A small business website does not win on design. It wins by answering the first questions before the visitor gets round to asking them: what do you do, do you work in my town, and how do I call you.
Go through the seven points, and for each one open your own site on a phone — on a phone specifically, because that is how most people look at you.
01A first sentence that says what you do, and who for
When the site opens, the visitor decides within five seconds whether they are in the right place. If all that sits at the top is the company name and a slogan along the lines of “Your trust, our success”, they know nothing. The first sentence has to join the service and the place: “Plumber in Leeds — same-day call-outs” or “Bookkeeping for small businesses and sole traders in Bristol”.
A test: show the home page to somebody who does not know what you do and ask them what they could get here. If they hesitate, the first sentence is not doing its job.
02Contact details that are always within reach
The most expensive mistake on small websites is hiding the contact details on a page of their own. The phone number should be visible at the top, at the bottom and inside the content — and on a phone it should be tappable. The same goes for Viber or WhatsApp if you use them, and for a button that opens the map if you have premises.
03Services listed clearly, with no guesswork
A visitor will not read a paragraph to work out whether you do exactly what they need. List the services briefly and concretely. “Bespoke work” means nothing; “replacing a tap, fixing a leak, clearing a blockage, fitting a boiler” means something. Concrete services also help Google connect you with what people actually search for.
04Your service area — where exactly you work
A local business lives on it being clear where it works. Write down the town and the surrounding places you cover. If you travel out to jobs, say so. A visitor from the next town should see at once whether you come to them — otherwise they assume you do not, and call somebody else.
05Proof that there are people behind the site
People buy from people, not from logos. It takes very little: a real photograph (you, the crew, the van, the workshop — not a stock image), a couple of sentences about who you are and how long you have been doing this, and a few genuine customer comments if you have them.
Do not invent reviews and do not paste in stock photographs of smiling strangers — people recognise it, and it destroys trust rather than building it.
06Speed, and a tidy display on a phone
A site that loads slowly, or jumps about while it opens, loses people before they read anything. Most visitors come from a phone, so the mobile view matters more than the look on a big screen. Check: is everything readable without zooming, are the buttons big enough for a thumb, and does the page open quickly on mobile data, not only on fast Wi-Fi.
07One clear next step
Every page should lead to one action: call, send an enquiry, or come in. If you offer ten buttons, the visitor picks none of them. Decide which action matters most to your business and make that one the most visible thing on the page.
A small business website is not a brochure about you. It is the shortest route from “I am looking for a service” to “I called this firm”.
08What is deliberately not on this list
No animation, no blog you have to write every week, no ten subpages. For most small businesses that is a cost in time and money that brings in no calls. Better to do five things clearly than twenty of them indifferently.
- The first sentence joins the service and the town
- The phone number is visible, and tappable on a phone
- The services are listed concretely, without generalities
- It says clearly which area you cover
- There is a real photograph and a couple of sentences about you
- The site opens quickly and looks right on a phone
- Every page has one clear next step
09What next
If you said “I don’t have that” on more than two points, it is not a reason to panic — it is a list of priorities. Start with the contact details and the first sentence, because those change the number of calls fastest. If you need a new site that covers this from the outset, see how we do web design.