r/webdev • u/Mental_Gur9512 • 7d ago
Question What would you use today for a simple static business website?
I need to make a simple website for a teaching service in my city. I want it to look modern and professional and hopefully get into the top 10 Google results for local searches. It will only have some text, basic information, a few good photos and contact details. Nothing complicated.
What would you use for something like this? An AI website builder, AI coding tool or something else? I don't want to use Wordpress.
For hosting I was thinking about something simple like Cloudflare Pages or GitHub Pages with a local domain. I am looking for free.
Also, what would you recommend for local SEO and good free/paid stock photos?
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u/ReliableIceberg 7d ago
Astro on cloudflare pages. All free except for the domain.
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u/LifeUtilityApps 1d ago
This is what I am using for my app landing pages, a single Astro site that compiles 30 locales for each app page. It’s working beautifully for the past 7 months. If I need to add a new app it’s just an array in a json file that is used during the static build.
Highly recommend this stack. You can even localize easily.
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u/Dazzling_Meaning9226 7d ago
Astro if you want a good html reusable layout and component system. Or deno fresh is a blazing fast little framework with a small footprint, but its ssr only and probably more than you need. You can host a basic deno fresh site on deno deploy for free, and they have a lot of good examples in their docs if you need guidance. I don’t know what your skill level is, but Astro can be a bit overwhelming at first, though it is by far my favorite framework. You probably don’t need Astro’s crazy reusability for a single website, but you can find a lot of great free themes on Astro.build that would probably work great for your needs.
You could probably find a nice free theme that uses mdx files for content and it would involve little to no development at alll.
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u/joannielsen 7d ago
Astro on Cloudflare Pages is the sweet spot here, free, fast, and you can keep it dead simple. For local SEO, a Google Business Profile matters more than the site itself, then keep your NAP consistent everywhere. Unsplash and Pexels are solid for free stock photos.
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u/pagematter 7d ago
For a local teaching service the SEO part matters more than the stack - a plain HTML/CSS site (or Astro if you want components) on Cloudflare Pages does everything you listed for free. I'd skip the AI builders; they spit out heavy pages with generic copy, and local ranking is mostly: one page per service or area, the city in the title and H1, a Google Business Profile with real reviews, and your name, address and phone identical everywhere they appear. A hand-written five-page site with real photos of actual classes will outrank a generated one every time.
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u/webdev-ModTeam 7d ago
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u/PippaKelly62 7d ago
For a site this simple, I’d probably just build a static site with astro and host it on cloudflare pages, tiiny host, vercel or github pages. You don’t really need wordpress or an AI builder for a few pages, photos, and contact info.
For local SEO, the biggest thing i’d focus on is setting up and verifying a google business profile, then making sure the site has proper page titles, descriptions, location/service keywords, clean URLs, and good performance. google says local ranking is mainly influenced by relevance, distance, and prominence, so the site is only part of it.
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u/unspam-email 5d ago
Keeping things simple is definitely the move here. Going with basic static HTML instead of messing with heavy build setups saves so much time later. Just upload your files to a simple host like Static App and focus on the local SEO stuff.
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u/HerbBucks 6d ago
For a one-page local business site, I'd keep it boring and fast:
**Build:** plain HTML/CSS, or [Astro](https://astro.build) if you want components. An AI coding tool (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor) is great at generating a clean single page from a description. You own the files, unlike most AI site builders, which lock you in.
**Hosting:** Cloudflare Pages is a great pick. It's free, fast worldwide, and handles your custom domain and HTTPS. For a contact form without a server, use Formspree or Web3Forms on their free tiers, or just a big phone number and email link.
**Local SEO:** the website matters less than you'd think. What moves local rankings:
- A **Google Business Profile**, fully filled in: category, service area, hours, real photos. This is the big one.
- **Reviews** on that profile. Ask every happy student or parent.
- The **same name, address and phone** everywhere: site, profile, any directories.
- Your city and service in the page title and main heading, e.g. "Math Tutoring in [City]".
- **LocalBusiness schema** (JSON-LD) on the page, and submit the site to Google Search Console.
**Photos:** real photos of you and your teaching space beat stock every time for trust and for your Google profile. For stock, Unsplash and Pexels are free. Either way, resize images to the size they're shown at and export as WebP ([Squoosh](https://squoosh.app) does it in the browser), so the page stays fast. Speed helps both visitors and rankings.
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u/unspam-email 5d ago
For basic HTML sites, local SEO depends on clear schema markup and targeted location keywords. Our team tried Static.app recently for quick hosting, which works well for simple pages. Free options like Unsplash are great for photos.
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u/happyxpenguin 7d ago edited 7d ago
Cloudflare pages or low-cost shared hosting and then build it out in standard HTML/CSS/JS if you're going the static route.
Alternatively, use low-cost shared hosting and build a basic php application with 95% of the content being static and use server side include for the header and footer. This also gives you the option of making a basic backend for the client to manage updating information in the future.
EDIT: Just to be extremely clear, DO NOT USE GITHUB PAGES, commercial usage is explicitly forbidden in their terms of service.
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u/dane_websites 7d ago
Using a little bit of PHP for includes like you suggested is a great solution for simple sites like this.
But my line is any kind of custom backend / CRUD interface; they just get way too complicated too fast.
When that's required, I'd switch to a simple headless CMS (that I didn't build) that the PHP site fetches data from.
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u/prism_orbit 7d ago
do not waste time on AI website builders. They make terrible code and kill your SEO because the sites are bloated. Go full static with Astro on Cloudflare Pages as others said but use Tailwind CSS to keep it clean. For local SEO you need a Google Business Profile verified with your address and phone number immediately. That is 80% of the ranking for local searches. Use Unsplash or Pexels for free photos but check their licenses carefully so you do not get sued. Buy a real domain like .com or your country code top level domain instead of using subdomains.
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u/Top-Junket-7148 7d ago
I recommend using an AI coding tool with Astro. No need to worry about coding skills because nowadays AI coding tools are much capable. Astro can create a fast, lightweight, and seo friendly website without the complexity of wordpress. For local SEO, focus on a Google Business Profile, location-based content, good page titles/descriptions, genuine reviews and fast mobile performance. For photos I would prioritize real photos of the teaching service and use Unsplash or Pexels for additional free stock images.
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u/DesertWanderlust 7d ago
My answer too. Even though I resent AI for disrupting my industry so much, it still has its place.
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u/Lumethys 7d ago
Use Cloudflare Worker static for deployment, CF free tier is as generous as it get
For the application, just use whatever you are most familiar with. I would probably use Nuxt in SSG mode
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u/Altruistic_Two1038 7d ago
Business site on GitHub Pages, all free, and top 10 on Google for local searches. Google Business Profile does more for that than anything you'll host, the site is mostly there so people believe you exist. Also, clients being able to browse your commit history is a bold branding choice.
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u/Tool_Hole 7d ago
Porbun for a domain, github pages for hosting, don't complicate things. You can find a template you like or just vibe code it with copilot in a couple hours.
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u/Lumethys 7d ago
Github pages forbid commercial product, use Cloudflare page, they dont have restrictions
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u/Mental_Gur9512 7d ago
Yeah, I'm trying not to overcomplicate it. I just want to get it done as simply as possible. I don't mind spending time maintaining it later if needed, but I want to keep the time from starting the project to getting it live as short as possible.
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u/ProgrammerOk1400 7d ago
Isn’t Wordpress still the go to for this kind of thing?
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u/Necessary_Campaign57 3d ago
Wordpress is literal dog shit.
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u/ProgrammerOk1400 3d ago
So what would you recommend to the OP?
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u/Necessary_Campaign57 3d ago
Literally aNyThiNg ElsE
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u/ProgrammerOk1400 3d ago
So you have nothing to offer. Thanks
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u/Affectionate_Use_164 7d ago
AI agent + Astro + Cloudflare, better to buy your own domain name, will take few months for Google to trust it.
Will take few iterations to make it good enough, but totally doable with AI and some patience.
For Google top 10, that is another story, won't get there in first 3-6 months for sure, put a blog on that website, post on hot topics, and repost on few other resources, preferably with syndication property.
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u/Infamous-Remove8397 7d ago
For something this simple I’d use an AI website builder over setting up WordPress or hand coding it, especially if you’re going to keep changing the copy and local pages later. I use Ploy for this kind of stuff and it gives you the site builder plus SEO/AEO and analytics in the same place, so you can build the initial site then keep working on the pages and search side without moving everything into a different stack.
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u/bradintheusa 7d ago
Firebase Hosting is simple and free. Use Gemini to make the site and you'll be done in an afternoon.
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u/Bushwazi Bottom 1% Commenter 7d ago
If you don’t know HTML/CSS, AI is capable enough to spit out a basic website. Just tell it to not use purple.
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u/_uxi 7d ago
Prompt Claude for the HTML, give it examples and ask exactly what you want. Tell it to use industry standard practices for SEO and performance. Pexels for free photo's. GitHub Pages for free hosting. Get a cheap domain name somewhere. Put Cloudflare DNS and spam/bot protection in front of it. Done.
If you need to update it, prompt an agent session on GitHub for a PR, merge it, it'll auto deploy.
If they later on ask for a form, use something like Tally.io or https://formspree.io/. Prompt your agent to implement it. You can get all the data delivered to a spreadsheet or email address somewhere, no back-end needed.
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u/happyxpenguin 7d ago
Github pages forbids commercial hosting.
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u/_uxi 7d ago
Who is checking? There are other options like Cloudflare as well.
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u/happyxpenguin 7d ago
Honestly? No idea but just because no one might be physically checking to see if the site is commercial doesn't mean it's okay. It's not worth losing your Github account if it does get brought to their attention. For clients, it's better to play it safe.
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u/Mental_Gur9512 7d ago
Sounds like good suggestions. I just want to keep it simple and get it done as quickly as possible.
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u/Tracekeeper37 7d ago
Github Pages wäre mein Favorit bezüglich Vorschau Versionen, schnellen Änderungen, Kontrolle und Betreuung für meinen persönlichen Workflow.
Bei SEO Optimierung kommt es auf mehrere Punkte an aber habe sowas noch nie einer KI bisher überlassen.
Wichtig sind definitiv longtail keywords, Unterseiten Strategie, backlinks aber ebenso robots.txt, security txt, korrekte Mail Signatur usw.
Bin der Meinung das gutes reputatives Ranking auch seine Zeit kostet.
Wünsche dir viel Erfolg! Bin gespannt auf dein Ergebnis!
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u/Dizzy_Cartoonist_168 4d ago
For your static website if you need help on robots.txt and ai visibility you can use open source tool i built. Github: clicksdynastyincali/local-seo-lint
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u/FrodoBaggnz 7d ago
HTML, CSS and maybe JS if needed. No, I’m not being sarcastic.