A bakery website you build by chatting, with forms and a menu built in.

Two kinds of customers, two jobs for the site

A bakery has walk-in people who want to know what is in the case this morning, and planners who need a cake for a birthday in nine days. The first group needs a short "today's bakes" list and your hours. The second needs something a counter conversation cannot give them: lead times, serving sizes, flavors, starting prices and a form.

Put both on the home page. A row of today's bakes on top, then a button called Order a cake right below it.

Make the cake form do the asking

Custom orders eat the most time because the first message is always "how much for a cake?" A good form saves you the back-and-forth. Ask for:

• the date and pickup or delivery
• number of servings
• flavor and filling
• allergies
• a short description of the design, and a budget range

Put your minimum notice, such as three days for sheet cakes and a week for tiered, directly above the form. Photos of inspiration can be sent by text after you reply, since the form takes typed answers rather than file uploads.

What to photograph and a search tip

Shoot in the morning, close up, with the crumb or the lamination showing. A loaf cut in half tells more than a loaf on a tray. Take the baker at work, flour on the forearms. For local search, name what you are in your own words, such as "sourdough bakery" or "custom birthday cakes," on the page headings, and keep the same words in your Google Business Profile.

What customers check before they order a cake or a dozen

Someone ordering a cake has a date in mind and a little worry about it. Before they get in touch, they look for:

• Photos of cakes you actually made, close enough to see the piping
• How much notice you need for each kind of order
• Flavors, fillings and serving sizes, with a starting price
• Allergen information, and whether your kitchen handles nuts
• Pickup times and the address, or whether you deliver

If you bake at home under your state's cottage food rules, people also want to know how pickup works at a house. Spell it out: the porch, the time window, and a text when they arrive.

Which apps a bakery switches on, and which to leave off

The Food menu shows today's bakes and the regular list with prices, dietary tags and a sold-out toggle for when the croissants are gone by nine. The Photo gallery holds the cake portfolio in albums such as birthdays, weddings and cookies, so a parent can find a cake like the one they want. Appointments covers cake consultations and tastings: set a 30-minute service on the afternoons you're free and people pick a slot. It doesn't take payments or deposits, so handle those the way you do now.

The AI Agent answers "do you do gluten-free?" and "how much notice for a tiered cake?" from your pages. When it can't answer, it takes the person's name and email and sends the question to your Inbox. The Announcement bar posts holiday order deadlines and comes down afterward. Take custom cake requests by text, phone or email, listed on the Custom cakes page, with the details you need written right above. Skip Table reservations, which is for sit-down service.

A walk through the Rise & Crumb example

Rise & Crumb is the made-up bakery in the preview: naturally leavened, baked before dawn. Today's bakes lists the morning's loaves and pastries with prices, and anything gone is marked sold out. Custom cakes shows a small gallery of past cakes, the notice needed for sheet and tiered cakes, starting prices by servings, and how to send the details. Visit has the hours, the address with a map link, and parking.

The free address is riseandcrumb.dollarsite.page, and you can connect a domain you own once it is live. Start by telling Chip what you bake and when, or send 5 to 15 phone photos of your bakes and approve the draft.

When Instagram and Facebook already sell out the case

Plenty of bakers, home bakers most of all, sell out from Instagram and Facebook posts alone. Keep posting, because that's where cake photos get shared. The site holds what the comments can't: order deadlines, allergen notes, notice for a wedding cake, the pickup address. When a DM asks "how much for a cake for 20?", reply with the Custom cakes link, and the next message is more likely to arrive with the date and the flavor in it. If you also sell at a farmers market, put the market days on the Visit page.

What customers ask the counter

Is the sourdough vegan? Do the muffins contain nuts? Can I get a half dozen on Saturday? How much notice for a birthday cake? Put allergen notes next to every item, since a bakery handles flour, nuts, eggs and dairy together, and say so honestly: "made in a kitchen that uses tree nuts." Answer the notice question on the cake form and the order-by time on the shop. Fewer questions at 6 a.m. means more bread out the door.