For people starting out around Geelong: a home business in Lara or Leopold, a first shop in Pakington Street, a design studio, or an idea in an incubator. We build the first website, register the .com.au in your name and set up email on it, and you pay once you've approved the draft.
The people checking out a new Geelong business are often neighbours: someone in Armstrong Creek who saw your flyer, a Bellarine local who heard your name at the footy. They want to know you're real, that you reach their part of the region, and how to get hold of you. A first site should answer that in the first screen and leave room to grow.
Geelong suburbs, the Bellarine towns and the Surf Coast are three different answers to "do you come to me?". List the ones you'll actually serve, grouped the way people describe them, and add towns once the work is there.
Run from home without a planning permit, you're allowed one business sign of up to 0.2 square metres. That's room for a name and a web address, not a list of services, so the website carries the detail the sign can't.
If you sell online from home, Geelong's home-based business guidelines say goods sold online can't be collected from the house. The site should state how orders arrive, such as by post, local delivery or a market table, and keep your street address off the page.
Designers, makers, photographers and architects are hired on what they've made. A gallery of your own projects, each with a line on who it was for and what you did, is worth more than any description of your style.
Plenty of businesses begin alongside a job. If you can only call back in the evening, say so and lead with an enquiry form; when the business goes full-time, the phone number moves up the page.
A café, surf school or studio in Torquay or Ocean Grove may keep different hours in January and July. Show the hours that apply now and swap them each season; that's a text change covered by hosting.
The state-wide pieces, Business Victoria's free advice and Small Business Bus, the Clause 52.11 rules for running a business from home, and FoodTrader for market stalls and food vans, are covered on our page for new Melbourne businesses. Here's what's particular to Geelong.
The City of Greater Geelong's start your business page points new owners to its Business Concierge, which can confirm whether council permits or regulations apply to you. Its Investment and Economy team also runs free Small Business Support Drop-ins at libraries around the region, with sessions listed at the Geelong West, Belmont, Corio, Drysdale, Ocean Grove and Armstrong Creek libraries. You can book a 25-minute one-on-one appointment or just turn up, and upcoming dates are on the council's Geelong Business Calendar.
If you'll work from home, the council's home-based business guidelines spell out the no-permit limits: you live there, no more than two non-residents work in the business at once, the business takes up no more than 100 square metres or a third of the dwelling's net floor area, whichever is smaller, and there's one commercial vehicle of up to two tonnes registered to a resident. Materials are stored inside and out of sight, there's one sign of up to 0.2 square metres (a larger or illuminated one needs a permit), and online orders aren't collected from the house. With a permit, the council can allow up to three non-resident workers, up to 200 square metres (or a third of the net floor area, if that's less) and a second commercial vehicle. For the website, that means delivery details instead of a pick-up address, and a web address that fits on a very small sign.
The City also runs the Geelong Small Business Festival with the Geelong Chamber of Commerce. The 2026 festival ran from 3 to 7 August with more than 50 free and low-cost workshops and masterclasses, a Geelong Hub at Wurriki Nyal with exhibitors including The Gordon TAFE, Global Sisters and Business Victoria, and a day in Torquay. For product founders, the Runway incubator program had been running in Geelong since 2017, the City of Ballarat reported in 2023 when it backed the same program there; check its current intake before you plan around it. People you meet at either will look you up afterwards, so it pays to have the site live first.
Geelong also holds a title that matters to creative businesses: on 31 October 2017 it became a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, and the council describes it as Australia's first and only City of Design. If you're a new designer or maker here, your website is the first piece of your work most clients will see. We're an Adelaide team and work with Geelong businesses by phone and email; the Victorian client shown below is in Melbourne, not Geelong.
Neither of these businesses is in Geelong, and we don't call them start-ups, because we don't know how long each had been trading when they came to us. Fiona Dixon's page shows how much a home-based creative business can fit on one page. Dr Tabara Dione's site, for a Melbourne practice, shows the next size up.
A NSW voiceover artist working from a professional home studio. One page carries four playable demo reels, about and studio sections, a contact form that asks for the project type, and tap-to-call. No street address appears anywhere.
Visit the Fiona Dixon site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
Our Victorian client: confidential coaching for doctors, led by a Melbourne specialist anaesthetist. A services overview, an about page for her credentials, a contact form, and discovery calls booked online from every page.
Visit the Dr Tabara Dione site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
“From day one he was very professional and patient when making my website. I have so many clients coming through from it, truly amazing.”
★ 5.0 from 33 Google reviews (opens in a new tab)
See all 14 recent client sites in our portfolio.
Where most new Geelong businesses start
$399
What you do, the parts of Geelong, the Bellarine or the Surf Coast you cover, how to reach you and how orders arrive, on one page, with your .com.au and email set up together.
$899
For a creative business or a new shop: a home page, a portfolio or product page with your own photos, and an about page that tells people who's behind it.
$1,499
For a business opening with several services or more than one location, from Geelong itself to the coast: a page for each, plus a news page for openings and seasonal hours.
Yes. We're an Adelaide (South Australia) web design team working with businesses Australia-wide by phone and email, with current clients in SA, NSW, VIC and QLD. For a new Geelong business that's one phone call about what you'll offer, an email with your words and photos, and a draft link you can open anywhere. We reply within 24 hours.
That's a big part of its job. Geelong's no-permit limit for a home business is one sign of up to 0.2 square metres, so the sign carries your name and web address and the website does the explaining. Put the same address on your car, cards and Google Business Profile so they all lead to one place.
The City of Greater Geelong's Business Concierge, or one of its free Small Business Support Drop-ins at local libraries, where you can book a 25-minute appointment. They'll tell you which permits apply. We stick to the website: arranging your words and photos into the pages, registering the domain and setting up email.
Your own projects, a handful of the best rather than everything, each with a line on the client, the brief and your part in it. You supply the images and captions; we arrange them into a gallery that works on a phone. In Australia's only UNESCO City of Design, expect clients to look closely.
Yes. Seasonal hours, a closed-for-winter note or a new opening date are text changes covered by the $30 monthly hosting. If you later open a second location and want a page for it, we quote that first.
Most sites are live within 5–10 days of us getting your words and photos; bigger sites (up to 8 pages) take 2–3 weeks. If you're aiming for a launch, a market or next year's festival week, tell us the date at the start and send your content early.
Send us the business name, what you'll offer and the part of the region you'll cover. We'll check the .com.au is available, quote the site and build a draft; you pay only once you're happy with it.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au