Your website, on your own domain
Answer a few questions, and CrewBarn writes your website from your services and the towns you cover. Pick a look, change any word, and put it online on your own domain when you're ready. Nothing goes public until you say so.
The intro, in words
Your website, on your own domain
Harlow and Finch needs a website. Dana doesn't have a week to build one, or a web designer to call.
This is websites in CrewBarn. Let's follow hers from the first question to listed on Google.
Written for you: A few questions
Dana opens Website. The first step, Basics, asks: What kind of work do you do? Plumbing and water heaters. Where do you work? Bayside and the towns around it.
Anything I should know before I write it? Open Saturdays. She sets how many service pages, town pages and blog posts she wants.
What should visitors do first? She picks Ask for service, so the big button opens a short form.
Written for you: A first draft in a minute or two
She presses Build my website. CrewBarn writes the home page, then the service pages, the blog posts, and a page for each town. It takes a minute or two.
Then: Your first draft is ready. Nothing is public. It's a draft only Dana can see.
Written for you: Pick a look, change any word
Next, Look. She picks the shape of her home page, Trust-first, a colour pair, Navy and Gold, then a photo across the top, her logo and the little icon on the browser tab.
She presses Full Editor. Each kind of work has its own page, and so does each town she covers, so people nearby find her. Every change saves itself as a draft.
Written for you: A post from a few notes
A month later, she wants to post about the Rivera job. She presses Add page, picks Blog post, and names it: How often should you service your water heater?
She types a few notes about the job, presses Write it with AI, reads it over, adds a photo, and presses Add page. It goes on the blog, newest first.
Your domain: Your own address, about ten dollars a year
Next, her own address. Dana buys harlowfinch dot com at Cloudflare. It's usually about ten dollars a year, and she pays Cloudflare, not CrewBarn.
No Cloudflare account yet? New to Cloudflare walks through making one and buying the domain, step by step.
Your domain: One key, pasted once
In CrewBarn she opens Connect Cloudflare. She presses Open Cloudflare, create the token. Cloudflare opens with the permissions listed, she creates the key and copies it.
Back in CrewBarn, she pastes it into Paste the token here, and presses Verify. Her account is connected, and harlowfinch dot com shows up as her domain.
Your domain: CrewBarn does the rest
She picks the domain. Website address: www dot harlowfinch dot com. She presses Set it up for me.
CrewBarn adds the address record in her Cloudflare account, and her site gets its security certificate. Setup results show what was done.
If DNS is still catching up, it says so. That usually takes minutes, sometimes a few hours, and it switches over on its own.
Go live: Check, then a private look
She presses Put it online. Before you do, CrewBarn checks: your pages are written, your phone number is set, your address is set. A logo is nice, but optional.
She presses See it first. A private preview opens, only she can see it. She reads it on her phone, the way her customers will.
Go live: Amber means fix it first
If her address hadn't been set, that line shows amber, with Fix it next to it. It takes her straight there.
Go live: One button makes it public
Happy, she presses Turn my website on. It's the only button that makes anything public. Your website is live, at www dot harlowfinch dot com.
And if she ever needs it down for a while, Take my website offline hides it straight away. Nothing is deleted, and it comes back with one press.
Go live: Hiring? The site says so
A month later Dana needs another tech. She opens a posting in Hiring, and her site grows a Careers page, with the pay and an Apply now button for the application she built.
When the spot is filled and she turns hiring off, the Careers page comes down, and her postings stay saved.
On Google: One sign-in, and CrewBarn does the rest
Now Google. Dana presses Sign in with Google, picks the account her business uses, and ticks every box Google shows. That's the only Google step she does herself.
CrewBarn adds harlowfinch dot com to Google Search Console, proves the site is hers with a record on her own domain, and sends Google the list of every page.
Finished. From then on, every new page and post goes to Google when she publishes.
On Google: Every box, or it tells her which
If Dana had left a box unticked on Google's screen, CrewBarn shows which one, with Sign in again, and nothing moves on until all of them are there.
On Google: Her Google listing, looked after
The same sign-in links her Google Business Profile. New reviews come into CrewBarn with replies written for her, by her AI or her own templates.
A four or five star review gets its thank-you on its own, after a wait she sets, so she can change or stop it first.
And each new blog post shows on her Google listing too, with a Learn more button back to the site.
On Google: An unhappy customer gets a person
Then a two-star review lands. One to three stars never post on their own.
The reply waits as a draft and Dana gets a to-do. She edits it, then Approve and post.
On Google: How Google sees her, on one screen
Website home shows her last 28 days: pages Google has listed, times she showed up in searches, and clicks.
What changed: Online in an afternoon
So in one afternoon, Harlow and Finch went from no website to a site on its own domain, switched on, listed on Google, with its reviews answered, for the price of the domain.
And when Dana changes a word or adds a post, it's the same editor, and Google hears about it when she publishes. No designer to call, no DNS records to type, and no codes to copy into Google.
The whole tree: First question to Google
That's one website, start to finish: the questions, the draft, the look, her domain, a private preview, switched on, listed on Google, and her Business Profile looked after.
And every branch had an answer: a blog post from a few notes, waiting on DNS, something missing before going live, taking it offline, a Careers page while she's hiring, a box left unticked on Google, and a two-star review.
Websites: Your website, on your own domain
That's websites in CrewBarn.
CrewBarn is in beta, and free for life for trades that help test it.
Written for you, changed by you
Tell CrewBarn what work you do and where. It writes your first draft in a minute or two. Then choose the shape of your home page, your colours and your pictures: a photo across the top, your logo, and the little icon on the browser tab. Preview it on a computer and on a phone.
The editor has a tool for each job: colours, pages, services and the towns you cover, and it all saves itself as a draft. Each kind of work gets its own page, and so does each town in your service area, so people nearby find you. A book-online button lets visitors ask for work straight from your site.
Your own domain, about ten dollars a year
Buy your domain at Cloudflare, usually about ten dollars a year, and connect Cloudflare to CrewBarn once. You make a key on Cloudflare's site with the permissions listed, and paste it in. CrewBarn sets up the rest: the address, the security certificate, and your pages. The same connection can set up file storage in your own Cloudflare account and your own work dashboard. No account or domain yet? A step-by-step guide walks you through both.
Getting found on Google
Google and SEO sets how you look in Google results: the heading, the lines under it and the words people search for. Getting listed takes one step from you: Sign in with Google, with the account your business uses, and tick every box Google shows. CrewBarn then adds your site to Google Search Console, proves it's yours with a record on your own domain, and sends Google your sitemap, the list of every page. After that, every new page and blog post is sent to Google when you publish. If a box was left unticked, CrewBarn tells you which one and asks you to sign in again. Website home shows how many of your pages Google has listed, how often you showed up in searches, and the clicks to your site.
Careers, while you're hiring
Open a posting in Hiring and your website grows a Careers page on its own, with a Careers link in the menu. Every open job shows with its pay, and Apply now opens the application you built for it: your questions, a resume, and a driver's license when the job needs one. Applicants land in Hiring and your bell rings. Turn hiring off and the page and its link come down, with your postings saved for next time.
Your Google Business Profile
The same sign-in links your Google Business Profile. New reviews come into CrewBarn and get replies written for you, by your AI or from your own templates. Four and five stars can be answered on their own after a wait you set, so you can read the reply, change it or stop it first. One to three stars never post on their own: they wait as a draft for a person. A review is never answered twice. And each new blog post can be shared to your Google listing with a Learn more button back to your site.
Go live when you're ready
Before your site can go live, CrewBarn checks that your pages, phone number and address are set. See it first opens a private preview only you can see, and Turn my website on is the only button that makes it public. Need it down for a while? Take my website offline hides it straight away, and nothing is deleted.
How it works
- Answer a few questions about your work and service area.
- CrewBarn writes the draft. Pick a look and change any word.
- Buy a domain at Cloudflare and connect it to CrewBarn once.
- Follow the Google checklist and send Google your sitemap.
- Preview it, then turn it on.