What actually belongs on it
Five things, in the order somebody needs them. Everything after that is optional, and most of it is somebody else's checklist.
A real Clay site, built from a Google listing
Search this question and you get a list of twenty-two items, half of which exist so the person writing it has something to sell you. A small business website has one job: answer the questions the person holding the phone is actually asking, in the order they ask them.
The order matters more than the list does. Somebody who has just heard your name asks what you are, then whether you are open, then where, then what it costs, then how to reach you, and they leave at the first one you make them hunt for. A Clay site puts all five in the first two screens, because your Google listing already holds every one of them.
In the order they are asked
ONE, what you are. A photograph of the actual place and one line that says the trade and the town. Not a slogan, somebody who has never been needs to know what kind of business this is before anything else on the page means anything.
TWO, whether you are open. In words, right now, not a table. THREE, where. A map with directions, not an address in a paragraph. FOUR, what it costs, a menu, a price list or a shelf, as text a phone can read aloud rather than a PDF or a photograph of a chalkboard. FIVE, how to reach you: a number that dials, an address that opens the mail app, and a form for the ones who will not do either.
Proof, near the decision
Your rating and the reviews worth reading are the most persuasive thing about your business and they are sitting on somebody else's page. They belong near the thing they are about, beside the booking, under the menu, rather than in a wall at the bottom nobody scrolls to.
What does NOT belong: a carousel of stock photographs, a Team page for a business of two, a blog you will post to twice, and a newsletter box above the hours. Every one of those is a thing to maintain that answers no question anybody asked.
What Clay fills in for you
The first four, from your listing
Photographs, hours, address, coordinates, phone, category, rating and review count come off your Google Business Profile in one request, so four of the five are on the page before you type anything.
What it costs, where you publish it
If your own website publishes a menu, products or services as structured data, those real names and real prices are read and used. A price you published is copied, never converted.
Proof, placed rather than dumped
The rating goes near the top as proof and the reviews go near the decision. Once the site is claimed the rating, the count and the hours stay current by themselves.
In short
Real sites, made with Clay
Open one. It is the live site in a frame, not a screenshot, so what you see is what it looks like right now.
What it looks like when it is live
Drawn rather than described, the page, the address, and what it can switch on.
Questions
How long does it really take?
Most people are live in two to three minutes, search your business, pick a style, publish. There is nothing to install and no signup needed to see your site first, because it is built from your Google listing rather than from a blank page.
Is it free?
Yes. You get a live site on your own name.clay.site address with a small badge in the footer, and nothing expires. The paid plan is your own domain, the badge removed and the pro features.
Do I need any tech skills?
None. If you can type your business name, you can build a Clay site: the live page is the editor, so you tap the thing you want to change. There is no code anywhere, and nothing to install or keep updated, see the WordPress comparison for what that saves.
Can I use my own domain?
Yes, buy it wherever you like and point it at Clay on a paid plan; the certificate is issued for you. Until then the free name.clay.site address is a real one you can print, and it keeps working afterwards.
Do I need an About page?
One paragraph, yes, people do read it, and it is where a small business is least like its competitors. A whole page of history for a business of two is a page nobody opens. Clay writes the paragraph from your own website's words or your Google summary where either says something, and draws no About band at all when neither does.
Should I put prices on it?
Yes, and it is the question people are most afraid of. A price nobody can find is a phone call you have to take, and the person who will not ring simply goes somewhere that published one. If your prices vary, publish the starting one.
What about a blog?
There is no blog in Clay and that is a decision, not a gap. A small business blog is two posts and then a dated page saying nothing, which is worse for you than no blog at all, the pages that earn you search traffic are the ones about what you do and where you are, and those are the pages you already have.
Try it with your business
Search your business and see your site in seconds, free, no signup.