Practical Guide — 2025

website design options

Choose the right website type and optimise it for SEO, speed and steady business growth

This guide walks you through the most common website design options in 2025, who they suit, the SEO and performance trade-offs, and an actionable 10-step plan to pick and optimise the best solution for your business.

Compare Options 10-step Action Plan

60s

Demo build with AI (Congero)

24–72h

Professional subscription launch

40+ hrs

Typical DIY setup time

$49/mo

Managed option for small businesses

In this guide

Overview: Picking the right path Compare design options SEO optimisation per option Performance & images Conversion optimisation 10-step action plan FAQ Start a free demo

How to choose the right website design option

Choosing a website is about balancing budget, time, functionality and growth goals. Below are the quick decision questions to answer before you pick:

What's your primary goal? (lead enquiries, bookings, online sales, portfolio)
How much time can you commit? (hours to manage content, SEO, and troubleshooting)
Do you need advanced features? (subscriptions, membership, integrations with POS/CRM)
What's your growth timeframe? (quick launch vs. long-term scale)

Answering these gives you a short-list of suitable design types. The next section compares the most common options and when to choose each.

Website design options — pros, cons and best use

Option	Monthly Cost	Time to Launch	Best for
Templates (Wix, Squarespace)	$12–45	Hours–days	Simple brochure sites, portfolios
Page builders (Elementor, Webflow)	$15–60 (+hosting)	1–7 days	Custom layouts without coding
WordPress (managed)	$20–100 (hosting + dev)	1–4 weeks	Scalable blogs, custom functionality
E‑commerce platforms (Shopify)	$29–399	1–14 days	Online stores, POS integration
Headless/Custom (Jamstack)	$50+ (dev heavy)	4–12 weeks	High-performance, custom integrations
Professional subscription (done-for-you)	$30–49	24–72 hours	Busy trades & small businesses

Templates

Fast and cheap. Great for simple sites but limited for SEO, speed tuning and bespoke user journeys.

Choose if: You need a quick brochure, have minimal budget and limited custom needs.

Page builders

Flexible visual design with faster builds. Can be SEO-friendly, but watch for bloated code and slow load times.

Choose if: You want more control over layout without hiring devs.

WordPress

Most extensible option. Excellent for content-heavy sites and integrations; requires maintenance and security vigilance.

Choose if: You plan to scale content, publish regularly, or need custom plugins.

E‑commerce platforms

Built for selling. Out-of-the-box payment and shipping features, but transaction fees and app costs add up.

Choose if: You want a store with minimal dev overhead.

Headless & Custom

Best performance & bespoke experiences. Higher cost and requires developer resources to iterate.

Choose if: You need lightning-fast pages and complex integrations.

Professional subscription

All-inclusive, managed sites with unlimited updates, local SEO and analytics — ideal for trade and service businesses.

Choose if: You value speed-to-market, predictable cost, and hands-off updates.

SEO optimisation: tactics for each website option

SEO isn't one-size-fits-all. Below are concrete tasks to apply depending on your chosen platform.

Templates (Wix, Squarespace)

Set unique page title and meta description for each page; include primary keyword near the front.
Use concise, crawlable navigation (avoid JavaScript-only menus).
Compress images and add descriptive alt text (keyword when natural).
Enable sitemap.xml and submit to Google Search Console.

Page builders (Webflow, Elementor)

Audit generated HTML for unnecessary wrappers; reduce DOM complexity to speed up rendering.
Use semantic headings (H1 on page title, H2/H3 for sections).
Implement structured data (LocalBusiness, Organization, Product as applicable).

WordPress (managed)

Use a lightweight theme and well-coded plugins. Avoid page builders that add excessive scripts unless optimised.
Install an SEO plugin (e.g., Yoast, Rank Math) and configure XML sitemap, canonical URLs and meta templates.
Enable server-side caching, image lazy-loading and a CDN for global speed.

E‑commerce (Shopify, BigCommerce)

Optimize product titles, descriptions and structured data (Product schema).
Use canonical tags for variants and pagination.
Prioritise product page speed: reduce above-the-fold scripts and defer analytics until after load.

Headless / Custom

Render the most important content server-side or use hybrid rendering to ensure crawlers see content.
Implement advanced structured data, image CDNs and pre-render important routes.
Maintain a clean URL structure and generate server-side sitemaps for large sites.

Universal SEO checklist (do these on every site)

Unique title and meta description for every page.
One H1 per page, logical H2/H3 structure.
Fast mobile-first performance (target < 2.5s mobile).
Structured data for local businesses and products.
Accessible, crawlable navigation and sitemap.xml.
Robots.txt configured correctly; no accidental noindex.
Google Analytics + Search Console connected and verified.

Performance: image, code and hosting optimisations

Performance improvements have direct SEO and conversion impact. Focus on the following:

Image optimisation

Serve WebP/AVIF where supported and provide fallbacks.
Resize images to exact display dimensions; avoid huge master files.
Use descriptive alt text and file names (include keyword naturally).
Use lazy-loading for off-screen images (native loading=lazy).

Code & hosting

Pick hosting close to your audience or use a CDN to reduce latency.
Enable Brotli/Gzip compression and remove unused CSS/JS.
Defer non-critical third-party scripts (chat widgets, trackers).
Measure with Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights; aim for 90+ mobile score.

Quick performance checklist (10 minutes):

Run PageSpeed Insights for a key landing page.
Compress and convert largest images to WebP.
Enable caching headers and CDN.
Remove unused plugins/widgets.
Defer non-essential scripts until after content loads.

Conversion optimisation: small changes that move the needle

SEO brings visitors, but CRO turns them into customers. Prioritise high-impact elements:

Clear above-the-fold CTA: single primary action (call, request quote, book).
Local trust signals: service areas, ABN/ACN, real phone number, Google reviews.
Short contact form + click-to-call: fewer fields = higher completion.
Service pages per offering: one page per service with keyword-focused titles and CTAs.
Use urgency & social proof: limited-time offers and recent completed jobs.

Measure & iterate

Set up goals in Analytics for key actions (phone clicks, form submits). Run simple A/B tests on headlines, CTA text and hero images for 2–4 weeks to see what improves conversion.

Content strategy: what to publish and where

Good content drives SEO and trust. Use this simple framework:

Service pages first: create 3–7 core service pages describing benefits, pricing examples and FAQs.
Local pages: one page per major service area or suburb for "near me" queries.
Problem→Solution blog posts: publish FAQs and how-to content targeting long-tail queries.
Case studies: 1–2 short case studies showing results with images and before/after metrics.

Content cadence suggestion:

Start with one new page or blog post every 2 weeks for 3 months, then measure search traffic and enquiries.

Analytics & growth: track what matters

Install and monitor these tools from day one:

Google Analytics 4: track events (phone clicks, form submits, bookings).
Google Search Console: monitor impressions, CTR, and index coverage.
Heatmaps / session recordings: optional but useful for CRO insights.

Monthly actions to grow traffic:

Review top pages and queries in Search Console; add content to target high-impression, low-CTR queries.
Fix pages with low average position but strong intent (improve meta titles & intros).
Push local citations and collect reviews to boost local pack visibility.

10-step action plan: pick and optimise your website (practical and fast)

Define the single primary goal (e.g., "10 leads/month via contact form" or "50 sales/month"). Write it down and keep it visible.
Choose the design type using the decision matrix: quick brochure = template; many services = WordPress/managed; selling products = Shopify; hands-off = professional subscription.
Prepare content pack: business description, 3–5 service pages, 5–10 images, opening hours, contact details and testimonials.
Set up analytics & Search Console before launch and verify ownership.
Launch a clean homepage with clear H1, primary CTA and phone number visible on mobile.
Optimize 3 core pages first: homepage + 2 highest-value service pages (title, meta, H1, 300–600 words, image alt text).
Performance quick wins: compress images, enable caching, use a CDN and defer non-critical scripts.
Local SEO: claim/optimise Google Business Profile, add schema LocalBusiness, and create a "service areas" page.
Measure for 30 days: track traffic, top queries, phone clicks, and form sends. Identify the weakest performing page by conversion rate.
Iterate monthly: one content update, one technical fix, and one CRO test each month to compound growth.

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Frequently asked questions

Which option gives the best SEO results?

Any platform can rank well if you handle content, performance and technical SEO correctly. Managed WordPress, headless or well-optimised subscription sites typically offer the most flexibility for SEO scale.

I have limited time — what should I pick?

Choose a professional subscription or managed service. You get fast launch, ongoing updates and local SEO handled, freeing you to run the business.

Are page builders bad for SEO?

Not inherently. The issue is extra page weight and scripts. If you optimise assets, use caching and reduce DOM complexity, page builders can perform well.

How quickly will I see SEO results?

Local ranking improvements often appear within weeks for well-optimised service pages. Organic traffic growth usually takes 3–6 months of consistent content and technical work.

Ready to pick the right website and start getting customers?

If you want a fast, SEO-ready website without the hassle, Congero builds professional sites for trades and local businesses with local SEO, unlimited changes, hosting and analytics — all for a predictable monthly fee.

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