A new Ontario company's first website should be small, fast and obvious. It exists so that someone who has just heard your name can confirm you're real, see what you offer and get in touch, usually on a phone and often within a minute. You can plan, write, build and check a site like that in about 30 days if you work in the right order: plan first, words second, design third.
This guide is written for founders doing it themselves or managing someone who is. Our launch website service follows the same plan if you'd prefer help.
Week 1: plan the site and secure the accounts
The goal of week one is to decide what the site must say and to make sure you own everything it runs on.
Choose the pages
Most new companies need five to eight pages:
- Home: what you do, for whom, where, and how to get in touch.
- One page per main service: usually two to four. Each answers what it is, who it's for, roughly what it costs or what affects the price, and what happens next.
- About: who's behind the company and why a customer should trust you.
- Contact: phone, text and email, your hours, your service area and what to include in a first message.
Resist adding pages for services you might offer one day. Thin pages for half-planned services make the whole site look less sure of itself.
List the questions each page must answer
For each page, write the three to five questions a customer would ask before getting in touch. "Do you come to Etobicoke?" "Do you work weekends?" "Is there a minimum order?" Those questions become your headings.
Own the domain and hosting
Register the domain in your own name or your company's, using an email address you control. Do the same for the hosting or website-builder account. If someone else sets it up, make sure you're the owner, not just a user. This one step prevents the most painful problem in small-business websites: losing access to your own address.
Match the name everywhere
Decide exactly how your company name will appear and use it consistently: on the site, in your email signature, on your Google profile and on invoices. It should line up with how you're registered through the Ontario Business Registry and how you actually trade.
Week 2: write the words
Write before you design. Layouts built around placeholder text end up with headlines that don't fit the message.
Write a headline that works on a phone
The home page headline should tell a stranger what you do and for whom in under ten words. Compare "Excellence in every detail" with "Move-out cleaning for Ottawa renters and landlords". The second wins every time, because a visitor knows instantly whether they're in the right place.
Use your brand sheet
If you've done brand and positioning work, keep that sheet open. Use the same customer description, the same promise and the same voice on every page.
Keep claims honest
New companies feel pressure to sound established. Don't. Canada's Competition Bureau treats false or misleading representations seriously, and invented review counts, "years of experience" that belong to someone else or "best in Ontario" claims also erode trust the moment a customer notices. State what's true: your own experience, your training, your area, your process.
Make contacting you effortless
Put your phone number and email at the top of every page and in the footer. On a phone, the number should be tappable. Say how quickly you usually reply and when you're available. Many customers would rather text than call, so if you accept texts, say so.
Week 3: build it
With the words written, the build is mostly assembly.
- Mobile first. Check every page on a phone as you go, not at the end.
- Speed. Compress images, avoid auto-playing sliders and video backgrounds, and limit fonts to one or two.
- Clear structure. One main heading per page, then logical subheadings that match the customer questions from week one.
- Basic search settings. A unique page title and description for each page, describing that page's content plainly.
- Real photos where you have them. Your van, your workspace, your face. If you don't have good photos yet, a clean text layout is better than stock images of strangers.
Week 4: set up Google and check everything
Create a Google Business Profile, if eligible
If you serve customers at a location or at their address, a Google Business Profile is usually the most valuable free listing a new company can have. Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. You control relevance on day one: choose accurate categories, write a description that matches your website, list your real service area and add your hours. Prominence builds over time through reviews and mentions.
Follow Google's own eligibility rules. Businesses that only operate online, or that would need a fake address, shouldn't create a local profile.
Run the pre-launch checklist
Before you share the link, check:
- Does a stranger understand what you do from the home page headline alone?
- Is the phone number tappable on every page?
- Do all links work, including those in the footer?
- Does each page load quickly on mobile data, not just on your home Wi-Fi?
- Is the company name spelled identically everywhere?
- Is the service area accurate and realistic?
- Do you own the domain, hosting and Google profile logins?
- Have two people outside your family read it for typos and confusing sentences?
Mistakes that slow a first website down
- Waiting for perfect photos or a perfect logo. Launch with clean text and improve later.
- Writing a mission statement instead of a headline. Customers want to know what you do, not your values, on the first screen.
- Claiming the whole province. A new company listing dozens of Ontario cities looks thin. Name the areas you'll serve this year.
- Building features you don't need yet. Booking systems, shops and blogs can come later.
- Making people work to reach you. Visitors ready to talk want a phone number and an email address in plain sight, not a hunt through menus and a wait.
After launch: what to measure
In the first month, track three things: whether a search for your exact name shows the site, how many visitors call, text or email you, and whether those enquiries are for the services you actually offer. If they are, you're ready to bring in more visitors deliberately. The 90-day launch plan guide covers that next stage, and the naming guide is there if you're still settling on the name. Questions about costs are answered on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Can I launch with a one-page website?
You can, and it's better than nothing. But separate pages for each main service give customers and search engines a clearer picture, so most new companies benefit from five to eight short pages instead.
Should I use a website builder or hire a developer?
Either can work. A builder suits founders who like doing things themselves; a developer suits those who'd rather pay than spend evenings on it. What matters more is the plan, the words and that you own the domain and account.
Do I need a blog at launch?
No. A blog with three posts from launch month and nothing since looks abandoned. Add helpful articles later, once you know the questions customers actually ask.
What should go on the about page?
Who's behind the company, why you started it, the experience you bring and the area you serve. A real photo of you helps more than a stock photo of a team you don't have.