Zero to live
in a weekend.
A professional, search-optimized website for your local business — no developer, no monthly agency fee. Follow this guide top to bottom and you'll be live in a weekend.
Before you start
15 minutesGather these so you're not hunting mid-build. Write your business details once, then copy them everywhere — consistency is a real ranking factor.
- Business name, address, phone, and hours — exactly as they should appear everywhere
- Your booking link (Calendly, your practice software, Google appointment page, or just your phone number)
- 3–5 real photos: your space, your team, your work
- Your 2 best Google reviews, copied word for word
- The one thing that makes you different from the competitor down the street — one sentence
Make it yours
30 minutesOpen the template file in any text editor. TextEdit works; VS Code is nicer and free.
Rebrand the whole site by changing 6 lines. Near the top, find the block labeled BRAND TOKENS. These six values control every button, heading, border, and background on the site:
| Token | What it controls | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| --ink | All body text, dark section backgrounds | Near-black. Keep it warm (brown-black) or cool (blue-black) to set tone. |
| --paper | Page background | Cream, white, or very light grey all work. Avoid pure #FFFFFF if you want warmth. |
| --accent | Every button, link, and highlight | Your main brand color. If unsure, pull the dominant color from your logo. |
| --accent-soft | Panel backgrounds, soft tints | A desaturated or much-lightened version of --accent. Canva "tints" tool helps. |
| --line | All hairlines and borders | Slightly warmer or cooler than --paper. Should barely be visible. |
| --muted | Secondary text, captions | A medium grey. Should pass AA contrast on your --paper background. |
Fonts (optional). The template uses Fraunces (display) and Inter (body). To swap, change the two values on the --display and --body lines, and update the Google Fonts link in the <head> to match. Browse free at fonts.google.com.
Fill every [bracket]
60–90 minutesSearch the file for [ and work through every bracket. This is the whole job. Key ones to get exactly right:
The H1 headline. Use the format [Service] in [City] — for example "Trusted Chiropractic Care in Missoula, MT." This is the single most important line for showing up when someone searches your service. Don't get clever here; get clear.
Meta title and description (top of the file, inside <head>). Title under 60 characters. Description under 155. Lead with your service and city. These are what Google shows in search results.
The schema block — the <script type="application/ld+json"> section near the top. Fill your real business details. Pick the right type on the first line:
- MedicalBusiness — clinics, chiropractic, physical therapy, dental
- HealthClub — gyms, fitness studios, yoga, pilates
- LocalBusiness — everything else
This block is invisible to visitors but tells Google and AI assistants exactly who you are — it's how you become the recommendation.
Services, about, reviews, FAQ. Write plainly. Name what the customer gets, not how you do it. In the FAQ, keep every question written as a real question people ask, and answer in the first sentence — that's what gets your page quoted by ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview.
Every booking button. Replace [BOOKING LINK] everywhere with your real link. Search the file for it so you don't miss one.
Add your photos
20 minutesWherever you see a grey placeholder box, swap in a real image. Put your image files in the same folder as the site and replace each placeholder with:
The alt text isn't optional — write what's in the photo. It helps both search and accessibility. "Dr. Smith adjusting a patient's back at our Missoula clinic" beats "photo1."
Real photos beat stock every time. Even an iPhone photo of your actual space converts better than a Getty image of a perfect clinic.
Make the share image
15 minutesWhen someone texts your link or posts it on social, a preview card appears. Create a 1200×630 image — Canva has a free Open Graph template. Put your business name, tagline, and a photo on it.
Name the file share-image.png and put it in the same folder as the site. The template already points to it.
Put it online
30 minutesSimplest — Netlify Drop. Go to app.netlify.com/drop and drag your whole site folder onto the page. It's live in seconds on a free address. Connect your own domain in the site settings when ready.
Also fine — your domain host. Most registrars (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace Domains) have simple file hosting or a one-click upload. Upload the folder, point your domain at it.
Important: Your main file should be named index.html so it loads as your homepage. The template ships with that name.
Where the traffic actually comes from
Ongoing — start this weekA website alone doesn't get you found. Do these three and you'll outrank businesses with much bigger budgets and much older sites.
1. Claim and fill your Google Business Profile at business.google.com. This is more important than the website for local search. Fill every field, add photos, list your services, set your hours. Post to it at least once a week — even just a photo. This is what puts you in the map when someone searches nearby.
2. Get reviews, consistently. Ask every happy patient or client, in person, the day of. Send them your Google review link by text while they're still happy. Reviews are the single biggest lever in local ranking. It's free and most businesses do it inconsistently — that's the gap.
3. Publish one helpful page a month. Answer a real question your customers ask — "How often should I see a chiropractor in Missoula?" — as its own page, titled as the question. This is how you rank for more searches over time and how your site gets quoted by ChatGPT and Google's AI. Use the same structure as the FAQ: question as the header, answer in the first sentence.