Design a Website with Claude

Start with the visitor

A website exists to help a visitor do something: understand a service, compare options, or get in touch. Write down the three most common visitor goals for your site. A plumber's visitors want to know the services, the area covered, and how to book. A consultant's visitors want to know what problems are solved, who it is for, and how to start a conversation. If a section does not serve one of those goals, it is decoration, and decoration is the first thing to cut.

From those goals, list the pages you actually need. Most small sites need only a home page, a services page, an about page, and a contact page. Extra pages can wait. Fewer pages mean each one gets proper attention, and visitors find what they need without hunting.

Sketch the structure on paper first

Before asking Claude for a design, sketch each page as a list of sections in order: headline, short explanation, services, proof or examples, and a contact prompt. Put the most important information near the top, because many visitors never scroll far. This sketch is your brief. When Claude produces a draft, you compare it against the sketch instead of judging it on looks alone.

Write the headline as a plain statement of what you do and for whom. Clever headlines often confuse visitors. A headline that says exactly what you offer is doing its job, even if it sounds ordinary.

Write copy with real facts

Give Claude your real facts: services, areas served, process, and contact details. Ask for short paragraphs and short sentences. Read the copy aloud: if a sentence is hard to say, it is hard to read. Cut words that add nothing. Every claim on the page should be something you can stand behind, because a website is a public promise.

Keep each section focused on one idea. A services section lists services. A process section explains the steps. Mixing them makes both harder to follow. If a section grows beyond a few paragraphs, split it or shorten it.

Build and refine the draft in artifacts

Ask Claude to build the page in an artifact so you can see it working, not just read a description of it. Review one section at a time. Fix the copy first, then the order of sections, then the visual details. Ask for changes in plain language: move this section above that one, shorten this paragraph, make the contact button more visible. Small, specific requests produce better revisions than asking for a whole new design each time.

Check the draft on a phone screen. Most visitors will arrive on a phone. If the headline wraps badly, the text feels cramped, or the contact button is hard to find, fix that before anything else.

Finish with a pre-publish check

Before the site goes anywhere, check every link, every phone number, and every email address. Read the whole site once from top to bottom as a stranger would. Ask one other person to do the same and tell you what confused them. Fix those points. A design is finished when a visitor can understand what you do and how to reach you within a minute.

Design a one-page website for a local service business.
Business: [name, service, area served]
Visitor goals: 1) understand the service, 2) see prices or process, 3) contact us.
Sections in order: headline, short introduction, services, how it works,
contact section with phone and email.
Rules:
- Plain language, short paragraphs, no hype words.
- Use only the facts I paste below.
- Make the design readable on a phone first.
- The contact button must appear near the top and at the bottom.

Facts:
[Paste your real facts here]

Frequently asked questions