Start with what a visitor wants to know
Most people land on a small business website with one question: can this business do what I need, and how do I reach it? They are often on a phone, standing somewhere, and they will not dig for the answer.
So the first screen should say, in plain words, what you do and where. Skip slogans. A line like 'Plumbing repairs in Yellowknife' works better than 'Quality you can trust'. Under it, put a button or phone number they can use right away.
- What you do, in one plain sentence
- Where you work: your town, or the area you serve
- Your hours, or when you reply to messages
- A phone number, email or form
- One or two signs you can be trusted, such as photos of your work or a short customer comment
The pages you actually need
A small business does not need thirty pages. A handful of clear ones does the job, and each should answer one question.
Home tells people who you are and what you do. Services or Products lists what you offer, with a short description of each. About says who is behind the business and where you are based, which helps people feel safe contacting you. Contact has your details and a form. If customers always ask about prices, hours or how booking works, add a short page for that too.
- Home
- Services or Products
- About
- Contact
- Prices, booking or common questions, only if people ask about them often
Contact details: write them once, then copy them exactly
Your business name, address and phone number should read the same on your website, your Google Business Profile, your social media pages and any directory that lists you. Local search guides point out that mismatches, such as 'Johnson Plumbing' in one place and 'Johnson Plumbing Co.' in another, can hurt how well you show up in local search.
Use your full business name with no nicknames or promotional phrases. Write the address and phone number in the same format every time. Make the phone number a tap-to-call link so people on a phone can call without typing it. If you have a physical location, add a map. If you work out of your home or travel to customers, say which areas you serve instead of showing a street address.
Make it work on a phone
Open your own website on your phone, on mobile data, not on your home wifi. If you have to pinch and zoom to read it, or wait for it to load, a visitor will leave.
Large photos are a common reason a page is slow. Resize pictures before you upload them, and use only the ones that show something useful. Buttons should be big enough to tap with a thumb, and text should be readable without zooming.
- Text readable without zooming
- Buttons large enough to tap
- Pictures resized so the page loads quickly
- Phone number that calls when tapped
- Contact form with only the fields you really need
Use the words people search for
People search for a service and a place: 'dentist near me', 'bakery in Whitehorse'. Put your service and your town in the page titles, headings and descriptions where it reads naturally. A page titled only 'Home' tells a search engine very little.
Pair the website with a complete Google Business Profile. Fill in your hours, address, phone number and the categories that truly describe your business. Pick only the ones that apply, because listing things you do not do can work against you. Keep the hours current, and ask happy customers to leave a review.
Mistakes to avoid
Most problems with small business websites come from things that were left alone, not from things done wrong. Check yours against this list.
- An out-of-date Google Business Profile, with old hours or an old phone number
- Name, address or phone number that differ between your website and your listings
- No town or service in the page titles and headings
- A site that is slow or hard to use on a phone
- No reviews, and no one asking customers for them
- A contact form that nobody checks