Build your own website with Claude.

The prompt

Copy the whole thing. It walks you through designing your own look, and it already includes the professional basics most DIY sites miss: security, accessibility, privacy and legal pages, Google Analytics, SEO and mobile.

You are my web designer and developer. Build my website (or web app) from start to finish and walk me through every step. I am not technical: explain things in one or two plain sentences, ask me one question at a time, and do every technical step yourself.

PHASE 1: GET TO KNOW MY BUSINESS
Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer. If I'm not sure, give me 2 or 3 options to pick from and suggest a good default.
1. What is this: a website for my business, a portfolio, a shop, a booking site, or an app?
2. The main purpose. Pick the top one or two: sell products, get bookings or appointments, get calls or leads, share information, show my work, build an email list, or something else.
3. My goals: what does success look like in 6 months (for example 10 calls a week, online sales, fewer "what are your hours" questions)? What is the ONE thing I want every visitor to do?
4. My business: name, what I do, what makes me different, location and service area, phone, email, hours, social links.
5. My customers: who they are, what they care about, and what usually stops them from buying or calling.
6. The pages I need, and the text I already have. Offer to help write the rest in my voice.
7. Do I sell anything or take bookings? If yes, recommend the simplest option (Stripe Payment Links, Shopify Buy Buttons or a booking link) and explain the cost.
8. Do I already own a domain, and where did I buy it? Do I have email at that domain?

PHASE 2: FIND MY STYLE (walk me through designing it; don't pick for me)
1. My brand: do I have a logo, brand colors or fonts? If yes, ask me to put them in this folder. If not, offer to help create a simple palette and font pairing from my answers.
2. Personality: describe my brand in 3 words, or pick from a list like professional, warm, fun, funky, bold, calm, luxury, rustic, modern, classic, playful, minimal, earthy, edgy.
3. Inspiration: ask me for 5 websites I like (any industry). Fetch each one and tell me in a sentence what stands out. Then ask me for 5 things I like and 5 things I don't like across them. Never copy their text, images or logos.
4. This or that: ask me 6 to 8 quick either-or questions, one at a time, for example: light or dark; lots of photos or more text; rounded or sharp corners; serif or sans-serif headings; bold color or soft neutrals; one long page or several pages; playful or serious; lots of white space or packed with info.
5. My photos: ask me to put my own photos in this folder. Tell me which you'd use where and what's missing (for example "a photo of you at work", "your storefront").
6. Then show me 2 or 3 design directions, each with a name, a short description, colors, fonts and a quick preview of the homepage top. Let me pick one or mix them.
7. Show me a one-page summary of the plan and the page list, and wait for my OK.

PHASE 3: BUILD
Use the simplest technology that does the job (a plain static site unless I need an app). Show me a preview in my browser and keep refining with me until I say it's done.

QUALITY RULES (whatever style I choose)
- The design comes from my answers, my brand and my photos, not a template. It shouldn't look like every other AI-made site: avoid stock icon grids, generic gradient blobs and filler graphics unless I ask for them.
- Prefer my real photos. Only use stock or AI images if I agree, and label nothing as real that isn't.
- No popups, auto-playing sound or scroll hijacking. Motion stays subtle and turns off for people who prefer reduced motion.
- Write like a real person in my voice. Skip buzzwords like "elevate", "seamless", "empower" and "tailored solutions".
- The page must still read correctly if JavaScript fails.

PROFESSIONAL BASICS (do all of these; this is what keeps a small site out of trouble)
- Mobile first. Check at phone width (375px) and desktop. Tap targets at least 44px. No sideways scrolling. Aim for a mobile speed score of 90+. Compressed WebP images with width and height set.
- SEO: a unique title and description on every page, one main heading, alt text on images, a canonical tag, a 1200x630 social share image, schema markup for my type of business, sitemap.xml, robots.txt, a custom 404 page, and a favicon set for phones.
- Security: HTTPS only, www and non-www going to one address, and security headers (HSTS, nosniff, referrer policy, frame protection, permissions policy, and a content security policy that still allows Google Tag Manager). No passwords or secret keys in the files. Spam protection and server-side checks on every form. Add /.well-known/security.txt with my contact email.
- Accessibility (website accessibility lawsuits are the most common kind): meet WCAG 2.2 AA. Text contrast at least 4.5 to 1, visible focus outlines, full keyboard use, a skip-to-content link, labeled form fields, alt text, page language set. Never install an "accessibility overlay" widget; they don't prevent lawsuits. Test every page with axe or Lighthouse until there are zero serious issues.
- Fonts and embeds: host the fonts in the site's own files (never load them from Google's font servers). YouTube videos and Google Maps load only when a visitor taps them: show a thumbnail or a "Show map" button first, use youtube-nocookie.com, and add an "Open in Google Maps" link.
- Analytics: Google Tag Manager on every page, Google Analytics 4 running through it with Consent Mode, tracking phone, email and form clicks. Walk me through creating these accounts. Never make up an ID; leave a marked placeholder until I give you one. No session recording or heatmap tools. No Facebook, TikTok or Google Ads pixels unless I ask, and then only after the visitor agrees, never on pages with video, health, legal, money or kids' content.
- Legal pages: a Privacy Policy (what I collect, who processes it, analytics and how to opt out, my contact, an effective date), a small cookie consent bar with equal Accept and Reject buttons (never a popup), Terms if I sell or take bookings, a short accessibility statement with a contact, and a footer with my legal business name, links to these pages, and a copyright year that updates itself. If ad pixels are used, add a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link.
- Forms and email: any sign-up or lead form needs a required "I am 18 or older" (or 13 or older) checkbox, checked on the server too. If my site is for kids, collect nothing from children; forms are for parents. Every marketing email needs a one-click unsubscribe and my mailing address. If I collect phone numbers for texts, add the consent line ("Msg and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out"), never pre-checked.
- Selling: use Stripe or another hosted checkout so card numbers never touch my site. Post refund, shipping and cancellation policies. For subscriptions or free trials, show the price, how often it bills, that it renews until canceled, and how to cancel right next to the button, add an unchecked "I agree" box, and make canceling online as easy as signing up.
- Content: only my own photos, photos I have a license for, or ones the owner allowed in writing. Never pull images off Google or other sites. Only real reviews and testimonials, and disclose any paid or free-product endorsements and affiliate links. If visitors can post or upload anything, add a copyright and takedown page and remind me to register a DMCA agent ($6 at copyright.gov). If there's a chatbot, it must say it's AI.
- Industry rules: housing and rentals get the Equal Housing Opportunity logo and statement, with no "family", age or religion preferences in the wording. Real estate gets license and broker disclosures. Add anything my industry requires (lawyers, healthcare, alcohol, finance, stores with shipping and returns) and tell me what you added.
- Remind me this is a best-practice checklist, not legal advice, and tell me which pages a lawyer should glance at for my type of business.

PHASE 4: PUT IT ONLINE
1. Install anything needed (git, GitHub CLI, Wrangler) and tell me in one line what each is for.
2. Log me into GitHub (browser popup) and save the site to a new PRIVATE repository. Turn on Dependabot security alerts and add a free secret scan (gitleaks) that runs on every save. Remind me to turn on two-factor login for GitHub, Cloudflare, my domain registrar, Google and Stripe.
3. Log me into Cloudflare (browser popup) and publish the site free on Cloudflare. Give me the preview link.

PHASE 5: MY DOMAIN (one step at a time, wait for me after each)
- If I don't own one: help me pick a name and buy it in Cloudflare (Domain Registration, Register Domains).
- If I own one elsewhere: first save all my current DNS records to dns-backup.txt, especially email records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC), so my email keeps working. Have me add the domain to Cloudflare on the Free plan, compare the records, fix anything missing, then tell me exactly where to paste Cloudflare's two nameservers at my registrar.
- Connect the domain and www to the site, turn on HTTPS, and confirm both load. Have me send a test email. Add a DMARC record if I don't have one.

PHASE 6: LAUNCH CHECK AND HANDOFF
Run each item and report pass or fail: every link and image works; Google Analytics shows a visit in real time and only after consent; Google Search Console is verified and my sitemap is submitted; privacy, terms, accessibility, cookie bar and footer are in place and linked; titles and share images are set and the schema passes Google's Rich Results Test; security headers are present (grade A at securityheaders.com); the accessibility test shows zero serious issues and the site works with a keyboard alone; nothing loads from other companies' servers when a page opens (fonts, maps, videos) and no tracking runs before consent; phone and desktop screenshots look right; old web addresses redirect; email still works. Help me set up a free uptime monitor (like UptimeRobot).
Then write HOW-TO-UPDATE.md in this folder explaining simply how I make changes later, and list every account and ID I set up.

Tip: if Claude stops partway, type "keep going". If you get confused, ask "explain that more simply".