A brochure website is 3-6 pages with one job: to convince someone who is already looking for you to call or write. It does not sell online, it has no cart and no customer panel. It has to show what you do, who for, in what area, roughly what it costs and how to get in touch - without hunting and without guessing. For most one-person firms and small service teams that kind of site is completely enough, and it stays with them for years.
What a brochure website actually is
A brochure website is a simple company site whose job is contact, not a transaction. All of its content answers the questions someone facing a decision asks: what do you do, do you do it where I am, have you done anything like this before, what does it cost, how do I book.
It differs from two things it gets confused with. A landing page is a single page for one campaign or one service, usually for ads - when a landing page alone is enough, I cover in the piece on landing page pricing. An online store adds a cart, payments and stock, which is an entire layer that needs servicing and money to run afterwards.
If you sell a service that has to be quoted after a conversation anyway - roofing, renovation, accounting, physiotherapy, photography, consulting - a brochure site is exactly the format you need.
What a brochure site must have - the minimum that actually works
The order matters. This is a list starting with the things whose absence hurts most:
- One sentence at the top saying who you are and what you do - with the name of the service and the location. “Electrical installations for detached houses, Krakow and the surrounding area” beats “Passion, quality, experience”.
- A phone number visible without scrolling - tappable on mobile, not as an image. Surprisingly often this is the single change that produces a result.
- A separate page for each service, if the services differ. Google and AI systems cite specific pages, not a general list in the footer.
- Real photos - you, the team, the equipment, finished jobs. Stock images are spotted instantly and lower trust.
- Price brackets or at least a “from” - the absence of any price information is the most common reason people close the site and go to a competitor.
- Proof that it works - a few projects with a description of the problem and the outcome, reviews with a name and a company, licences or certificates if the industry expects them.
- A form with 3-4 fields - name, contact, a short description of the job. Every extra field collects fewer submissions.
- Company details: NIP (the Polish VAT and tax ID), address, opening hours - a credibility signal for people, and also for search engines and AI models checking whether the business is real.
- A privacy policy and a cookie notice - mandatory if you collect submissions through a form.
What it does not need: a blog updated once every three years, an intro animation, a carousel of slogans, a visitor counter and a “News” tab with holiday greetings from 2021.
How many pages make sense
| Size | Pages | Who for |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Home, Services, Contact | One service, one city, a new business |
| Standard | Home, 2-3 separate service pages, About, Projects, Contact | Most service businesses |
| Extended brochure | Standard plus pages for cities or segments, pricing, FAQ | A firm covering several cities or several very different customer groups |
The rule I apply: one service = one page. A “Services” page with six services in paragraphs will not rank for any of them, because it is not about anything specific.
When a brochure site is enough and when it starts holding you back
| Situation | Is a brochure site enough? |
|---|---|
| You sell a service quoted after a conversation | Yes |
| Customers find you through referrals and check you online | Yes |
| You work locally, across 2-3 cities | Yes |
| You want to take payments online | No, you need a store |
| You have a repeatable product catalogue with prices | No, you need a store or a catalogue mode |
| Customers ask about stock, availability, calendar slots | No, you need booking or an integration |
| Trade customers have their own price lists and want to order themselves | No, that is already a B2B website with a panel |
| You are moving into paid ads and want to measure conversion | A brochure site plus enquiry tracking, sometimes an extra landing page |
The signal that a brochure site has stopped being enough: you get questions through it that you have to answer manually with the same email for the hundredth time. That means the site has too little content, or it is missing a feature that would handle the matter without you.
Builder, stock template or a site written for you
Three paths, each with its place:
- A builder (Wix, Squarespace and similar) - the cheapest start, but you pay the subscription forever and you cannot take the site with you when you change provider. I take that apart in the piece on whether to build the site yourself in a builder or hire someone.
- WordPress on a stock template - your property, hosting and domain on your side, cheaper to start than a project from scratch. The risk: templates can be heavy and slow, and half of their features only weigh the site down. The comparison is in the piece on a stock template versus a custom-built site.
- A site written for you - the most expensive start, but it weighs exactly what it needs to weigh and it is built around your sales process rather than around somebody’s demo.
For a brochure site of 3-5 pages the honest answer is this: a good template in the hands of someone who trims it down and writes sensible copy beats an expensive custom project that sits there empty.
What it costs
I split the costs into three buckets, because mixing them is the main source of confusion in quotes:
| Item | Nature | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | once a year | A few dozen PLN a year (Polish market rates), depending on the extension and registrar; price lists change |
| Hosting | once a year | From a few hundred PLN a year upwards for sensible shared hosting; cheap promotional offers get more expensive after the first year |
| Building the site | one-off | I bill projects as a fixed fee, usually 5,000-10,000 PLN net; a simple brochure site sits in the lower part of that range |
| Maintenance and support | monthly | Updates, backups, monitoring; with me from 1,000 PLN net per month on the Basic plan |
Three items are easy to forget: photos, copy (if you are not writing it yourself) and your own time spent answering the developer’s questions. More on the brackets and what moves them in what a website costs, and the running costs broken down in what it costs to maintain a website.
A note on the phrase “cheap website”: the cheapest site is the one built once and built properly, because the most expensive one is the one that has to be built a second time two years later, when nobody has access to it or the passwords.
What a brochure site will not do on its own
Publishing the site does not make anyone see it. That is separate work:
- A Google Business Profile (the listing in Maps) - for a local business this is often a bigger source of phone calls than the site itself. The two have to work together, not separately: the same name, the same address, the same phone number. I cover that in the piece on local visibility and choosing an SEO partner.
- Content for the questions customers actually ask - a site with nothing but an offer has nothing to rank with. The first steps are in the step-by-step SEO audit checklist.
- Enquiry tracking - without it you do not know whether the site brings five calls a month or none. A counter for submitted forms and clicks on the number is enough.
- Speed and the mobile version - most people will open your site on a phone, on the move, on a weak connection. A slow brochure site is a brochure nobody finished reading.
- Digital accessibility - the European Accessibility Act requirements have applied since June 2025. Small service businesses are often not covered directly, but contrast, readable text size and keyboard navigation are basic hygiene, not a luxury.
I do not promise anyone a position in Google or a specific number of enquiries - that depends on the competition in your industry and city, on the number of reviews and on how long you have been trading. What I promise is a site that does not get in the way.
How this works with me
I start with a free diagnosis: I check the speed, the mobile version and the visibility of what you have now, and I say outright whether a brochure site will do in your case or whether spending on something bigger would be a waste. If all that is needed is a fix to the existing site, I will say so instead of proposing a rebuild.
For larger work you always get a written quote before the start, with scope and deadline. What goes into building a site I describe on the websites page, and looking after updates and backups after launch is ongoing support.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages should a small business brochure site have? Usually 3 to 6. The minimum is a homepage, a services page and contact. If you provide several clearly different services, each should get its own page - otherwise none of them has a chance of appearing in search results for its own phrase.
Is a brochure site enough to win customers online? It is enough to convert someone who is already looking for you - from a referral, from Google Maps, from a printed card. It is not enough to make traffic appear on its own. For that you need a completed Google Business Profile, content that answers customer questions, and some patience.
Is it better to build the site yourself in a builder or hire someone? If the budget is very tight and the site only has to confirm the company exists, a builder will do the job and there is nothing to be ashamed of. If the site is to be a sales tool, to be your property and to rank, it is better to hire someone and have it on your own hosting, without an endless subscription.
What does a simple website for a small business cost? I bill projects as a fixed fee, usually in the 5,000-10,000 PLN net range, and a simple brochure site sits in the lower part of that. On top come the domain and hosting billed annually, plus optional technical maintenance from 1,000 PLN net per month. I give the exact figure after the diagnosis, in writing, before any work starts.
Need something like this on your side? I design and build websites for B2B companies - from scratch or as a rebuild of what already stands. Send me the scope and a quote with a date comes back.