Summary
When deciding between WordPress and Wix for your website, I recommend WordPress. With WordPress, you have full control and can choose from many plugins and templates that major companies trust. Wix may feel limited and isn't truly yours since it's hosted on their platform.
For a simple small business website, prices can vary. On the low end, you might spend around $500, but truly effective sites with strategy and sales copy can exceed $10,000. Think of this as an investment that will bring in clients due to well-thought-out design and messaging.
Always display prices on your website, either clearly or with ranges. It helps potential clients make informed decisions and keeps them from going to competitors who are more transparent.
A full website is generally better than a single landing page for a service business. It lets visitors explore areas of interest like testimonials, pricing, or the 'About Us' section. Structure the homepage to act like a landing page for those ready to decide.
Your 'About Us' page should tell a personal story about why you do what you do. Share your passion for solving problems and your unique qualifications while focusing more on your story rather than credentials.
Hiring a professional to build your website can be very beneficial if you can afford it, especially if they offer strategic insights and copywriting services. If you're on a tight budget, consider taking a masterclass to guide your DIY efforts.
While AI tools like website builders are novel, they aren't yet effective substitutes for human creativity. Design your website carefully instead of relying on AI shortcuts that may hurt your business image.
Make your website copy stand out by focusing on customer needs and framing your services around the results and solutions you provide. Use clear, scan-friendly headers, and include testimonials and calls to action that guide users.
Every business in 2025 should have a website, as it provides a centralized, controlled platform for potential clients to learn about your services, unlike unpredictable social media.
Always use a contact form over listing an email to avoid spam and gather prospect information that qualifies leads before they hit your inbox.
Use real or AI-generated images that look authentic rather than generic stock photos, except for essential team or portfolio images that require true representation.
It's perfectly fine to use AI, like ChatGPT, to write content for your website. AI helps refine your ideas into polished copy and can adhere to sales frameworks. Just ensure it aligns with your brand voice and audience.
Allow clients to schedule appointments on your website using tools like Calendly, which reduces scheduling hassles and improves the experience for both you and your clients.
Using a pre-made template for your website is okay and often practical. Focus more on high-quality content, as templates can be personalized with your own branding, making the website just right for your business needs.
Mentioning all must-have features for a small business website is too extensive for this summary. However, educational resources like my masterclass can provide detailed guidance on what elements will help sell your services effectively.
Video
How To Take Action
I would suggest implementing a website for your small business with WordPress. It's more customizable and yours to keep, unlike Wix. This gives you tons of themes and plugins trusted by big companies. Spend some time learning how WordPress works. You can find online tutorials or take a class for help.
A good way to keep potential customers informed is by showing prices on your site, even if it's just a range. This helps build trust and stops them from looking for more transparent businesses.
For your website, structure your homepage like a landing page. Include sections with key info like testimonials, about us, and pricing. This way, visitors can easily find the details they need.
Create a personal "About Us" page. Tell your story about why you started your business and the problems you solve. Focus more on personal stories than just listing your credentials.
Consider using AI, like ChatGPT, to help write website content. It can make your ideas clearer and ensure they fit your brand voice. It's handy, especially if you're not a natural writer.
Let clients easily book appointments directly on your website using tools like Calendly. It's a big time-saver, cutting back on scheduling hassles and missed meetings.
If you're on a tight budget, use a pre-built website template. Just make sure to customize it with quality content that fits your offering. Templates save time and ensure your site looks professional without needing a custom design.
Quotes by Author
"Put your prices on your website"
"Position your customer as the hero not your business"
"Think of it as your conversion engine"
"AI is amazing for certain things, but building entire websites from scratch? Not there yet"
"Your website is where you control the conversation"
Full Transcript
over the past 10 years I've built and consulted on over 300 service business websites and I've taught thousands of my students to create highly converting client gen websites since then but today I thought I'd do something a little different and just answer some website questions that I found floating around the internet that you probably have too let's do it okay question one should I use WordPress or Wix for my Small Business website here's the thing WordPress is way better than Wix and I'll tell you why so with Wix you're basically locked into their templates now technically yes you can move things around and you can customize sections but I've played with it and it all feels super unstructured in a way that just can get you into a lot of trouble if you don't know what you're doing or what should go where on a website not to mention with Wix you're basically renting that site from them and you can't move it to any other hosting so it's not really your site and did you know that over 43% of all websites online are built on WordPress that includes a ton of major companies so with WordPress you can make literally anything you need and can think of thanks to the sheer number of plugins that exist that can extend its functionality and what it can do and you can use the element or page building plugin on top of it to get a pretty similar but much better experience than you could get with Wix trust me on that okay question two how much should a basic Small Business website cost well a simple five to six page site can run anywhere from 500 bucks if you went to Fiverr or something like that all the way past five figures if you were to get an experienced designer but here's where it gets more interesting so where you get real value is when you can find someone who goes beyond just design and actually brings expert sales copyrighting and you know user experience principles and real strategy to your website project because at the end of the day a designer designs right they usually don't bring too much in the way of strategy or copywriting so if you find someone who does both you can expect to pay above 10,000 bucks for a really wellth thought out site that has a real conversion first approach and I don't even think of that money as a cost that is an investment because it's likely to pay for itself over and over again through new clients that it brings in that's the strategies for but you know if you hire a designer that just designs at any cost even if it's just 500 bucks that is truly just a cost because you're really unlikely to see any real Roi on it there's a big difference okay question three should I put my service prices on my website or make people contact me for a quote yes put your prices on your website look people coming to your site are looking for enough information to be able to feel comfortable taking that next step to contact you and pricing is a really huge part of that equation if you don't show it they're just going to keep looking around elsewhere until someone is transparent enough with them and the odds are that company is going to get their business you know even if you can't list out hard prices you can still talk about ranges or starting at prices or go over specific jobs that you've done right what was included and what was paid so they can at least get enough of a sense to take that conversation further being mysterious and kg about your prices doesn't create Intrigue it just creates bounce rate okay question four full website versus single landing page which is better for a service business you almost always need more than one page so that people can you know choose their own adventure and dive deeper into whatever they care about the most whether that's the testimonials or pricing about us whatever they're interested in but I like to structure the homepage like a landing page where they can pretty much get you know a taste of all of it in a really linear path that gives them all the right information in the right order as they scroll down then from there they can learn even more in a section by clicking through to that page the homepage should almost act like a One-Stop shop for the people who are just closer to making a decision think of it as your conversion engine and the other pages are there to support anyone who needs more specific information before they're ready to reach out question five how do I write an about us page for my oneperson business so your about page is the one chance on your site to really lay into the why behind what you do right what problem did you see in the marketplace that you knew you had to solve or why can you just not see yourself doing anything else other than this in other words it does need to be a personal story especially as a solopreneur if you're a one person business in that case you are the business anyway but even for a larger company it needs to do the same kind of thing right why did the owner go into this business in the first place so it should be more about that than things like where you went to school but it should still hit on why you're uniquely qualified to be the one to help me people connect with stories and passion not credentials though don't get me wrong if you've got impressive credentials you you definitely want to work those in there too just make a little less of a deal about them question six should I build my website myself or hire a professional here's the thing here's what I'll say if you can afford to hire a pro and you can either afford to pay them for the strategy part too because remember your site's only going to be as good as it's copywriting and if it's properly set up to sell your offer so if you're willing to pay for all that too or if you can provide that strategy to your designer go for it as easy as creating your own site can be these days there's still going to be a slight learning curve and if you're not a good designer and you go too far off course your site can still look pretty amateurish but if you've got a tight budget I would recommend signing up for my master class where I can at least get you on the right path strategy wise now I'm going to drop a link to that in the description below but even if you plan to DIY it having a strategy in place first that's going to save you so much time and help you avoid all the most common mistakes question seven Has anyone used AI to build a website like ten web or Wix ADI I've tried this I even made a video about it and it's unfortunately nowhere near ready to be considered as a viable option yet the only Pro to using an AI Builder is you'll get a site Built For You in minutes will that site get you any clients no it will not right you're much better off spending a weekend carefully creating a site that's actually going to be worth every minute you spend on it then just taking a shortcut that's just going to not only not do anything for your business it can actively harm your business now don't get me wrong AI is amazing for certain things we got a question about that a little later but building entire websites from scratch not there yet right you still need to add the human touch to make strategic decisions about what goes where and why question eight this is a good one how can I make my website copy stand out when my services are really similar to competitors well you want to start by positioning your customer as the hero not your business or your services so you want to talk directly to their frustrations and their hopes and dreams like what do they ultimately want so instead of going on and on about what makes us great as a company what services you offer focus on why it matters to your client right that's how you're going to differentiate yourself through outcome focused language your competitors are probably talking all about features and about the themselves you want to focus on the results you deliver and you want to back it up with real testimonials that are going to showcase the wins that your clients have had thanks to you you know make your copy really easy to scan on your website because people scan websites they don't read them word for word use really clear headers that grab attention followed by really short visual descriptions and you definitely want to include strong calls to action that encourage people to take the next step and you make it easy for them to know exactly what to do and this is all about just framing your services as the bridge between where your clients are struggling now and where they want to be that's how you make similar Services stand out from what everyone else is offering because chances are they're just saying it in a way that doesn't do any of that question nine do I really need a website for my service business or can I just rely on social media pages instead yes you need a website sorry to say but for any business in 25 it is just the bare minimum right if someone hears about you from a referral or from your social media when they're serious they're going to look for more info and that's when they go to your website you know it's where you control the conversation and tell that start to finish Journey about how you can help them without that your business is just you know scattered posts everywhere the only possible caveat here is if you're on YouTube or if you have a popular podcast you know long form content content not just those short little posts from social media but even then you still want to bring people back to a website but it could be a simpler version because your long form content already has done a really good job of selling them on your services but 99% of the time you do need a website and the work you'll put into it over a weekend is well worth the benefits social media platforms come and go you know we saw the whole Tik Tok drama a few months ago and ALG ithms change overnight but your website that is yours all right 10 contact form versus email link which is better on my website's contact page here's the thing never list your email address on your website that's just going to lead to it getting scraped by spammers and with AI it's so much easier to do that now and that just means you're going to get a ton of spam emails so a contact form is much better with that they can still get in touch with you without your email address being public and and out there for people to find plus with a form you can ask specific questions that are going to help you qualified leads before they even hit your inbox you know you can ask them things like what services are you interested in or what's your timeline which gives you context before you even respond forms are just cleaner safer and more strategic overall question 11 should I use stock photos or real photos on my website so photos on your website are almost always there just to help you tell the story of how you help people which means most of them should be you know what I call the happy customer photo meant to show that happy after state that people find themselves in after they've worked with you and in that case stock is perfectly fine as long as it doesn't scream stock right you know things to watch out for here are really unnatural poses and facial expressions like people literally jumping for joy excited because you got them a tax deduction Nobody Does that in real life so it just feels fake right it's much better to show that person looking relieved or satisfied or peaceful like a real moment was captured in time but you don't even need to pay for stock anymore you can use AI to generate images for you that look 100% real and you can make it pretty much anything you need so I like to use mid Journey for that the only time you're going to need real photos taken yourself or by a professional photographer you hire are those team photos of you and or your team for your about page it's really important to show that real people are behind the business or the other case might be of you know photos of your work if you're selling something visual like if you're a contractor or a designer or a landscaper something like that where they're judging you based on the visuals of your work question 12 is it okay to use AI like Chad gbt to write content for my Small Business website 100% yes I do it all the time and it can work great if you know how to do it right don't think of it like cheating it really isn't it's a tool that can improve on what you could do yourself AI can not only help you research the phrases that your clients use all the time to help you capture those words on your site but it can take your really roughly formed ideas in your head and transform them into really well-worded polished website copy that does a great job right better than you would write yourself if you're not a sales copywriter which I'm going to go out and Lim here and say most people watching this aren't it can also save you from the trap of writing you know overly corporate you just like put whatever corporate jargon you have and say make this read more naturally it can even write in any proven copyrighting sales framework that marketers have used for years it knows them all and here's a pro tip I actually recommend using Claude at this time right now they're the leader in terms of just kind of natural human sounding writing just make sure that you give it clear Direction on your brand voice and who your audience is that's going to help it out a lot question 13 how can I allow clients to schedule appointments on my website now this is a question after my own heart because I love letting prospects just book something directly because it cuts out all that annoying back and forth right when they fill out a form you get back and say Hey when's a good time to talk and they're like I don't know like maybe next week and then the negotiation starts right of what time works for who and then you throw different time zones into it forget about it I like to use calendly instead which just syncs with my Google Calendar and it only shows those prospects the times that I'm actually available then they know when to expect the appointment because they put it at whatever time they wanted and it cuts down on no shows dramatically when you do that you can even set it up to automatically send reminder emails or texts it's just one of those small things that makes a huge difference in converting website visitors into actual conversations which is where the real magic happens in service businesses right okay question 14 can I use a pre-made template for my website design or do I need a custom design to look professional now this takes me back like when I used to work with clients they put a huge premium on they wanted something super creative they wanted something that felt that was just made for them but in theory there's absolutely nothing wrong with using a template not for the reasons that you may be thinking anyway right people think it's cheating or it's going to make their business look less unique here's the truth nobody's hiring you based on the uniqueness and creativity of your website maybe unless you're a web designer yourself so don't worry about that at all but I don't love templates because they can actually be surprisingly hard to work with especially when you're talking about you know WordPress themes but if we're talking about using templates that come with a page builder like Elementor I love using those they're a great jumping off point and you can add in all of your own stuff even new section blocks you can delete the ones you don't need all that good stuff until it looks like your own website that serves your content because remember the content is the important part right the words sell your offers the website just needs to properly serve that content the idea of a website needing to be custom as in built from the ground up is nothing you should ever be worried about clients won't give you any flowers for your site being built custom they only care about whether it helps them understand how you can solve their problem okay question 15 what are the must haves for a small Business website this is a big one it's too big for this video but don't worry I've actually got you covered in my newly updated for 2025 Master Class how to build a client generating website that sells your services for you I'm going to show you exactly what you need to properly sell your services and possibly just as important what to take take off if you don't want to scare clients away so click this video here or in the description and I'll show you everything it's a game changer especially if you're feeling overwhelmed by all the conflicting advice out there see you there
