Every day, potential customers search for businesses like yours. They type in “plumber near me” or “Fort Smith bakery” or whatever describes what you do. And if you’re not online, you might as well not exist for those people. They’ll find your competitor instead.
A website isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. It’s how people verify that your business is real, learn what you offer, and decide whether to contact you. But getting a website doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive, or overwhelming.
What a Small Business Website Actually Needs
The internet is full of elaborate websites with animations, videos, chatbots, and features that would make NASA jealous. Most small businesses don’t need any of that. What you need is simple:
Who you are. Your business name, what you do, and why someone should choose you. This can be a paragraph or two—not a novel.
What you offer. Your services or products, clearly described. If you’re a roofer, list the types of work you do. If you’re a restaurant, show your menu. If you’re a service business, explain what working with you looks like.
How to reach you. Phone number, email, address if relevant, hours of operation. Make it obvious. Don’t make people hunt for your contact information.
Credibility markers. Photos of your work, testimonials from customers, certifications or affiliations, years in business. Anything that helps someone trust you before they’ve met you.
That’s it. A clear, professional website that answers the basic questions potential customers have is more effective than a flashy site that leaves people confused.
The Technical Stuff (Made Simple)
Getting a website online involves a few technical pieces. You don’t need to understand all the details, but here’s the basic picture:
Domain name is your address on the internet—like yourbusiness.com. You’ll want something that matches or closely relates to your business name. Domains cost roughly $10-20 per year.
Web hosting is where your website actually lives—a computer (server) that’s always on, always connected, and serves your website to anyone who visits. Hosting quality matters. Cheap hosting means slow loading times and potential downtime. Your website is often a first impression; make sure it loads quickly.
Website design and content is the actual stuff on your site—the layout, text, images, and structure. This can range from simple template-based sites to fully custom designs.
SSL certificate makes your site secure (the padlock icon in browsers). This is now expected by visitors and required by search engines. Most hosting includes this.
The DIY Temptation
Services like Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress.com make it possible to build a website yourself. And for some people, that’s the right choice. But be honest about the trade-offs.
Time is money. Learning the platform, choosing a template, figuring out why things aren’t working the way you expect, writing content, selecting images—all of this takes hours. Hours you could spend running your business. Is your time worth $15/hour, or $75/hour?
Good enough isn’t always good enough. A DIY site that looks slightly amateur might be fine for some businesses. But if your competitors have professional-looking sites and yours looks homemade, that affects how potential customers perceive you.
Ongoing maintenance isn’t optional. Websites need updates, security patches, backups, and occasional fixes. A site that worked great when you built it can break when the platform updates or a plugin goes out of date.
The hidden costs add up. Premium templates, plugins for functionality you need, stock photos, email integration—these extras turn a “free” website into a more significant investment.
What Working with a Professional Looks Like
Our website creation service handles everything technical so you can focus on your business. Here’s how it typically works:
Discovery conversation. We learn about your business, your customers, what you want the website to accomplish, and what makes you different from competitors. This shapes everything else.
Content and structure planning. We outline what pages you need and what information goes on each. You provide the raw material—descriptions of your services, photos of your work, details about your business. We help organize and refine it.
Design and development. We build the site with clean design, proper structure, and good performance. Mobile-responsive, fast-loading, professional appearance.
Review and refinement. You see the site before it goes live and can request changes. This is your business—it needs to represent you accurately.
Launch and handoff. Site goes live, we make sure everything works, and we show you how to make basic updates if you want that capability.
The Business Email Connection
If you’re getting a website, you should also have professional email on the same domain. Contact@yourbusiness.com looks more legitimate than yourbusiness@gmail.com—and it costs almost nothing extra once you have the domain.
We typically set up email alongside website work, because they share the same foundation (your domain name) and make sense to configure together.
What About Getting Found?
A website that nobody can find isn’t very useful. The basics of being discoverable include:
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is free and essential for local businesses. This is what makes you show up in map searches and the local results that appear at the top of searches like “plumber near me.”
Basic SEO means structuring your website so search engines can understand what it’s about. Proper page titles, clear headings, descriptive text—nothing exotic, just competent organization.
Accurate information everywhere. Your name, address, and phone number should be identical everywhere they appear online—your website, Google listing, Facebook page, industry directories. Consistency helps search engines trust that they have accurate information about your business.
We build websites with these fundamentals in mind. We’re not an SEO agency promising first-page rankings, but we build sites that give you a solid foundation for being found.
Ongoing Reality
A website isn’t a one-time project—it’s an ongoing asset that needs occasional attention. Content gets outdated. Security vulnerabilities need patching. Technology evolves.
Some clients handle their own updates after we build the site. Others prefer ongoing administration support. We accommodate either approach—we’re not trying to create dependency, just provide whatever level of help actually serves you.
Start the Conversation
If you’ve been putting off getting a website, or if you have one that isn’t serving you well, let’s talk. We’ll give you honest assessment of what you need, what it will cost, and whether we’re the right fit for the project.
Contact RazorBass Technical Service Center to start the conversation about your business website.
Phone: (479) 222-1986
Email: hello@razorbasstsc.com
Web: www.razorbasstsc.com
Related Services
Website Creation · Web Hosting · Business Email · Business IT Support
