Build a client site with Cursor

What you'll make

A one-page landing site for a local business — hero section, services, contact form, mobile-responsive — built in Cursor without writing code by hand. By the end you'll have a site you can show a client and deploy in minutes.

What you need

• Cursor installed (the free tier works)
• A real or mock client to build for: business name, what they do, who their customers are
• 60 minutes

Steps

1. Open Cursor and create a new project folder. Open the Cursor chat panel (Cmd+L or Ctrl+L) and describe what you want:

Build a one-page landing site for a local business. The business is [name], a [type of business] in [city]. They serve [target customers]. The site needs: a hero section with a headline and call-to-action button, a services section with 3 service cards, a short about section, and a contact form at the bottom. Use HTML and Tailwind CSS via CDN. Make it mobile-responsive. Use a clean, professional design with a [colour scheme description] palette.

2. Cursor will generate the HTML file. Open it in your browser to see the result. If the design doesn't look right, tell Cursor what to change:

The hero section is too tall. Make it 70vh. And the service cards should be in a row on desktop and stacked on mobile.

3. Fill in the real content. Replace the placeholder text with the client's actual services, phone number and email. Ask Cursor to help:

Replace the placeholder services with: [service 1], [service 2], [service 3]. Add a one-sentence description for each. Update the phone number to [number] and the email to [email].

4. Make the contact form work by connecting it to a free form service. Ask Cursor:

Connect the contact form to Formspree. Use form action "https://formspree.io/f/[my-form-id]" and method POST. Add a success message that shows when the form is submitted.

5. Deploy the site. The simplest option is to drag the folder onto Netlify Drop or push it to a GitHub repo connected to Netlify or Vercel.

Check your result

• The site looks good on a phone (not just desktop) — test by resizing your browser
• All placeholder text has been replaced with real client content
• The contact form submits and shows a success message
• The page loads in under 2 seconds (it's a single HTML file, so it should)

If the design feels generic, give Cursor more specific direction: "Use a warmer colour palette — cream background, dark brown text, muted gold accent." Specific instructions produce better results than vague ones.