How to Build a Website Yourself

You have a great idea. A game-changing product. A must-try service. That’s amazing, you’re in business! But as soon as you start telling people about it, one of the first questions you’ll most likely be asked is “What’s your website?”

A website is a must for any business because it's where people go to learn more about what you do and how you or your products can help them. And while you probably knew having a website would be important, knowing you need one and building one are two different things. That’s why we want to share some helpful tips to keep you on the right path to creating a great website—and having an easier time getting found on the internet.

This guide walks you through the whole process—from picking a platform and writing copy to getting your site found in search and using Enji to keep traffic (and leads) flowing long after launch. Think of it as your friendly step-by-step for building a website and a marketing engine around it, even if you’re not “a tech person” or “a marketing person.”

Enji is the only project management tool that helps you do your marketing—not just create a to do list. If you don’t already use it, start your free 14 day trial.

Before You Build A Website Yourself

First, let’s get clear on the goal because your website should not just be an online brochure. When done well, your website should act like a 24/7 salesperson, a trust builder, and a traffic magnet all rolled into one.

At a minimum, your small business website should:

Explain who you are and what you do
Make it obvious who you help and how
Answer the questions your ideal customers are already asking
Show proof that you’re legit (testimonials, portfolio, results)
Make it super easy to take the next step—book, buy, call, or contact

And while we are at it, it’s also worth mentioning that your website is never “done.” It’s something you’ll update, tweak, and improve as your business grows. You don’t need to “rush and get this off your list” or be working on it non-stop for two years so it’s “perfect.” That’s why every decision you make—from platform to copy—should be about two things:

1) Can I update this without wanting to cry?

2) Will this set me up to grow and market my business later?

This is where Enji comes in. Your website is step one. Getting people to actually find and visit it? That’s where your marketing strategy, content, and consistent visibility matter.

Step 1: Pick your website platform

The very first step to take when you are researching how to build a website is to decide which website platform you are going to use. Why? Because this decision impacts some of the future ones you have to make. And, even if you are thinking about hiring a website designer to take care of most of the project for you, you should find a designer who works on the platform you want to build your website on—not the other way around. Here are a few website platforms small business owners like yourself look at:

Squarespace - It’s easy to set up, you can make updates yourself, and it has all the built in features you could need—and the result looks great and is easy to edit yourself‍
Showit - This is a newer platform. After a slight learning curve, it’s pretty easy to create a beautifully designed website‍
Wordpress - A powerful platform, but also complicated. Unless you need something super custom and have lots of time to learn and try different things, we’d stick with one of the easier platforms ‍
Shopify - A great platform for eCommerce businesses, this is easier to use but is definitely build for having a robust online shop (with a lot SKUs and inventory)

The bottom line? Pick the platform you feel comfortable making regular updates to and has the power to grow as you do.

Step 2: Buy a domain

Even though you don’t need a domain to start building a website, it’s smart to purchase yours as soon as possible because they can be hard to get—especially if your business name is more common than not. When you are researching domains, be sure to do a Google search for them in addition to your search on the registration site. This will help you see what might be similar and already out there (which you want to avoid).

Pro-tip: Many of the website platforms allow you to purchase a domain directly through them. However, Godaddy.com allows you to easily purchase additional domains under your account at a very affordable price.

Step 3: Do Your SEO keyword research

You’re building a website to help you get found by potential customers on the internet which is why you MUST do your SEO keyword research before writing any copy. Your SEO keywords need to be incorporated into your website copy (in addition to some other places), so it’s helpful to have them figured out before you start writing.

You can use tools like Ubersuggest, Answer the Public, and Google Trends to start your search (they are free if you are just doing a few searches a day). You’ll want to find the keywords and phrases with the highest monthly search volume that are related to what you do and where you doit. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer in San Diego, some of your main keywords might be:

Wedding photographer in San Diego
San Diego wedding photographer
How to hire a wedding photographer in San Diego

Open a word document or an excel sheet and start your list—which can grow as you start to do more research! Ultimately, you should find 1-3 unique keywords to use for each of the pages of your website.

Pro-tip: There are probably lots of more niche or long-tail SEO keywords related to your business. Save those for your blog! You want the main keywords for your website to be focused on what you do, where you do it, and your customer's main problem.

Step 4: Write your website copy

There is a nuance to writing website copy that does require experience and an understanding of buyer psychology, storytelling, and sales copy. You could hire an experienced freelance copywriter, or if you want to give it a shot, do it yourself! Either way, here are some helpful tips:

Start by defining your brand voice because these guidelines will make sure your website sounds how you want it to
Create an outline for your copy that corresponds to the different pages (and sections on each page) of your website. This will help you organize your story, directions, and sales points
Make sure you are writing for your reader! You do this by centering them as the subject and not writing about yourself too much (the exception being your “About Us” page)
Write about the problems your potential customers likely experience and how your business can solve those problems
Don’t forget to use a clear call-to-action (CTAs) to keep the customer focused.

Step 5: Build your website or customize a website template

This part can take a lot of time and often days of refining until it’s just how you want it—time to flex your creative muscles! A freelance web designer is a smart option for designing your website or customizing a template, but you can do it yourself on fairly straightforward platforms like Squarespace or Showit. Here are a few things you should keep in mind:

Create an outline of the pages and sub-pages you’ll need to build. This will help you stay organized—we promise
Design your website around your copy and not the other way around
Decide what images you want to use. If you don’t have professional images you can purchase stock imagery on iStock by GettyImages, Shutterstock or Sourced Co. (for all the wedding business out there). You can store all your images for your website in your brand assets in Enji if that helps you organize and send them to anyone helping you with this project
Test everything! Click on every link, every menu item, every button, and test every form. And do it twice through
Make sure your design looks as good on a mobile device as it does on a laptop or desktop
Ask a few friends to proofread and test it for you as well

Step 6: Optimize it for SEO

This is the process of making your website gets found by people searching for things on the internet. When potential customers search the keywords you’ve defined and added to your website copy, they'll have a better chance of discovering your website! This important final step is critical and worthy of its own help page. Make sure you’ve got this step locked down—here is an article that walks you through how to optimize your website!

Step 7: Drive Traffic With a Simple Marketing Engine

Hitting “publish” on your website is a big milestone—but it’s not the finish line. A beautiful website that no one visits is basically a very fancy digital diary.

To turn your website into a lead-generating machine, you need a simple, consistent marketing system that drives people to it. That doesn’t mean you need to be everywhere doing everything. But it is a good idea to choose a few core activities and do them well.

Here’s where Enji becomes your marketing co-pilot:

Build your marketing strategy

With Enji’s Marketing Strategy Generator, you can outline who you’re targeting, what cadence makes sense based on the amount of time you have, what your goals are, and where you should be showing up online (blog posts, social content, email, or all of the above).

Create content that leads back to your site

Remember step 3 when we did keyword research? Now, we can use that research to plan blog posts, guides, and resources that live on your website. Then, use Enji’s AI Copywriter to get the first draft done faster.

You don’t need to be a great writer to start a blog, but each piece should:

Answer a real question your audience has
Include your relevant keywords
Link to your services or contact page

This builds your authority with both humans and search engines.

Promote your content consistently

Once your content is live, you want it in front of people. Enji’s Social Media Scheduler lets you plan and schedule posts that highlight your latest blog, share client stories, give tips, and always include a link back to your site (our blog repurposing tool will even create a lot of content for you). Over time, this creates a steady stream of traffic instead of relying on one-off “launch” announcements

Measure what’s working

A huge advantage of marketing software like Enji is that it gives you a clearer picture of what’s actually moving the needle. With Enji’s KPI Dashboard, you can see which channels and posts are getting the most attention.

Instead of living in “I hope this works” mode, you can double down on what’s effective and stop wasting energy on what’s not.

Layer in marketing campaigns

Lastly, you can tap into Enji’s Marketing Campaign Templates to run specific pushes—like a launch, a seasonal promotion, or a lead magnet—that point directly to key pages on your site. Each campaign is structured to guide people from “I’ve never heard of you” to “Wow, I want to work with you / buy from you,” with your website doing the heavy lifting in the middle.

Get More Website Traffic With Enji

Building a website can feel like a gigantic project but it doesn’t have to be. When you break it into steps—choose a platform, claim your domain, do smart SEO research, write compelling copy, design simply, and then actually drive traffic to it—you turn “I need a website” into “I have a website that works.”

From there, your site is the home base. But Enji is the co-pilot that keeps sending the right people to your digital front door, again and again.

If you’re ready to not only build your website but also put a real marketing engine behind it, this is exactly why Enji was created—to help you do so simply, consistently, and without a full-time marketing team. Sign up for your 14 day free trial of Enji today.

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Tayler Cusick Hollman

Founder of Enji | Small Business Marketing Strategist

Tayler Cusick Hollman is the co-founder of Enji, a strategy-first marketing platform built specifically for small business owners who do their own marketing. With 10+ years of experience in small business marketing as a consultant with TAYLRD Media and Designs, Tayler has helped thousands of small business owners create clear, repeatable marketing systems that drive consistency, visibility, and revenue—without relying on complicated tools.

Her work focuses on simplifying marketing strategy, turning plans into execution, and helping small business owners replace scattered tools with one integrated system. Tayler’s frameworks and insights are used by entrepreneurs across industries to plan, execute, and evaluate their marketing with confidence.

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