First Website Checklist for Australian Small Business

A new Australian small business website needs ten things, in this order: a domain name, hosting, a business email address, an SSL certificate, the essential pages, your contact details, a privacy policy, analytics, a Google Business Profile, and a way to ask customers for reviews. Everything else can wait, and most of the things people spend money on first can wait too.

Two of those ten need an Australian-specific answer that generic international checklists get wrong: domain eligibility and privacy obligations. Both are covered below.

The ten, in the order they matter

All prices shown exclude GST. Prices are in AUD.

The Australian specifics

Domain eligibility. A .com.au is not available to anyone who asks. You need an Australian presence and a close and substantial connection to the name, which usually means a registered business name, a company registration, a trade mark, or a name that closely matches an activity you actually carry on. The four routes and what you are asked for at checkout are set out in how to register a .com.au domain, and you can register one here in minutes once you have the details.

Displaying prices with GST. If you are registered for GST, the prices you advertise to consumers are expected to be shown inclusive of GST. That affects your website, your quotes and your invoices, and it is worth settling before you publish a price list rather than after.

Privacy obligations. Australian privacy law applies to many small businesses, and the obligations are about what personal information you collect, why, how it is stored and what you tell people. A privacy policy page is the visible part, not the whole of it. If you collect customer data, look at the current guidance from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, or take advice, rather than copying a template from another site.

Consumer law. If you sell online, the consumer guarantees in Australian Consumer Law apply to your sales regardless of what your terms say. Worth knowing before you write your returns policy.

Reviews. If you collect Google reviews, you need a Google Business Profile, which requires a verifiable business presence. Doing this early helps local search and gives you something to put on the site.

What to skip at launch

Every item here is something a new business is often sold before it has a customer.

• A custom designed website. A clean template with good copy beats a bespoke design with none.
• Paid advertising. Fix the site first. Advertising a site that does not convert is an expensive way to

learn that.

• An app. Almost nothing needs an app at launch, including most booking businesses.
• A logo redesign. Your customers do not know your logo yet.
• Premium stock photography. Real photographs of your work and your team outperform stock, and they are free.
• A blog, until you can commit to it. An abandoned blog with two posts is worse than no blog.
• Email marketing software. Collect the addresses first. You can move them later.

The launch sequence

1. Register the domain, or transfer one you already own. Confirm the registrant is the business, not a

developer or a contractor.

1. Choose hosting. Match the plan to the site you are building, not the site you might have in three years.

Our plans include cPanel, unlimited mailboxes, hourly backups and free SSL from $55.00 per month, and what is included explains each item.

1. Create the mailboxes on your domain, so your first email to a customer comes from your business address.
2. Build the five pages. Write the copy before the design, not after.
3. Turn on the certificate, which our platform issues automatically once the domain points at the hosting.
4. Install analytics and verify the site in Google Search Console. Two things that are much harder to

retro-fit than to set up at launch.

1. Create the Google Business Profile, and ask your first five customers for a review.

The post-purchase walkthrough for the hosting account itself is in our guide to getting started with your hosting account.

What it costs to start

Realistically, the launch items in this checklist come to a domain at $25.99 AUD per year and hosting from $55.00 per month, with email, SSL and backups inside that price. Everything else on the list is time rather than money. The full itemised breakdown, including what costs extra, is on the web hosting costs page. GST is added at checkout.

Frequently asked questions

Can I start with just a domain and no website? Yes. A domain can be held and pointed anywhere, including at nothing, and holding it stops someone else registering it.

Do I need an ABN to register a business domain? A .com.au requires an Australian presence and a connection to the name. An ABN is common evidence of presence, but it does not by itself entitle you to an arbitrary name.

Should I use a website builder or WordPress? A builder suits a simple site that rarely changes. WordPress suits a site that will publish, grow or sell. Both run on our hosting, and the choice is mostly about how much the site will change.

How much should I spend on a first website? Enough to have the ten items above. A new business usually gets more return from good copy and a Google Business Profile than from a larger design budget.

Do I need a privacy policy? If you collect personal information, you have privacy obligations and a policy is how you tell people about them. Which obligations apply to your business depends on your circumstances.

How long does it take? The technical setup is a day. The copy is the part that takes the time, and it is the part that decides whether the site works.

Start at the beginning

Register the domain, choose the plan your site needs, and the email, SSL and backups come with it.

Primary action: Start with the domain and hosting