How to make a cleaning business website in an afternoon

A cleaning site fails in a predictable way. The top of the page says "Residential, commercial and move-out cleaning" over a stock photo of a mop, and nowhere on that first screen does it say which towns you work in or what a normal clean costs. The person reading it has two tabs open and ten spare minutes. They close yours and call the other one.

The fix is an afternoon's work in a fixed order: one paragraph, four photos, four sections, generate, publish, then an hour on your Google listing. All of it fits inside the free credits, so you pay nothing until you want your own domain.

What a cleaning customer is checking in the first ten seconds#

Someone searching for a cleaner is usually moving house or finally admitting they don't have the time. Either way, they want four answers before they read a word of your "About" text.

Do you come to my area? They mean the name of their town, or the part of the city they live in, not "the greater metro area".

Roughly what will it cost? They don't need a quote, just whether you charge by the hour or the job and what a regular visit starts at, so nobody wastes a phone call.

Is this a real person? A photo of you or your team in work clothes answers that better than any paragraph about "our commitment to quality". If you're insured, that line goes next to the photo.

How do I book? Give them a phone number they can tap on a mobile, and keep it visible without scrolling.

Every section below exists to answer one of those four. If a section doesn't, cut it.

Step 1: write the one paragraph that describes your business#

Do this before you open any website tool. The site generator reads this paragraph, and so will you when you write your Google listing.

Fill this in, in plain words:

[Business name] cleans [homes / offices / rental turnovers] in [town], [town] and [town]. We do [regular weekly or biweekly cleans / one-off deep cleans / move-out cleans]. A standard clean of a [two-bedroom home] starts at [price] and takes about [time]. [Your name] started the business in [year] and [still does most of the cleans / runs a team of three]. We're [insured / background checked / bring our own supplies]. To book, [call or text this number].

A made-up one, filled in, reads like this:

"Fernlea Cleaning cleans homes and small offices in Bend, Redmond and Sisters. Most of our work is regular biweekly cleans, with move-out deep cleans in summer. A standard clean of a two-bedroom house starts at [price] and takes about two and a half hours. I started Fernlea in 2022 and still do most of the cleans myself, with one other cleaner. We're insured and bring our own supplies. To book, call or text the number above."

It doesn't say "professional", "reliable" or "affordable", because every cleaner says those. The towns and the starting price are what almost nobody says, and they're what gets the call.

Step 2: take four photos with your phone#

Stock photos of gloved hands wiping a glossy counter are the fastest way to look like every other cleaning site. Four real photos from your phone do better, even slightly crooked ones.

1. A before shot of a real kitchen or bathroom you're about to clean. Ask the customer first; most say yes if nothing personal is in frame.
2. The after shot from the same angle, so the two can sit side by side.
3. You, or your team, in the clothes you work in, at a job or next to the car. Smile or don't, just be visible.
4. Your kit: the caddy, the vacuum, the labeled bottles. It answers "do I need to provide anything?" and it makes you look organized.

Shoot in landscape, in daylight, with no filter. Take a few of each and pick later.

Step 3: plan four sections (services, area, prices from, how to book)#

A one-page site is enough, because nobody browses a cleaning company's menu. Use four sections, in this order.

Services come first. List two or three, with a sentence each, along the lines of "Regular clean, weekly or every two weeks. Same cleaner each visit where we can." A sentence beats a grid of twelve icons.

The area section names the towns and, in a city, the neighborhoods. If you're not sure where to stop, list the places you'd drive to on a Tuesday morning without grumbling.

Prices from is the third section: "Regular clean from [price], deep clean from [price], move-out from [price]." Add what changes the price, such as size, pets and how long since the last clean. This section does more for the quality of your calls than anything else on the page.

The fourth, how to book, is your phone number in large type, with a line saying texts are fine and what to include: zip code, what they need and which days suit them.

Put your name, your face and the insurance line under the services, and that's the whole page. The cleaning service example shows the layout on a finished site, and the one-page checklist covers the same ground for any trade.

Step 4: generate the first draft and fix the wording in chat#

On Mr Create, add one line to the end of the paragraph from Step 1 naming the four sections above, in that order, with your prices. Paste the whole thing into the box on the homepage and sign up. It creates the business and builds the first version of the site from that paragraph in one go, then opens the editor. It takes a few minutes and costs 100 credits. New accounts get 500 free, so you've used a fifth of them and paid nothing.

The first draft will get most of it right and some of it wrong. The cheapest fixes come first.

Editing text is free. Click any sentence on the page and retype it. This is where you replace whatever the AI wrote about "sparkling results" with your real towns and your real starting price. Typing it is faster than asking the chat.

Swapping photos is free too. Hover an image, click the edit icon and upload one of your four. Before and after go in the services section, and your face goes next to your name.

Save the chat for structure. Each chat edit costs 20 credits, so use it for things you can't click: "move the prices above the booking section", or "remove the testimonials section, I don't have any yet". Put several changes in one request. Three or four rounds is normal.

Check the page on your phone before you publish. A lot of your customers will find you on theirs.

Step 5: publish on the free address, buy the domain when the first job comes in#

Click Publish in the editor toolbar. The page is live at a free address on the builder's domain, your business name with a short code on the end. Publishing costs nothing, and you can republish as often as you like.

The free address is fine for the first few weeks. Put it on your Google listing and your flyers; people search your business name and tap the first result anyway.

Buy your own domain when the first paying job has come through the site. At that point you know the page works, and a job has already covered the cost. On Mr Create a custom domain comes with the Plus plan, $24 a month or $19 a month billed yearly, and you can search for and buy the domain in the Site address panel, which opens from the house button in the editor toolbar. The price shows before you pay and the domain is registered for a year. Your free address keeps working alongside it, so nothing you printed breaks. Plan details are on the pricing page.

While you wait for that first job, the invoice generator will make the invoice you send when it lands.

Do this the same afternoon: your Google Business Profile#

For a local cleaner, the map listing matters at least as much as the website. That listing is your Google Business Profile: the map pin, the reviews and the "Call" button people see when they search. It's free, and Google says so on the Business Profile page. If you already have one and it isn't showing up, these are the usual reasons.

1. Go to Google's add or claim your Business Profile page and follow its link to add your business. If a listing already exists under your name, claim it rather than creating a second one.
2. Use the same business name, phone number and area as your site. You go to your customers, so leave the address off and set a service area instead; cleaning services are one of Google's own examples.
3. Paste in your new website address.
4. Verify the listing when Google asks. Customers can find the profile on Search and Maps once it's added and verified, so don't stop before this step.
5. That evening, ask your last three customers for a review while the job is fresh. Three reviews with real sentences beat thirty stars with nothing written.

Questions cleaners ask#

Do I have to list prices?#

No, but I would (here's the longer argument). A "from" price isn't a quote. It saves you the calls from people hoping for half your rate, and it saves everyone else a call to find out whether you're in their range. If your prices really are all over the place, list an hourly rate and the minimum booking instead.

What about people who won't call?#

Say in the booking section that texts are welcome. Plenty of people searching at 10pm would rather send a text than ring a stranger, and a text arrives on the same phone you already check.

How long does it take?#

About twenty minutes for the paragraph if you're honest about the prices, ten for the photos if you're at a job (otherwise build with the AI's images and swap them tomorrow), a few minutes for the build, half an hour fixing text and photos, and about an hour for the Google listing plus whatever verification takes. An afternoon with a coffee in the middle.

What does it cost?#

Nothing, until you want your own domain. The first build uses 100 of the 500 free credits, each chat edit uses 20, and text edits, photo uploads and publishing are free. Your own domain needs a paid plan (Plus or Pro) and the domain's own yearly price, which shows before you pay.

If you want to start the afternoon now, the website builder page is where the paragraph from Step 1 goes.