Getting started
A first draft from a few answers, a domain, and the pages most small businesses need, designed to take an afternoon rather than a project.
Centilio SiteWoven presence
CENTILIO SITE / GROW
What is a good website builder, and how do you build a website?
Short answers to what people ask before they make a site, and guides that work whatever tool you use today. Questions about Site itself are answered as designed, because Site has not shipped.
not shipped · wave 36 guidesuseful before Site shipsno sign-up needed
Product design preview · Site has not shipped. All features, screens and prices are proposals.
Site has not shipped yet.
Site has not shipped. What you see here — the console, the features, the plans and the prices — is the design for Centilio Site, written down in full so you can judge it before it exists. It belongs to the third wave of Centilio tools, with no beta and no launch date yet. Join the waitlist and you will be told first.
Topics
Start with the question you have.
In short: a good one gets a clear, fast site that works on a phone live quickly, lets anyone in the business change it, keeps the domain in your name and turns visitors into enquiries. Site is designed to be one, with your business records behind it.
Everyday editing
Changing words, prices and photos on the page, approving changes and rolling back a page that went wrong.
Celia
What it drafts, what it checks, and what it never does: publish a page or change a record by itself.
Domains and billing
Your own domain on Pro, per-business pricing and a Free plan for one small site. All prices are proposed.
Guides
Six guides, useful whatever you build with today.
Short and practical. None of them needs Site, and most work in any tool.
How to build a website from scratch
From scratch means from a blank page, not from nothing: you already know what you sell, to whom and where. Start there.
- Write down the four facts every visitor wants: what you do, where, what it costs and how to reach you.
- Pick the pages. For most small businesses that is home, services, prices, about and contact; add a page only when it has a job.
- Choose an address: a domain that matches your business name, short and easy to say aloud.
- Decide how to build it: write the code yourself, hire someone, or use a tool that does the building. The next guide covers doing it alone.
- Publish the smallest version that is true, then improve it every week rather than waiting for perfect.
How to build a website on my own, without a developer
Most small business sites are made by one person in the evenings. Plan for that, not for a project team.
- Give it a weekend, not a quarter. Block two afternoons: one for the words, one for the pages.
- Write the words before you touch a design. A good page with a plain layout beats a beautiful page with nothing to say.
- Use photos of your own place, people and work; one honest photo does more than five stock images.
- Test it on your phone before anyone else sees it, because most visitors will see it there first.
- Ask one customer to find your prices and book. Watch where they hesitate, and fix that first.
How to write a home page that brings work in
A home page has one job: tell a stranger, in a few seconds, whether you can help and how to start.
- Say what you do and where in the first line, in the words your customers use.
- Show the three things people most often buy from you, each with a price or a starting price.
- Give one clear next step — book, call or ask — and repeat it at the bottom of the page.
- Add proof you can stand behind: years trading, a client who agreed to be named, a photo of the work.
- Cut anything a first-time visitor does not need; it can live on another page.
How to choose and connect a domain
Your domain is the one part of your website you should own outright, whoever makes the rest.
- Choose a name that is short, easy to spell when heard, and close to your business name.
- Register it in your own name, with an email address you will still have in five years.
- Turn on auto-renew; losing a domain to an expired card happens more often than it should.
- Point it at your site by updating its records with your registrar; a good tool tells you exactly which ones.
- Check that the site loads securely on both the bare domain and the www version.
How to make a small site findable in search
You do not need an agency to be found for your own name, your own service and your own town.
- Give every page a title that says what it is and where: the service, then the town, then your name.
- Write one page per service you want to be found for, answering the questions customers actually ask.
- Keep your name, address and phone number the same everywhere they appear online.
- Make pages fast and readable on a phone; slow pages lose visitors before search ever counts them.
- Add one useful page or answer every month rather than rewriting everything once a year.
How to move an old site without losing visitors
Moving a site loses visitors when old addresses break. Keep every one of them working.
- List every page on the old site, and note which ones bring in visitors.
- Rebuild the pages that matter first; leave the archive for later.
- Point each old address at its new page rather than at the home page.
- Switch the domain over only when the new pages are approved.
- A week later, check the busiest old links and fix any that land on an error.
Questions
Quick answers.
How do I build a website?
Decide what it must tell a visitor — what you do, where, what it costs, how to reach you — then choose how to build it: code it, hire someone, or use a tool that does the building for you. For most small businesses the third is quickest; the guides on this page walk through each step.
What is the best website to build a website?
There is no single best one; it depends on who will keep the site up to date. A tool you can edit yourself, on a domain you own, with forms and bookings built in, suits most small businesses better than the one with the most features.
How can I build a website for free?
Most tools for making websites have a free plan on their own web address, usually with their branding. Site is designed the same way: free for one site of up to five pages, then a paid plan when you want your own domain.
Should I learn to code, or use a tool that builds the site?
Coding gives you full control and costs the most time; it is worth it if you enjoy it or the site is your product. If the site is there to bring in work, a tool that builds it lets you spend the time on the business instead.
Can I use my own domain?
Yes, that is the design. Connect any domain you own on Pro and above, and Site handles the security certificate for you.
Is Site for e-commerce?
Site handles content and landing pages. Shop, a later Centilio tool, is designed to add the store and checkout to the same pages.
When is Site available?
Site is in the third wave of Centilio tools and has no date yet. Join the waitlist and you will hear before the announcement.
Is Site free?
Free is proposed for one site of up to five pages, then Pro at $19 a month for the whole business. Nothing is charged until Site ships.
Contact
Still have a question?
Site is still being designed, so the questions you ask now change what gets built. Tell us what your website has to do and what you use for it today; the awkward cases are the most useful.
Next for you
What sits next to Site.
The tools Site puts on your pages. Two are live today, so you can try them while Site is built.
Every Centilio tool shares one record and one login with Site.
Hear first when Site opens.
Site comes in wave 3, after the tools it draws on: Seek for search, Ask for forms, Book for bookings. Join the waitlist for a note before anything is announced. Hire and Account are live in the meantime.