A small business website does not need to be large or expensive. It needs to answer a visitor's questions quickly and make it easy to get in touch. Most sites that fail do so for ordinary reasons: they load slowly, they are hard to use on a phone, or nobody can find the contact details.
Use this checklist before you build a new site or to review the one you have.
Plan before you build
Three decisions shape everything else.
- 1. Decide the one thing you want visitors to do: call, send an enquiry, book or buy
- 2. Choose a short domain name that matches your business name and is easy to spell aloud
- 3. List the pages you need; for most businesses that is Home, About, Products or Services, and Contact
Design for phones first
A large share of visitors will arrive on a mobile phone, often on a slow connection.
- 4. Check that text is readable and buttons are easy to tap on a small screen without zooming
- 5. Keep pages light: compress images and avoid heavy animations and autoplay video
- 6. Make the menu simple, with the most important pages one tap away
Make contact effortless
If people have to hunt for a way to reach you, many will leave.
- 7. Show your phone number, email and address clearly, and add a WhatsApp or click-to-call button
- 8. Test your contact form regularly by sending yourself a message; a broken form loses customers silently
- 9. State your working hours and how quickly you usually reply
Help search engines find you
You do not need advanced SEO to appear for searches in your own area.
Give every page a clear title and description that says what you do and where. Write your content in the words your customers use, not internal jargon. Create a Google Business Profile so you appear in map results, and add your site to Google Search Console to see how people find you.
Keep it secure and trustworthy
Visitors and search engines both notice the basics.
- 10. Use HTTPS on every page; most hosting providers include a free certificate
- 11. Add a privacy policy if you collect any personal details through forms
- 12. Keep software, plugins and backups up to date, and use strong passwords for your hosting and domain accounts
Use real content
Photos of your actual shop, team and products build more trust than stock images. Write a short, honest About page that says who runs the business and how long you have been operating. Add genuine customer reviews if you have them, and never invent testimonials.
Plan for maintenance
A website is not finished on launch day. Prices change, staff change and offers expire. Decide who will update the site and how often, and check once a month that every page, link and form still works. An out-of-date website can do more harm than having none.
If you would like help planning or building a site, we are happy to talk it through.
Contact Ocean Mind Technologies
This article is general information for readers starting out. Rules, fees and procedures change, so confirm the current requirements with the relevant authority, your bank or a qualified adviser before acting.