Small business website checklist: what your site needs

A small business website needs five pages to start: home, services, about, reviews or work, and contact. On top of those it needs a clear way to get in touch on every page, a design that works on phones, accessible forms and images, a privacy policy if you collect any data, and a domain and email you own. This checklist covers each item, why it matters, and what you can safely leave until later.

Use it before you build, before you brief a designer, or to audit the site you have now.

Before you start: three questions

Every item below is easier to get right once you've answered these.

1. Who is the site for? Name the one or two kinds of customer you most want.
2. What do they need to decide? Price range, availability, proof you do good work, where you are.
3. What's the one action you want them to take? Call, book, request a quote or buy.

Write the answers down. If a page or feature doesn't help with one of them, it can wait.

The pages every small business website needs

The SBA's list of essential pages is a good baseline: homepage, about, products or services, contact and testimonials. Here's what each one should do.

Home page

• [ ] A headline that says what you do and who it's for, in plain words
• [ ] Your area or how you work, if location matters
• [ ] One main button near the top: call, book or get a quote
• [ ] Short links to your main services
• [ ] Some proof: reviews, photos of real work, or names of clients you have permission to show

Services pages

• [ ] One page per main service, if you offer several distinct ones
• [ ] What's included, who it's for, and what it isn't
• [ ] A starting price or range, if you can share one
• [ ] Photos or examples of that specific work
• [ ] A clear next step at the bottom

Prices are worth thinking about. Even a "from" price filters out calls from people with the wrong budget and reassures the ones with the right one. We publish ours on our pricing page for that reason.

About page

• [ ] Who runs the business and why
• [ ] Real photos of you, your team or your workplace
• [ ] Licenses, memberships or qualifications that matter to customers

Reviews or work

• [ ] Real reviews with a first name and context
• [ ] Project photos or short case studies
• [ ] Results only where they're true and you have permission to share them

Contact page

• [ ] Phone number as a tap-to-call link
• [ ] Email address
• [ ] A short form: name, how to reply, what they need
• [ ] Opening hours and how quickly you reply
• [ ] Address and map, if customers visit you

Legal pages

• [ ] A privacy policy, especially if you use a contact form or analytics
• [ ] Terms, if you sell online or take deposits
• [ ] A cookie notice, if your analytics or ad tools need one where your customers are

These need to match what your site does, so if you use a template, edit it.

What to add later

The SBA list also suggests an FAQ page, online booking and a blog. All three are useful, and none needs to block your launch.

• FAQ. Add one once you know which questions customers ask most.
• Booking. Worth it if your business runs on appointments. A booking calendar is a $100 add-on on our list.
• Blog or news. Only if you'll keep it going. A blog whose last post is two years old makes the whole business look quiet. Adding one later is $350 with us.

Making it easy to get in touch

This is where many small sites lose customers.

• [ ] Your main action appears on every page, usually in the header
• [ ] The phone number is tappable on mobile
• [ ] Forms are short. Ask only what you need to reply
• [ ] Test every form after launch and after every update. Send a real message and check it arrives
• [ ] Someone checks the inbox the form sends to
• [ ] Visitors see a clear confirmation after sending

A broken contact form is invisible to the owner until someone mentions it. Put a reminder in your calendar to test it once a month.

Works on phones, for everyone

• [ ] Every page checked on a real phone as well as in a narrowed desktop browser
• [ ] Text is readable without zooming
• [ ] Buttons are big enough to tap
• [ ] Pages load quickly on mobile data

Accessibility belongs on this list too. The ADA.gov guidance on web accessibility lists the common barriers that stop people with disabilities using a website:

• [ ] Enough contrast between text and background
• [ ] Color isn't the only way information is shown
• [ ] Images have text alternatives (alt text)
• [ ] Videos have captions
• [ ] Forms have labels, clear instructions and error messages
• [ ] Everything works with a keyboard as well as a mouse

The same guidance explains that the ADA applies to businesses open to the public. Most of these fixes are cheap to get right during a build and more expensive to retrofit.

The behind-the-scenes checklist

None of these show on the page, and all of them cause problems when they're missing.

• [ ] The domain is in your name, on your own account, with your email address
• [ ] A business email on your domain, like hello@yourbusiness.com
• [ ] Hosting is in your name or you know who holds it and how to get it back
• [ ] HTTPS is on, so browsers show the site as secure
• [ ] Backups run automatically, and someone has tried restoring one
• [ ] Updates have an owner, whether that's you, your team or a care plan
• [ ] Analytics is set up so you can see which pages people visit
• [ ] Logins for the site, domain and host are stored somewhere safe and shared with at least one other person
• [ ] Search basics like page titles, descriptions and a sitemap are in place. Every site we build includes these at launch

If a past designer holds your domain or hosting, sort that out before anything else. Getting access back is much easier while you're still on speaking terms.

Can you build it yourself?

For a lot of small businesses, yes. A builder like Wix or Squarespace and a free weekend can cover the five pages above. Use this checklist as you go and you'll avoid most of the common gaps.

It's worth bringing in help when the site has a bigger job: competing for customers in a crowded market, taking bookings or payments, or moving off a site that's become hard to edit. If that's you, our websites service explains how we plan each page around what visitors need to do, and our process page lists what we need from you at each stage.

For a sense of cost, a one-page launch site starts at $500 with us, and a starter website of up to 5 pages starts at $1,250. If you'd rather spread the cost, our Build & Care Essential plan covers a site of up to 3 pages with hosting, updates and weekly backups from $149 a month, with a 6-month minimum.

FAQ

What pages should a small business website have?

Start with five: home, services, about, reviews or work, and contact. Add a privacy policy if you collect any data. An FAQ page, online booking and a blog are useful later, once you know what customers ask and you can keep them current.

What does a small business website need to include?

Clear pages about what you do, a way to get in touch on every page, a design that works on phones, accessible forms and images, a privacy policy, and a domain, email and hosting that you own and control.

Does a small business website need a privacy policy?

If your site has a contact form, analytics or any tool that collects visitor data, you should have one. It needs to describe what your site collects, so edit any template to match.

How many pages should a small business website have?

Five is a good starting point for most. More pages make sense when you offer several distinct services, since each can then have its own page. Start small and add pages once the site is live. You can send us a few lines about your business if you'd like a fixed quote.