What a small-business website needs, and what it doesn't
Most visitors decide in a few seconds whether to call you or hit back. Here's what has to be on the page for that decision to go your way.
A small-business website has one job: turn the right visitor into a call, a booking or an email. Everything on the page either helps with that or gets in the way. These are the seven things I'd make sure of first.
1. Say what you do, where, and how to reach you, at the top
The first screen should answer three questions without scrolling: what do you do, do you serve my area, and how do I contact you? A headline like “Furnace and AC repair in Red Deer” beats a clever slogan every time. Put the phone number or main button right there too.
2. Build it for the phone first
Google uses the mobile version of a site's content for indexing and ranking.1 Many of your visitors are on a phone as well. Check that text is readable without zooming, buttons are easy to tap, and your number opens the dialer when tapped.
3. Make it fast
Google's Core Web Vitals measure how a page feels to real visitors. A “good” result is the main content loading within 2.5 seconds, the page responding to taps within 200 milliseconds, and the layout staying put while it loads (a layout-shift score of 0.1 or less).2 The usual culprits for slow small-business sites are oversized photos, auto-playing sliders and too many plug-ins.
4. Give each main service its own page
One page for “Drain cleaning”, another for “Water heater repair”. Each one can answer that customer's questions properly and has a better chance of matching what they typed into Google. If you serve several towns, a page for each main area helps too, as long as each one says something specific to that area.
5. Show proof, from real customers
Real reviews, photos of jobs you've actually done, and details like licences, insurance or warranties do more than any adjective. Never invent testimonials or use stock photos of “your team”. People notice, and it undoes the trust you're trying to build.
6. One clear next step on every page
Each page should end with an obvious way to get in touch: a tap-to-call button, a short form or an email link. Ask for as little as possible. Name, contact details and a sentence about the job is usually enough to start.
7. Know where your calls come from
Set up call and form tracking so you can see which leads came from Google search, the map listing, ads or social. Without it, you can't tell what's worth paying for. Adding local business structured data also helps Google read your hours, address and contact details correctly.3
What you can skip
- Sliders and carousels on the homepage. They slow the page down and most people never see past the first slide.
- Auto-playing video or music.
- Pages written for the sake of having pages. Five useful pages beat twenty thin ones.
- A social media feed widget. A link to your profiles is enough.
- Jargon. Write the way you'd explain the job to a customer standing in front of you.