Start with platform selection based on your business model. WordPress powers 43% of the web and offers maximum flexibility for service businesses, trades, and local shops. Shopify works best if you're selling products online. Squarespace or Wix suit solo practitioners who need something live fast with minimal technical overhead. Budget $150–400 CAD yearly for domain and hosting on WordPress, or $300–600 yearly for all-in-one platforms. Your essential pages are Home, About, Services or Products, and Contact. Homepage should immediately communicate what you do and where you serve. About builds trust with owner bio and years in business. Services need clear descriptions with local keywords like "Ottawa furnace repair" or "Toronto bookkeeping services." Contact must include phone, email, physical address if you have one, and an embedded Google Map. Mobile responsiveness isn't optional. Over 60% of small business searches happen on phones. Pick a theme labeled mobile-responsive or test it on real devices before launch. Page speed matters for rankings and conversions. Compress images to under 200KB, use lazy loading, and avoid excessive plugins or scripts. Local SEO setup separates amateur sites from ones that actually generate leads. Claim and verify your Google Business Profile, then embed that same NAP (name, address, phone) on your Contact page. Add schema markup for LocalBusiness using free tools or plugins. If you serve multiple cities, create location pages with unique content, not copy-paste. At Ottawa SEO, we see DIY sites fail most often on three points: no clear call-to-action above the fold, missing alt text on images, and zero blog or content strategy. You don't need 50 pages at launch, but plan to add 1–2 service-focused articles monthly. Budget 15–40 hours for initial build if doing it yourself, or $2,500–8,000 CAD for professional design with strategy included. Maintenance runs $50–200 monthly for updates, backups, and security patches.