Can I build a website for a local business with AI?

One of my first advertisers came to me ready to advertise. Great, I said, where's your call to action? Where am I going to send people? She didn't know. She'd just started. She needed a website and asked me to build it, and I built it in less than an hour.

"it's not the greatest website in the history of the world. But for a small local business, it's a really good website, all from just chatting with V0."

What does it cost to host?

Almost nothing for a small local site. There's no hosting fee unless a site gets a lot of clicks, and a local business site doesn't. I can host about 20 websites on v0 for $20 total.

How do I get a good design without being a designer?

Copy one you like. I found a nice-looking site from Webflow, which makes really nice websites, put it in Google AI Studio and said: just duplicate this for me. It didn't do it great the first time. I told it to do better, essentially, and it did. One page took me two prompts, and I think it's a great site.

Set the bar out loud. For lightbreak's marketing site, I told the AI I wanted it to feel like a multimillion-dollar software company made it, as if HubSpot or Beehiiv built it. A little unique, but mostly super high quality. I don't expect a perfect one-shot. I want 90% good on the first try, then fixing little things. Not a D-minus that takes 34 revisions to reach 80%.

Before the design, have it work out the pitch. I asked it to look at everything the product does now and tell me the value proposition, and what we should do copy-wise and design-wise, before it built anything.

Which tool makes the best sites right now?

As of May 2026, Claude Design. As a non-designer who wants to design things, it's literally perfect. The new site for my Williamson County brand came out about 95% right on the first try and took two more tries to get to 100%.

A full local news and business directory site design took me about three hours with it. Earlier designs that weren't as good took multiple days. Replit's good and Lovable's good, but Claude Design is in another league. The catch: you run out of tokens really fast. For picking a builder as a beginner, see which AI app builder to start with.

Does it have to look perfect?

Not to start. Another operator I know launched a local directory that looks awful. Businesses still really care about it, and he's super bullish on it.

What can go wrong?

Anything that talks to customers can make things up. I found out v0 can add an AI chatbot to your site. I said make me a chatbot, and it looked great. Then I asked it a question about the price, and it made up an answer. Oh boy, that's not good. Test anything like that yourself before it goes live.