Everything and everyone is on the Web these days. Your grandmother has a Flickr account, your little cousin a Twitter account, and the corner store a website. The only problem is, the corner store, along with many other small businesses, has a web 1.0 FortuneCity style website that is unnavigable and hasn’t been updated since the late 20th Century … and they usually don’t even to seem to notice that this is an issue, which prevents them from reach their maximum potential in business.

Luckily, technology continues to update and replace itself in more user-friendly terms. It is possible to create a great website without any coding or design experience – and even do it in a short amount of time.

Let’s take a look on how a small business website can go from a “2″ to an “8″ in 60 minutes or less.

• Business: Family-Owned Pizzeria
• Symptoms: Unattractive color combination, broken links, out-of-date information (menu, locations, specials), generic logo, no search engine optimization
• Diagnosis: Poor website design
• Solution: Quick website makeover with an easy to use Flash editor

Website Before Makeover:

Website After Makeover:

How to Build a New Website Quick, Easy, and Cheap

Step 1: A Blank Canvas

The first thing the manager of Brami’s Pizza did was go to Wix’s Flash editor to sign up and start working from a blank page for the new website.

Step 2: Select the Elements

The joy of Free websites is to have everything available in a neat, user-friendly manner right in front of you. The restaurant owner decided that they would want five mini-pages to organize pertinent information for their customers:

• A welcome/introduction page
• The restaurant’s menu
• A list of specials
• Contact information and directions
• Links to related external pages (like their Facebook Page and Yelp reviews)

Step 3: Customize

Brand your website to match your company by uploading custom content, logos, photos, et cetera. For Brami’s Pizza, they decided to upload a scanned copy of their menu, photographs of their pizza/restaurant/employees in action, and logo. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but it does need to represent your business.

Also, remember that the more information a customer has at hand, the more likely they are to make a decision for the business that offers it to them. Think what you would want to know if you were in their place, and place all pertinent information on your website. This includes products/services offered, operating hours, contact information, and what it is that makes your business special. Wix has widgets for Google Map directions, Paypal, RSS, and Twitter, so take advantage of these useful tools.

Step 4: Publish

Double check all of your information and design on your new website via preview. Once it all looks ready to go, simply publish your brand new web face. Through Wix, you have the option of using a custom domain name for a small fee, and a variety of other packages, which you can decide on the most appropriate for your needs.