Your first website

From the idea you type on the home page to a live website that someone else has opened, in ten steps. The build itself usually takes a few minutes.

Before you start

A new account gets 21 days and 1,000 AI credits free, with no card needed. A complete website costs about 400 credits, so the free credits cover your first site with room left for changes. The wizard shows the cost before you spend anything.

Have these to hand if you can. All of them are optional:

• your logo, and a few photos of your shop, your products or your work;
• the phone number, WhatsApp number, e-mail, address and opening hours the site should show.

1. Type your idea on the home page

On www.laabam.site, describe your business in a sentence or two in the box at the top: what you do, where, and what you want customers to do. You can also press one of the example ideas under the box and change it. Then press Start Building Free.

Your words go with you through sign-up, so you will not have to type them again.

2. Create your account

Enter your name (optional), your e-mail and a password, then press Create account. We e-mail you a 6-digit code. Type it on the same page and your account is created. The code works for 15 minutes, and Send a new code gives you a fresh one. If the page reloads while you are reading your e-mail, it comes back to the code step; type your password again there.

Continue with Google skips the code, because Google has already confirmed your address. If you already have an account, press Sign in instead.

Either way, you go straight on to the wizard.

3. Basics and Design

The wizard, Create your new website, opens on Basics. The idea you typed is at the top, under Your idea.

• Project name: your business name is fine.
• What do you want to build?: Website is already picked when you came from the home page. It is the right choice for a business website that brings enquiries, and a shop or bookings can be added to it later. Pick another kind only if you meant something else.

Press Continue. The bar at the top shows every step of the wizard; press a step you have finished to go back to it.

On Design, choose how to start:

• Start fresh: the AI designs the site from your answers. Under Have a website you like? you can paste the link of a site whose style you want followed. This is optional.
• Use a template: pick one of the ready-made designs, and it is rebranded with your name, logo and colours. Preview ↗ shows a design before you choose it.

If the step asks What should the website be built in?, keep HTML, CSS & JavaScript, the choice marked we publish it. The import cards on this step are for moving a site you already have, which this guide does not cover.

4. Logo & colors, and Features

On Logo & colors:

• Add your business logo: it goes in the header and becomes the browser-tab icon.
• Show off your business: up to six photos, each with a short caption so the AI knows where it belongs.
• Colour theme: a ready-made palette, From your logo (offered once a logo is uploaded), Custom for your exact colours, or Let AI choose.
• Overall look (light or dark) and Design style: leave them on Let AI choose if you have no preference.

On Features, under Choose your website sections, tick what the site should have. Tick Contact form: it is what sends enquiries to you (step 9). Not sure what you need? Let AI recommend ticks a sensible set for your kind of business.

Under Who writes the words?, the AI writes every section unless you switch one to your own. If you do, a Your content step appears where you paste your text, and the AI keeps your wording.

5. Language & contact, and About your site

On Language & contact:

• What kind of business is this? (optional) helps the AI pick the right sections, images and wording.
• Website language: every heading, sentence and button on the site is written in it. Pick one from the list, type another under Other, or leave it on Any — AI decides.
• Business contact details: phone, WhatsApp (tick WhatsApp is the same number if it is), e-mail, opening hours, address and social links. They go on the site exactly as you type them.

About your site asks a few questions that apply to every website, such as whether you want to edit the site yourself, whether you will sell online, and how people should get in touch. Skip any you are not sure about. The Review step shows what your answers lead to, under We'll build.

6. Details, Review, and Build my website

On Details, under Tell us about your business / project, your idea from the home page is already in the box. Add anything the site should say: what you do, your address, your timings, your prices. ✨ Improve with AI rewrites it from your answers so far; read what it writes before you keep it. Leave AI model on ✦ Auto.

On Review, each card has an Edit button that takes you back to that step. This build costs shows the credits it will use, beside what you have. What happens next says what you will see.

Press Build my website. If you do not have enough credits, the button reads Add credits to build instead, and your answers are kept.

7. Answer two questions, then watch it build

The build page opens. For a website, it first asks two short questions above the message box: What do you sell or offer? and What should a visitor do? (call, WhatsApp, book, fill in an enquiry form, buy online, or visit the shop). They are worth answering, because without them the AI has to guess. Press Save & build, or Skip — build anyway.

Each step of the build appears on the left as it runs: planning, designing, writing your pages, checking them, publishing. The preview appears on the right as soon as the page is written. Stop halts a build. A build you stop after it has started is not refunded; one that fails on our side is, and your answers are kept for the next try.

When it finishes, you get a summary of what was built, with Was this useful? and Report a problem under it. Below that, a card says Your website is live — what next?, with Copy the link and Open it ↗.

8. Look at it, and change anything

The buttons above the preview switch between desktop, tablet and mobile sizes. Open shows the site in a new tab.

To change something, type it in the box under the chat, in your own words: "make the header darker", "add our opening hours", "change the button to Call us". To point at one exact piece of text, click it in the preview. It is pinned above the box, and your next message changes that piece.

A small change costs fewer credits than a whole website, renaming a word everywhere on the site costs nothing, and a build that changes nothing is refunded. Each change goes live on your address as soon as its build finishes.

9. Check it on your website's page, and send a test enquiry

Press the back arrow beside the website's name, or open Websites in the side menu and pick your site. Under Address & code:

• Live address is the address to share, with a button to copy it.
• Visible to the public shows whether anyone can open the site. Take it down makes the address answer "not found"; Put it back undoes it.
• Found on Google: new sites start hidden from search, so nothing appears in Google before you have looked at it. Press Allow search when you are happy with it.

Now send yourself a test enquiry. Open your live address (Open site ↗), fill in the contact form as a visitor would, and send it. It arrives in Enquiries in the side menu, with an unread count beside it, and by e-mail. Press View to read it, and set it to New, Called, Won or Lost.

Three things to know when testing:

• A form sent from the preview inside the dashboard is never delivered, on purpose, so a test there cannot look like a customer.
• A form sent within a second or two of the page opening is treated as a bot. It shows the thank-you message and stores nothing.
• Only the first five enquiries an hour from one internet connection to one site are stored.

10. Share the link

Press Share above the preview (or Copy the link on the "what next" card) and send the address to a customer or a friend: by WhatsApp, e-mail, or on your social pages. Pasted into WhatsApp, the link shows a preview card with your site's name.

Your site is working for you once somebody other than you has opened it. Its visits appear on the website's page, under Visits overview.

What next

• Bring in enquiries and follow them up: Enquiries that reach you.
• Sell online: An online shop, with your products, prices and stock.
• Take bookings: Bookings for a service.
• The same journey, in short: A business website.
• Use your own domain: Connecting your own domain.
• Change your phone number or opening hours without a build: Business details on the website's page. It costs no credits.
• Settings: Language switches the dashboard's main pages to Tamil or Hindi. Monday growth report e-mails you last week's numbers for your published sites when there was any activity. Your data downloads everything in your account.
• Be an example: Show in our examples gallery on the website's page lists your site on our examples page. It needs Found on Google to be on.

Where things are

Worth knowing early

Your website stays up when the free days, your credits or your plan run out. What pauses is building and editing. Your enquiries and your site stay where they are.

Reading your site's code and downloading it as a .zip need an active plan. Everything else in this guide works during the free days.