Do you want to unleash the full potential of your small business? Then, you require a compelling digital presence through a great business website. However, with restrained budgets and no room for professional web designers as a fresh entrepreneur, how can you achieve this? - By signing up for the best website builder for small businesses.

Most small businesses wonders are reluctant to create a website, thinking they are doing fine without one.  In fact, According to recent statistics, more than 19.1 million (64%) small businesses in the US have websites, meaning over 10 million businesses do not have a website yet. 

While there was a time when building a website was complex and expensive, that time was long behind us. Now, with user-friendly, affordable website builders like Neo at your disposal, you can create an attractive and effective website, no matter whether you are tech-savvy or tech-averse. 

Read on to know more and build your site today!

How to Create a Webpage Using the Website Builder? - A Step-by-Step Guide

When creating a website, especially for a small business or startup, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Before getting started, you need to consider your goals so that you can decide on the structure, elements, and tools required to achieve them. Once you have a clear direction for your goals, you can use the best website builder for small businesses to design and publish your website. 

Here we have crafted the key steps to help you build and launch your dream website.

Step 1. Choose the Best Website Builder

A website builder is a tool that will allow you to create and design your website without coding, using simple pre-made templates and user-friendly features. Choosing the ideal website-building platform will make your tasks easier, saving time and effort, especially if you are new to the field. There are plenty of website builders available in the market, hence choose the right one that fits your specific needs. Some of the factors to consider while choosing your website-building partner are,

• Ease of use - Look out for a platform that has an intuitive interface, where you can build your suite without the learning curve for complex software.
• Customization - Ensure the builder you choose has the flexible and customization features to match your unique style and needs.
• Scalability - Pick a website builder that can grow with your business, with more advanced features as you need them in the future.
• Security Features - Seek out a website builder that offers SSL certificates and performs regular security updates to protect your website.

Step 2. Pick a Web Host and Domain Name

To get your business online, you need a website hosting provider for customers to discover your site. Website hosting providers for small businesses like NEO offer reliable services with 24/7 security monitoring and integrated SSL certification to keep your site safe. It also boosts impressive uptime, guaranteeing that your site will stay up and running on stable networks.

Next, you need to get a domain name, which will also be your website address, and connect it to the hosting provider. Choose a good domain name that will add credibility and visibility to your business site. Make sure it matches your goal for consistency. If you are stuck in the process, here are some tips to follow.

• Simple to pronounce and spell - Your domain name should be easily understandable and shareable among customers.
• Keep it brief - Make sure to stick to shorter domain names, as they will be easy to remember. Typing a long name into the address bar will make your domain more susceptible to errors.
• Unique and Consistent - You want your brand to stand out in the crowd. Therefore, make sure to keep your domain name aligned with your brand to achieve a cohesive online presence.

Step 3. Instill your Website’s Visual Identity

Your visual identity through a website makes a lasting impression among customers. It will allow them to recognize and remember your brand across any social media platform. Here are some key elements to add while designing your site with the best website builder for small businesses.

• Logo - A well-designed, unique symbol that represents your brand to build recognition and credibility, setting you apart in the digital market.
• Color scheme - Choose colors that reflect your brand personality. The color palette should evoke emotions in your customers, helping them to recognize your brand instantly.
• Typography - Choose fonts that are both readable and resemble your brand’s style. Maintaining consistent typography enriches your site’s professionalism while improving user experience.
• Layout and white space - Design a clean, intuitive structure with certain blank areas to improve readability, enhance attention, and create a more enjoyable experience for your visitors.

Step 4. Plan the Structure and Navigation of Your Site

A well-planned site structure guides your visitors seamlessly through your webpage. It will improve your user experience, keeping them on your site for a longer period and thereby boosting your conversion rate. You can start by mapping out your main pages and how they connect to each other. Make sure to group related content under individualized categories for small businesses. You might induce pages such as Home, About, and Contact, among others.

Focus on building a straightforward navigation menu with these categories. Using concise and descriptive labels will make your visitors instantly find the relevant ones. You can also implement a logical hierarchy to aid search engines in indexing your content to improve your rankings. 

Step 5. Curate Relevant Content Pages

As you begin to customize your site with the best website builder for small businesses, you might likely want to add content. However, before you do that, make sure to have a rough structure in mind. 

• Homepage - This will be your digital forefront, introducing your brand and its unique value. Implement clear and precise language to expand what you do. You can include attractive visuals and a strong call to action to encourage visitors.
• About Us - Share your story, mission, and value to humanize your brand and build trust with potential customers. You can also add key team members to build a personal connection.
• Contact Page - Add multiple ways for customers to reach you - phone, address, email, and contact form. You can also add maps for easy location access and business hours to ensure your credibility. 
• Product/ Service Page - Create a dedicated page for your products/services with clear descriptions, high-quality images, and booking/ purchasing options.

Step 6. Optimize your Website

Once you have added the comments, you still have to make sure that people can find them. SEO is the practice of refining your content so that your site can rank high on Search engine results in pages. Here are some key practices to keep in mind to optimise your website.

• Use appropriate keywords in your pages and posts
• Optimize your website for speed and performance
• Choose a responsive design to ensure that your content works on all devices
• Add internal and external links throughout your site

Step 7. Publish and Track Web Performance

If you choose the best website builder for small businesses, it will enable you to keep your site while building it. You can publish it once it's ready for visitors. Regardless, before you promote your website, make sure to go through this last-minute checklist.

• Preview the mobile responsiveness of your site to ensure it is readable
• Read through the entire connect to make sure the accuracy
• Remove any filler content from the template or theme

To have a better understanding of your site’s performance, make sure to dive deeper into your site’s traffic trends. The insights will help you make data-driven decisions on what your site needs to improve overall performance.

Top Website Templates for Small Businesses

Let’s see some of the tip templates that small businesses can use: 

1. Simple yet Seamless Design for Personal Branding - Neo

Neo offers the most popular theme for personal branding, a simple, customizable, and all-around template to launch your website. It comes with multiple page layouts to accommodate any simple website with fully responsive layouts. With their templates for personal branding, you can highlight your artistic achievements, portfolio works, events, and any other critical data with ease and style. 

2. Relaxo - HubSpot 

Relaxo is a minimalistic theme from Hubspot that captures the essence of businesses encompassing health, lifestyle, fashion or beauty. The template has large areas dedicated to images and video, where you can also add prominent slogans. Modern and customizable, this theme is perfect for individuals who have zero coding knowledge to get started on their website.

3. Autono - Wix 

The autonomy template has a modern look, making it perfect for businesses that demand bold shapes, images, and text. The template's advanced features can be leveraged to promote your website. The entire design is mobile-first, which will have a real impact on your sales growth.

4. Lexington - Squarespace 

Lexington, despite being a basic template, gets the job done for most small businesses. It comes with standard features, including sliders, responsive design, image areas, blog functionality, menus, and more. However, their bright tones make this engaging template a perfect beginning point for restaurants and cafes.

5. Bodega - Envato

The Bodega template provides minimalist inspiration for virtually any product your business seems to sell. You can use the impressive default design, or you can tweak the HTML and CSS to your liking. From parallax effects to responsive design, the entire template showcases your creative output. The template combines simplicity with elegance, implementing a layout of trendy design against a dark backdrop.

Best Website Builders for Small Businesses

Looking for the best website builder to impress your customers and get your sales up and running in minutes? Here are the five best website builders for your small business, along with their favorite website templates for your design inspiration. 

1. Neo

Neo is your affordable ally for creating the website of your dreams. It will take your brand presence to another level while establishing a uniform identity across all your online modules. Neo provides a robust suite of integrated business tools to help you build your website and drive better business growth. By taking the first step toward a growth-oriented online presence, you can focus on the bigger picture of business development.

Pros 

• Generous free plan with easier integrations
• Offer live chat support with 24/7 callbacks
• Professional email custom domain for better marketing

Cons

• Slight learning curve for beginners

2. Hubspot

Hubspot website builder is a comprehensive marketing platform for small businesses. The platform offers robust features for SEO, email marketing, and even CRM. The best thing about Hubspot is its adaptive testing. It will allow you to choose upto five different versions of the desired website pages. It will also aid you in determining the best website for your business through adaptive tests and A/B tests.

Pros

• Integration with CRM for a personalized experience.
• A unified content management platform
• Comprehensive features, including email marketing and live chat.

Cons

• Less customization flexibility

3. Wix

Wix is a responsive website builder that allows you to build your own websites without coding knowledge. The platform is clean, intuitive, and easy to use, making it popular for small businesses. It boasts over 900 templates in its extensive library with drag-and-drop features. Even though it's a no-code platform, you can also access custom code functions to make source code changes.

Pros

• In-built SEO and analytics tools
• Site transfer tool to import existing websites
• Free domain name and web hosting packages

Cons

• Limited storage options,w which is great for heavy websites.

4. Squarespace

Squarespace is another best website builders for small businesses. It offers over a hundred templates for building a visually appealing site in a few minutes. The platform's Google search console integration has an analytics dashboard that shows keyword performance and traffic sources. You can also customize page titles, descriptions, URLs, and images. It is suitable for photographers or graphic design artists who need a visually heavy website. 

Pros

• Easy-to-use dashboard
• Wide variety of features, including SEO, social media integration, and email marketing
• AMP formatting (Accelerated mobile pages for better performance on mobile devices

Cons

• Fewer integrations and add-ons

5. Envato

Envato is an easy-to-use platform that allows you to build your website in minutes. Its powerful yet versatile features make it a popular choice for building a variety of websites, including portfolios, e-commerce stores, blogs, and new sites. Its user-friendly interface and extensive plugin library make this platform the best option for businesses and individuals with limited technical expertise.

Pros

• Intuitive drag-and-drop features to add text, photos, and videos to the site.
• Personalized tool to customize the user experience
• SEO optimization features with social media integration

Cons

• Lack of app and integration features when compared to competitors.

Why Is Neo the Best Website Builder for Small Businesses?

Despite being a robust email hosting platform, Neo’s most attractive feature is its one-page website, which is best suited for small businesses. Neo is the best website builder for small businesses, serving as a seamless website creator, allowing you to build a sleek website in no time. 

The platform offers an excellent suite of integrated business tools to promote customer engagement and productivity. Here are some reasons why you should choose Neo to build your site.

1. Professional Email Service 

Neo enables you to link the professional email service to your domain or even purchase a .co.site domain from them for free for a year. In this way, you can effortlessly communicate with your clients while maintaining a consistent brand presence.

2. Bookings and Calendar 

Neo encompasses an integrated calendar feature to streamline your scheduling with clients. The booking features will allow your customers to reserve their appointments directly through your size. As a result, you can maximize the efficiency of your business in connecting with your clients without any unnecessary hassles.

3. Centralized Hub 

If you have the best website builder for small businesses, you can centralize your business operations in a single platform, from discovery to engagement. This will empower your marketing strategies and drive more business growth. 

4. Advanced Tools

Neo offers several advanced tools to help small business owners efficiently build their one-page website without even the technical knowledge. By leveraging these tools, you can advertise your product and services, transforming your brand. It will make it easy for your customers to see what you offer and connect with you through your social media platforms. Some of the Neo’s advanced features are,

• Drag-and-Drop Feature: Neo offers a drag-and-drop function where you can choose and customize the elements you want to add.
• Site theme: You can build an aesthetically pleasing website by choosing among the already existing, easy-to-edit themes. Neo has a plethora of themes from which you can find the right option for your website.
• Logo: Neo’s logo section allows you to upload the unique logo of your choice, adding more professional appeal to your site. It will increase your credibility among costumes and improve the brand’s awareness.
• Description: The description section allows you to write engaging content about your business, the services you offer, and any other specific details that you desire your visitors to see.
• Custom link: This section allows you to add the link to your portfolio, menus, videos, or other related products/ services, which your visitors will notice.
• Social Buttons/ Chat on Whatsapp: You can also place links to your social media accounts, from Facebook to Linkedin. It will improve your organic traffic and allow you to connect personally with your customers. You can also add your Whatsapp contact details, enabling customers to reach out to you for any queries or concerns.
• Contact Form: Neo’s contact forms help in facilitating responsiveness, where your visitors can connect with your team quickly and easily. Moreover, you can also include your professional email address in the same form to elicit more responses.

Wrapping Up!

A strong online presence is inevitable if you want to reach a wider audience. If you find outsourcing web developers is not within your budget and timeframe, be sure to register for the best website builder for small businesses. Even with the website builder, remember a successful website requires a precise goal, an attractive design, high-quality counts, prompt responsiveness, security, and ongoing maintenance. By following the guidelines, you can build a stunning website that drives traffic, generates leads, and ultimately helps your brand to succeed.

Moreover, finding the best website builder for small businesses will not be a challenging task since you have Neo at your service. Simply sign up on the platform and start using the platform to design your dream website. From Custom Email Domain To Customize Templates, You can avail Neo’s several advanced features to scale your business. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1.  Which is the best website builder for small businesses?

Neo is one of the best website builders for startups and small businesses who are looking for quick, easy-use, and budget-friendly solutions. The website builder is ideal for users with little to no technical skills and experience. With Neo, you will have the flexibility and full control over your website’s functionality, with significant customization.

Q2. Can I design my own website?

Absolutely! You can design your website for free, with the best website builder for small businesses like Neo, or by choosing a premium plan. Hiring a designer or a professional to design your website could be expensive and might consume a lot of time and resources. However, with intuitive website builders, creating a website has become more accessible than ever.

Q3. What are the three basic website structures?

Websites for small businesses are usually built around fundamental structural themes. The three basic yet essential structures to build a website are - sequences, hierarchies, and webs. These basic architectures will govern your nativization itinerary of the website and transform the user’s point of view of how the information is being organized.