PresenceScanner › Websites
A one-page website, built by hand, $199
Affordable small business web design for Venice, Nokomis, North Port, Port Charlotte, Englewood and Sarasota. For anybody who doesn't have a website yet, or has one nobody can find. You own the domain. You own the hosting. One payment, no monthly fee.
Michael Putnam, Venice. You deal with me start to finish. There is no team, no account manager and no ticket number.
Why this exists. I run the free PresenceScanner directory, and the same thing kept showing up in scan after scan: a business with a hundred five-star reviews, thirty years of work behind them, and nothing on the web that Google or ChatGPT can actually read. A directory page helps. Your own site helps more. So I started building them.
See one first
Russell Opp has run GOGO Painting for ten years and been painting for thirty. Seventy-eight reviews at 4.9 stars. No website, ever.
Built from one phone call and a folder of his own photos. Live in a few days.
"Working with Michael Putnam was a great experience. He built my site from nothing, corrected every detail, and turned it into a clean, professional web page that represents my business perfectly. Highly recommend his work."
Russell Opp, GOGO Painting LLC, North Port
What you get
Not "home services." The actual words customers type, because those are the words that get you found.
A link to your reviews is no use. The systems doing the recommending can't read a link. They can read words.
Before and after pairs if you have them. That's the strongest thing a trade can show.
Visible on the page, not hidden in the code. This is the part most sites get wrong, and it's the part AI tools quote.
A phone number they can press, visible the whole way down the page.
Structured data so search engines know what your business is. A sitemap. A robots file that welcomes the AI crawlers rather than blocking them. Then submitted to Google and Bing, and indexing requested, so it actually gets found instead of sitting there.
What it costs
No monthly fee. No hosting bill. Hosting is free at this size and it sits in your account, not mine.
Where to buy your domain
You buy it, not me, so it is yours outright. Here is what they actually cost, because the advertised first-year price is rarely the price you keep paying.
About $10.46 a year for a .com, the same every year, with privacy included. This is the one I recommend. It is the cheapest, and because the site ends up hosted there anyway, it saves a step on setup.
Around $21.99 a year on renewal, with privacy a further $10 to $15. The first year is often cheap and then it jumps. Worth knowing if you go this way.
The GoDaddy link above is an affiliate link, which means I may earn a small commission if you sign up through it, at no extra cost to you. The Cloudflare link is not, and Cloudflare is the cheaper option. I would rather tell you that than earn a few dollars.
How it works
Who this is for
It's for you if you run a small business, you do good work, people leave you good reviews, and none of that exists anywhere a search engine can read it. Most of the small business web design I do is for trades and service businesses, because that is who needs it most around here.
It isn't for you if you need an online shop, a booking calendar built from scratch, a membership area, or twenty pages of content.
Not because those are bad ideas. Because they are real development work and they cost real money, thousands rather than hundreds, and anyone who tells you otherwise at this price is going to hand you something broken. I would rather say so now than take your $199 and disappoint you. If that is what you need, I will tell you straight and point you somewhere better.
Common questions
How much should a small business website cost?
Search that question and you get agency guides quoting $500 to $15,000, or $500 to $25,000, and every one of them ends with "it depends." That range is real, because it covers everything from a one-page site to a full online shop. What it does not do is answer your question. Here is a number instead. A one-page small business website, built by hand, is $199 with me. One payment. Extra pages are $99 each. The domain is yours, bought in your own name, and the hosting is free at this size and sits in your own account. If you need an online shop, a booking system or twenty pages of content, the agency ranges are honest and you should budget accordingly. If you need one good page that Google and AI search can actually read, you do not need to spend thousands.
What does $199 actually get me?
One page, built by hand from what you tell me about your business. Your services written out specifically, your service area, your real customer reviews as text, a tap-to-call button, and a set of questions and answers customers actually ask. Plus the technical work underneath that makes it readable to Google and to AI tools: structured data, a sitemap, a robots file that welcomes the AI crawlers, and submission to both Google and Bing.
Why one page and not five?
Because one page carries the heavy work. Everything that makes you findable, your services, your reviews, your questions and answers and the technical work underneath, all sits on that page and all of it counts. Five thin pages perform worse than one good one. Start with the one, live with it a while, and add pages later if you find you actually need them. They are $99 each and they are not going anywhere.
Who owns the domain and the website?
You do, both. The domain is bought in your own name, with your own card. The hosting sits in your own account, free at this size, and you invite me in to do the work. You can remove me with two clicks whenever you like, and the files are yours on request.
Why is the hosting free? What happens if that changes?
Cloudflare's own documentation says requests to static assets are free and unlimited. It is not a trial or a promotion. They already run that network for their paying customers, so serving a small site like yours costs them nothing extra, and some free users eventually become paying ones. That is the whole model. If they ever did start charging, their paid plan starts at $5 a month, but the better answer is that it would barely matter. Your site is plain files with no database behind it, so moving it somewhere else takes minutes. You are not locked in to anybody, including me.
Is there a monthly fee?
No. You pay the $199 once. The only ongoing cost is your domain renewal, which goes to the registrar rather than to me. They set that price and it can change, so check it when you buy.
How long does it take?
A few days, usually. The build itself takes under an hour. What takes the time is you and I talking through what goes on it, and then waiting for the domain to connect.
What if I do not like it?
You get one round of changes included. Tell me what is wrong and I fix it. Typos and wrong phone numbers are always free to fix, whenever you spot them.
I already have a Facebook page. Is that not enough?
Facebook is rented ground and it is hard for search engines and AI tools to read. When someone asks ChatGPT for a painter in North Port, it draws on web pages it can read, not on your Facebook posts. A page of your own on your own domain is something you control and something those tools can quote.
Do I have to be on the PresenceScanner directory?
No. They are separate things. The directory listing is free and always will be. This is paid work on a site of your own.
What makes this different from Wix or Squarespace?
Those give you a template and you do the work. This is written for you, by a person, from a conversation about your business. And the part most template sites skip is the part that matters now: the structured data, the visible questions and answers, and being submitted properly so Google and AI tools can find it.
Start with the form.
Ten minutes. No payment, no commitment. I'll read it and call you.