Web Optimization

Can You Build a Small Business Website for Free? Try These Tools. 

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Online shopping makes up a significant chunk of all U.S. commerce. In the 3rd quarter of 2022, e-commerce made up<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.census.gov/retail/ecommerce.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 14.1% of total sales</a>—an increase of 10.8% from 2021. For small businesses, having an online store is crucial for building customer trust, generating leads, and doing more business. 
For small business owners, the potential costs of having your own website can feel prohibitive. But you don’t have to miss out on having an online presence, no matter your budget. There are many free website builders and tools that make it easy to create your own budget-friendly website. 
We’ll teach you everything you need to know. 
<h2>Free Website Builders</h2>
Building a small business website doesn’t have to be expensive—or cost anything at all. Let’s go over some of the top free website builders for your business.
(Disclaimer: While it may not cost anything to build your own site with these free website builders, you will have to pay to keep your business website live.)
<h3>Wix</h3>
<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.wix.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wix</a> is a free website builder that offers 900+ templates, making it easy to create an eye-catching professional website. Plus, these website templates are easily scalable, so they’ll grow with you. Wix also offers built-in SEO tools for your small business website. For additional features, you can upgrade to a paid premium subscription.
<h3>Squarespace</h3>
Free website builder<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.squarespace.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Squarespace</a> also offers a wide range of templates. They have customized styles for nearly any type of small business website. Furthermore, Squarespace makes it easy to choose your own custom domain name. You can get started with a free trial and use their drag-and-drop editor to design your business website (meaning minimal technical skills are required). After your trial is over, you’ll need to pay a monthly or annual maintenance fee to keep your site online.
<h3>Weebly </h3>
With your<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.weebly.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> free Weebly website</a>, you can choose from an array of different themes and customize with the site builder to get selling online. This website builder has partnered with Square to make it easy for you to sell online. Similarly to the other website builders, there are also tools for marketing and growing your small business. 
<h3>WordPress</h3>
A classic choice for building your business website,<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://wordpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> WordPress</a> claims that more small businesses use their website builder than any other website builder. With any annual paid plan, you’ll get your first year free—a screaming deal. 
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-25566 size-large" src="https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-1024x679.png" alt="wordpress.com" width="640" height="424" srcset="https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-1024x679.png 1024w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-300x199.png 300w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-768x510.png 768w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-1536x1019.png 1536w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-600x398.png 600w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-360x239.png 360w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-160x106.png 160w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-350x232.png 350w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-100x66.png 100w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM-517x343.png 517w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.48.46-AM.png 1596w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
<h2>8 Free Tools for Your Small Business Website</h2>
Once you know where you’re going to build and host your site, there are plenty of low- and no-cost tools that will help you build a beautiful, effective website. Let’s take a look at some of our favorites.

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<h2>Design Tools</h2>
Don’t have the budget for a graphic designer yet? No stress, there are plenty of free tools online to create your own branding kit, logo, and more until you can hire your own team.
<h3>Google Fonts</h3>
Choosing the right font is so much more than just picking something that looks nice. As every designer will confirm, font choices communicate a lot about your brand, your business, and your products, regardless of the words being typed.
<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://fonts.google.com/knowledge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Fonts</a> walks you through how to choose the right font for your online store. Does your business website need to accommodate international customers? You can create multilingual sites by learning about the best font choices to make for customers in various countries. It hosts a library of 1482 open-source fonts and visual icons, all of which you can download and use to make your business look more professional online. 
<h3>Canva</h3>
<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.canva.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canva</a> is the go-to free design tool for novice and experienced designers alike. With Canva, you can easily create logos, flyers, business plans, press releases, and so much more…all for free. There are hundreds of templates available with your free account, and you can always upgrade to their affordable premium plan for more features if necessary. 
Canva is incredibly easy to use and offers educational support for how to make the best use of the tools. Gone are the days of needing to be a professionally trained web designer; you can create visually appealing graphics for your customers within minutes using your free account. 
<h3>Unsplash </h3>
Good design requires good images. No photographer? No problem. <a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://unsplash.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unsplash</a> offers a huge library of professional images that you can use on your professional website, free of charge. Images are a really important marketing tool, and Unsplash is highly user-friendly for any business owner.
<h3>Coolors</h3>
Like with fonts, choosing the right colors for your brand is about so much more than just looking pretty. The colors in your branding palette are important marketing tools that communicate who you are to your site visitors and even contribute to your credibility. 
<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://coolors.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coolors</a> is a free brand palette generator where you can discover your own unique brand style or explore trendy looks. Freshening up your website with consistent, eye-catching colors will do a lot to improve the user experience.  
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-25567 size-large" src="https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-1024x534.png" alt="google analytics " width="640" height="334" srcset="https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-1024x534.png 1024w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-300x156.png 300w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-768x400.png 768w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-1536x800.png 1536w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-2048x1067.png 2048w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-600x313.png 600w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-360x188.png 360w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-160x83.png 160w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-350x182.png 350w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-100x52.png 100w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.50.35-AM-658x343.png 658w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
<h2>Content, Data, and Analytics Tools</h2>
Data is knowledge and knowledge is power. The great news? Creating content and collecting and analyzing data can all be done largely for free. You can use the tools below totally free to grow your business and boost search engine optimization.
<h3>Google Forms</h3>
Knowing your customers inside and out is a key way to boost business online. And gathering customer insights doesn’t have to be costly or time-consuming. With <a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.google.com/forms/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Forms</a>, you can build and distribute custom feedback forms for free and analyze the results to better improve your business. 
<h3>UberSuggest</h3>
When creating content online, you want to make it count. Never create content just for the sake of creating content—your target audience will feel the lack of passion. <a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UberSuggest</a> is a free tool that allows you to boost your content’s search engine optimization by showing you what’s working for your competitors and which keywords to use. This tool also shares insight that will help you build better backlinks and suggestions on which content topics to cover next. 
<h3>Google Analytics</h3>
<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/provision/#/provision" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Analytics</a> is a free online tool that provides insight into your site and site visitors. While it might seem like an intimidating tool, it’s a crucial one that will help you better understand your customers and the impact of your marketing efforts. Nervous about getting started? Google Analytics offers tons of <a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">courses</a> that will help you ease into it. 
<h3>Buzzsumo</h3>
Sick of trying to come up with your next content idea? <a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://buzzsumo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buzzsumo</a> helps you discover and research various content topics that will boost your online presence. It’ll also take you one step further by connecting your business with influencers who can help to promote your brand. You can even use it as a monitoring tool and be the first to know about new posts on topics you care about or influencers you want to connect with. This kind of monitoring can go a long way in helping you become an industry thought leader.  
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-25568 size-large" src="https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM-1024x707.png" alt="webchat product page screenshot " width="640" height="442" srcset="https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM-1024x707.png 1024w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM-300x207.png 300w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM-768x531.png 768w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM-600x414.png 600w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM-360x249.png 360w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM-160x111.png 160w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM-350x242.png 350w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM-100x69.png 100w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM-497x343.png 497w, https://cmsaustralia.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-17-at-10.51.53-AM.png 1161w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
<h2>Try Podium Webchat</h2>
While we’re on the topic of websites, we’ve got to throw our favorite tool in here—<a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.podium.com/webchat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Webchat</a>. While it’s not free, it’s an investment in your business that will pay off big time. 
Ultimately, your business website is a lead generator both for online and in-person sales. Part of generating leads from your website is making it easy for site visitors to contact you. Podium Webchat is a paid tool that allows you to connect with your site visitors and stay connected long after they leave your site, through text.
Interested in giving it a try? Get started with your <a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.podium.com/webchat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">free trial</a> today.

Can You Build a Small Business Website for Free? Try These Tools.

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