaces need correspondingly more time.
How much does a professional website cost?
That depends on the scope, on features such as multilingual content and on whether copy and photos need to be produced. Reputable agencies first clarify goals and scope in a conversation and then provide a fixed-price quote. Also budget for ongoing costs for hosting, maintenance and content.
Can I maintain my website myself?
Yes. With WordPress you can change text, images and posts yourself without any programming knowledge. A short introduction is usually enough. Technical updates, security and major changes are best handled by a service provider so that nothing breaks. That way you stay flexible with your content without having to worry about the technology.
Do I need a multilingual website?
If you target customers in several countries, yes. What matters is a genuine translation with search terms researched in each language, rather than an automatic translation. Technically, the language versions should be linked to each other via hreflang. That way Google automatically shows every user the right language version of your website.
Is a social media page enough instead of a website?
No. Social media profiles belong to the platforms, whose rules and reach can change at any time. Your website is the only space you fully control. It is also the most important source from which Google and AI systems draw information about your business. Social media complements your website, but it does not replace it.
What is the most common mistake with new websites?
Unclear messaging. Many home pages fail to say in one sentence what the business offers and for whom. Visitors then leave the site within a few seconds. Another common mistake is missing tracking, so nobody knows where enquiries come from. That is why you should plan for both from the very start.
Would you rather not build your website on your own?
We plan and build your WordPress website, optimised for SEO and AI from the start, and look after it on an ongoing basis if you wish.