Choosing the right type of presence and securing a domain that lasts
Four formats, not a single "site"
The most common mistake is wanting "a site" without knowing which one. There are four main types of presence, and choosing the right one saves you from paying for and maintaining far more than you need.
- The one-page site (landing / link-in-bio). A single page presenting who you are, your offer and an action button. Perfect to start, for a freelancer, a coach, a project being validated. Tools: Carrd (about €9/year for the pro version), Beacons or Linktree for a simple link aggregator (free to ~€10/month).
- The showcase site. Several pages — home, offer, about, contact — to present an established service business. Tools: Framer, Webflow, WordPress, Wix.
- The online store. To sell physical or digital products with a cart, payment and order management. Tools: Shopify, Systeme.io, WooCommerce, Stan Store, Payhip.
- The booking site. For businesses where booking is the core: coach, therapist, consultant, service provider. Tools: Cal.com, Calendly, SimplyBook.me, often paired with a one-page site.
A single entrepreneur often combines two formats: a showcase page plus a booking page, for example. But choosing the dominant format first dictates everything else.
The deciding question: what should the visitor do?
Before choosing a tool, answer one question: what single action do you want the visitor to take? Buy? Book? Leave their email? Call you? That action is the goal of your presence. Everything else — design, copy, pages — exists only to lead to it. A site that asks for everything at once makes people do nothing at all.
If you're still unsure about your offer, start with a one-page site. It builds in an hour, costs almost nothing, and within a few weeks the clicks will tell you whether your message lands. You'll "graduate" to a full site once traction is proven.
The domain name: your address, your asset
The domain name (yourbrand.com) is the one element of your presence you take everywhere, whatever tool sits behind it. A few concrete rules:
- Favor
.comwhen available: it's the one people type by reflex. Failing that, a country domain for a local business, or a clean industry extension (.studio,.shop) — avoid cheap exotic extensions that scream "scam." - Short, pronounceable, no spelling traps. If you have to spell it out on the phone, it's too complicated.
- Buy it right away, even before you have the site. A domain costs €10–15/year at OVHcloud, Gandi, Namecheap or Cloudflare Registrar (often the cheapest, at cost). Turn on auto-renewal: losing your domain because you forgot to pay €12 is an avoidable disaster.
Important detail: buy the domain from an independent registrar, not bundled in a builder's subscription. That way, if you switch site tools, you keep your address and point it elsewhere in five minutes.
Professional email: instant credibility
Writing from mybusiness@gmail.com sends an amateur signal. An email at your domain (contact@yourbrand.com) costs little and changes perception. Two options:
- Google Workspace or Microsoft 365: about €6–7/month per user, with the full office suite. The standard for most.
- Zoho Mail: free plan for one domain and a few mailboxes, ideal to start; paid from ~€1/month afterward.
Also set up, as soon as you can, the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records (your email provider gives a guide): these are three technical settings that keep your messages out of spam and stop others from spoofing your address.
Key takeaways
First choose the format based on the single intended action, starting small if the offer isn't validated yet. Buy your domain from an independent registrar with auto-renewal, and attach a pro email to it. You then have the foundations — the address and the identity — on which every following chapter will build.