Setting up your first page in five minutes

Most business pages are built once in an evening and never opened again. The ones that actually bring customers are the opposite: launched in a few minutes, then kept alive with small updates. Here is the short version.

Before you open the editor

Write these five things down first. You will paste them, not compose them.

• Your business name, exactly as it appears on your invoices.
• One sentence about what you do and where: Hair salon in Mulhouse, open Tuesday to Saturday.
• The one action you want: a booking, a call, a visit, a quote or a message.
• Your phone number, your email and your address.
• A logo, or a good photo of your work if you do not have a logo.

One sentence is enough for the introduction. A paragraph that begins with "we are passionate about" tells a reader nothing they can act on.

Pick a template, then stop looking at templates

Choose the template closest to your trade, not the prettiest one. A restaurant page and a coaching page do not lead with the same thing: one leads with food and hours, the other with a person and a first session. The template is a starting point, and every section can be rewritten or removed.

The most common mistake at this stage is comparing ten templates until the evening is gone. Pick one, publish something, improve it next week.

The four settings that matter

What to check before you share it

1. Open the page on your phone, not on your laptop. That is where most visitors will see it.
2. Tap every button. A phone number that dials the wrong number is worse than no phone number.
3. Read the first screen out loud. If it does not say what you do and where, rewrite it.
4. Check the opening hours against the sign on your door.
5. Send the link to one person who does not know your business, and ask them what you sell.

Then leave it alone for a week

A page does not need to be perfect on day one. Publish it, put the link in your Instagram and Google Business profile, print a QR code for the till or the window, and watch what people ask you in the first week. The questions they ask in person are the sections your page is missing.

The update you will make most often is a price or an opening time. Keep those in a content list rather than inside the page design, so changing them once updates every page that shows them.

What not to do

• Do not copy a competitor's wording. It reads like a competitor's page.
• Do not add a newsletter popup before your first hundred visitors.
• Do not hide prices if you are a local service. "Contact us for pricing" sends people to the next result.
• Do not use five fonts and four colours. One of each is a style, five is an accident.

That is the whole method: prepare five facts, choose one template, set four things, check on a phone, publish, then improve one section a week.