The small business website checklist: 12 must-haves
A small business website has one job: turn a stranger into a customer. Most sites that fail to do that are missing a few specific, fixable things. Use this checklist to audit your current site or plan a new one, if you can tick all twelve boxes, you are ahead of most of your competitors.
1. Loads in under 3 seconds
Speed is the foundation. Most visitors abandon a page that takes more than three seconds to load, and Google ranks fast sites higher. Heavy templates and plugins are the usual culprits; a lean, hand-coded site loads in well under two.
2. Looks great on a phone
Over 60% of visitors are on mobile. Your site must be fully responsive, readable text, tappable buttons, no pinching or sideways scrolling, on every screen size.
3. A clear headline that says what you do
A visitor should know what you offer and who you serve within five seconds of landing. Lead with a plain, benefit-focused headline, not a vague slogan.
4. An obvious call to action
Every page should make the next step obvious: call now, book online, request a quote. Repeat it, and never make a visitor hunt for how to contact you.
5. Click-to-call and easy contact
On mobile, your phone number should dial with one tap and sit in the header. Pair it with a short contact or quote form that lands straight in your inbox.
6. Trust signals
Reviews, testimonials, certifications, years in business, guarantees, photos of real work. These are what convince a hesitant visitor that you are legitimate and worth hiring.
7. Real photos, not just stock
Authentic photos of your team, your location, and your work build far more trust than generic stock imagery. They also make your brand memorable.
8. SEO foundations
Semantic HTML, proper page titles and meta descriptions, schema markup, and optimized images, the basics that help you get found. See our guide to local SEO for how this drives 'near me' traffic.
9. A page for each service
Dedicated pages for each service (and each area you serve) rank far better than one page that lists everything. They give search engines, and customers, something specific to land on.
10. Security (HTTPS)
An SSL certificate (the padlock in the browser) is non-negotiable. Browsers flag sites without it as 'not secure,' which scares visitors off and hurts rankings.
11. An easy way to keep it updated
Hours change, services evolve, photos get stale. You need a simple way to keep the site current, ideally without learning software or paying per edit. Our plan includes unlimited updates by email.
12. Reliable hosting and backups
Fast, secure hosting with automatic backups keeps your site online and protected. If your site goes down, you lose customers, so this should be handled for you, not an afterthought.
The shortcut
That is a lot to manage if you are piecing it together yourself. It is also exactly what we build into every site for a flat $99/month, custom design, all twelve boxes ticked, hosting and updates included. If your current site is missing more than a couple of these, it is costing you customers.