Best Website Builder for Small Businesses by Industry
I’ve written before about choosing the best website builder for your small business, comparing Squarespace, Wix, Wordpress, Webflow and Shopify. I wrote there that Squarespace is probably overall the best option for most businesses, but that’s too general an answer. The biggest thing that will affect your choice is the industry you’re in. Below is an overview of some industries and the best website builder I’d recommend.
If your industry is missing, leave a comment and I’ll update this post!
Local Services (Landscaping, Bike Rental, Moving Services, etc.)
If you offer any kind of local service-based business in a physical location, Squarespace is the easiest and most cost-effective website builder. Your website won’t need to have a ton of pages, maybe a homepage, about page, services page, contact page, and later a blog.
Outside of your website though, you absolutely have to focus on your Google Business Profile listing. Make sure your info is up to date, comprehensive, and consistent with the information shared on your website. And work on getting reviews from existing and past customers if you don’t have a lot of reviews.
Fashion/Beauty/Other e-Commerce
If you sell a lot of physical products that you need to take payment for, and ship to customers, Shopify is the best website builder for your small business.
Shopify has very smooth inventory management, shipping operations, and general handling of online sales. It’s relatively easy to get started with a template theme that you customize yourself.
Shopify is extremely flexible in terms of customizations, but has a bit of a learning curve and is a bit different than standard HTML/CSS setups like Squarespace or Wix. Shopify uses a template language - created by Shopify - called Liquid. If you’ve never used it before, it can take some getting used to.
Therapists
I’ve worked with a number of mental health therapists/counselors and I always recommend Squarespace. Squarespace is by far the easiest and best-value website builder for you.
Your website won’t be too complex. You’ll definitely have a homepage, an about page, some service pages, and a contact page; maybe you’ll also have a simple blog, an FAQ blog, and a few other things.
Squarespace can handle that easily. I built the website for Odyssey Wellness through Squarespace; reach out to me if you want something similar set up for your private practice.
App-Based Products (Games, Productivity, Wellbeing, etc.)
If you have an app-based product, your website isn’t as important as your listing on the actual app stores your app is listed in (App Store, Play Store), so focus first on having a well-optimized app store listing.
Once you’ve done that, Webflow is probably the best website builder for you. It offers some sleeker features than other website builders like animations that might be helpful in showing off your product on your website.
Webflow is harder for a beginner to use than, say, Squarespace, so if you do choose to use it, I’d recommend paying an expert to help you get the site up and running.
Art/Crafts
Similar to beauty/fashion above, if you have an arts & crafts type of business, Shopify is probably the best website builder for you, since it lets you easily showcase your products, take payment, and handle inventory and shipping operations.
For arts & crafts specifically, I also recommend focusing on an Etsy store. Almost 100 million people bought from Etsy in 2023 across the world. A lot of people are already searching the site for specific things; make sure your Etsy store is well-optimized for your target keywords and you’ll likely find success easier on Etsy than on your own Shopify store.
Blog-Heavy (Travel, Tech, Cooking)
If your business involves a lot of text-heavy blog-type content, like tech reviews, posting recipes, or write-ups of travel destinations, Wordpress is the best website builder for you.
Wordpress is a giant of the internet, with approximately 43% of all websites being built using the Wordpress platform. And for good reason. It’s insanely customizable and no matter your industry, Wordpress would be a solid choice.
And out of the box it’s very blog-friendly. I’ve used it for my own blog since 2012. There are millions of plugins you can install easily to add additional features - want a newsletter? Want to improve SEO? Want to compress images? Want to automatically share new posts to social media? There are dozens of different plugins to do all of those things.
But Wordpress isn’t always the easiest to use. It can get clunky if you add lots of add-ons, you need a lot of theme customization to make a good-looking site, and for coding customization you’ll need to know the php coding language or work with freelancers or agencies who do.
Food & Beverage Store (Bakery, Restaurant, Coffee Shop)
As an F&B outlet, the goal of your website is to attract new customers to your store, by telling your story, showing enticing photos of your products, and hosting your menu.
Either Squarespace or Webflow would be good for you. Squarespace if you want something quick and professional at a reasonable cost, Webflow if you want something that looks a bit sleeker but requires more time and cost to set up.
What’s the Best Website Builder for Small Businesses?
Depending on your industry, either Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify or Wordpress are probably your best bets.
Squarespace is great for simple, service-based websites, if you need a good-looking site that’s easy to set up and maintain, and lets you accept bookings. Therapists, electricians, bakeries, those types of businesses will benefit from Squarespace.
Webflow is perfect for businesses who need a sleeker-looking site with animations and transitions; businesses like photographers/videographers, app-based products, etc.
Shopify is by far the best choice if you’re selling physical products you need to ship to customers. Shopify’s inventory and shipping management is unmatched, which is a huge part of your business.
Wordpress is extremely versatile and is a good option for anyone, but especially for bloggers or anyone with a lot of text-based content. Just be mindful it can get messy and complicated without careful management.
If you need support setting up a Squarespace site, get in touch with me here.
Read more about other essential tools for small businesses. The first thing you need once your website is live is to get Google Analytics set up.
