A small business website has one job: turn a person with a problem into a phone call, a booking or a message. Everything else is decoration. After years of building and reviewing sites for plumbers, dentists, cafés, detailers and tutors, we see the same gaps again and again, and almost none of them need a redesign to fix.
This checklist has 20 items in five groups. Work through it with your own site open on your phone, because that is where most of your visitors are.
How to use this checklist
Give yourself 30 minutes. Open your homepage on a phone, then on a laptop. For each item, answer yes or no. Anything that is a "no" goes on a short fix list, and you tackle the fix list in the order of the groups below, because the first groups matter most.
If you would rather have a number than a feeling, run your address through our free website grader. It checks speed, mobile layout, search basics and security, and tells you in plain English what to change.
Group 1: Can a visitor act in five seconds?
Visitors decide quickly. If they cannot tell what you do, where you do it and how to reach you almost instantly, they go back to the results and pick the next business.
- [ ] 1. The top of the homepage says what you do and where. "Emergency plumber in Leeds" beats "Welcome to our website". Include the service and the place.
- [ ] 2. Your phone number is tappable. On a phone, the number should be a link that starts a call. Test it.
- [ ] 3. There is one obvious main button. Call, book or request a quote. Pick one primary action and make it the most visible thing on the screen.
- [ ] 4. The button repeats further down. After each section that makes a case for you, give the reader another chance to act. Nobody scrolls back up.
- [ ] 5. Opening hours and service area are visible without clicking. These answer the question "can they help me today?"
Group 2: Does the page earn trust?
Strangers are hiring you for something that matters to them. Small signals of reality do a lot of work.
- [ ] 6. Real photos of your work or team. Stock images of handshakes say nothing. One genuine photo of your van, shop or finished job says a lot.
- [ ] 7. Reviews or testimonials with names. Even three short, specific quotes help. "Fixed the leak the same afternoon" is more convincing than "Great service".
- [ ] 8. Prices or at least a starting range. If you can say "Boiler service from $120", do. If you cannot, explain what affects the price. Silence reads as "expensive".
- [ ] 9. A real address and a way to reach a person. A street address, a local phone number and an email at your own domain. Free webmail addresses undercut an otherwise solid page.
- [ ] 10. Credentials, guarantees and years in business. Licences, insurance, warranties, memberships. State them plainly, near your main button.
Group 3: Is it comfortable on a phone?
For most local businesses, more than half of visits come from a phone. A page that merely shrinks the desktop layout is not the same as one designed for thumbs.
- [ ] 11. Text is readable without zooming. Body text around 16 pixels or larger, with enough contrast against the background.
- [ ] 12. Buttons and links are easy to hit. Tap targets of roughly 44 pixels square, with space between them, avoid the accidental taps that make people give up.
- [ ] 13. Nothing scrolls sideways. If you can swipe the page left and right, something is too wide. Fix it.
- [ ] 14. Forms are short. Name, phone or email, and a message. Every extra field costs you enquiries. Ask for the rest on the call.
Speed belongs in this group too, and it deserves its own space. See website speed for small business for the practical fixes.
Group 4: Will search engines understand it?
You do not need tricks. You need a page that states clearly who you are, what you offer and where you work, and a few technical basics in place.
- [ ] 15. Each page has its own title and description. The title is what appears as the clickable headline in results. Keep it under about 60 characters and put the service and town in it.
- [ ] 16. Each service has its own page. A single page that tries to cover "plumbing, heating, bathrooms and drainage" ranks for none of them. One page per main service, with a real description.
- [ ] 17. Your name, address and phone number match everywhere. Same spelling on the site, on your business profile on maps and on directories. Our guide to local SEO basics shows how to audit this in an afternoon.
- [ ] 18. The site uses HTTPS. The padlock should show, with no warnings. Browsers flag sites without it, and visitors notice.
Group 5: Can you keep it running?
- [ ] 19. You can edit the text and prices yourself, or someone responds fast. A site with last year's prices or a closed-for-holidays banner from August hurts more than it helps.
- [ ] 20. You can see how many people call or fill in the form. Not just visits. Count the enquiries a month, even by tallying them on paper. If you do not know the number, you cannot tell whether a change helped.
A quick scoring guide
Count your yeses.
| Score | What it usually means | What to do first |
|---|---|---|
| 17 to 20 | A solid site | Polish speed and add fresh reviews |
| 12 to 16 | Decent, leaking enquiries | Fix Group 1 and 3 first |
| 7 to 11 | Visitors are confused or unsure | Rewrite the top of the homepage, add a clear button |
| 0 to 6 | The site is not working as a salesperson | Consider a rebuild rather than patches |
The five fixes that usually pay back fastest
If your list is long and your time is short, start here.
- Rewrite the first screen. One sentence on what you do, one on where, one button.
- Make the phone number a tap-to-call link and put it in the header.
- Compress your photos. Oversized images are the most common reason small business pages load slowly.
- Add three real reviews near the main button.
- Give every service its own page with a clear title and a few honest paragraphs.
None of these require extra software or a monthly subscription. They require an hour or two and some willingness to look at your site the way a stranger does.
Common mistakes we keep seeing
Burying the contact page. If "Contact" is the last item in a crowded menu, promote it and style it as a button.
Writing about yourself first. Visitors want to know about their problem. Start with it, then explain how you solve it. The "About us" story can live on its own page.
Using vague headings. "Our Services" tells nobody anything. "Boiler repair, servicing and installation" tells everybody.
Autoplay video and pop-ups on the first screen. They slow the page and push people away. Let visitors read first.
Leaving the old site in place after a move. If you changed phone number or address, search every page, including the footer and the privacy page. One stale number is enough to lose a job.
What a good page looks like in practice
Picture a mobile screen for a local electrician. At the top: the business name, a tap-to-call button and a line reading "Electrician in Bristol, same-day call-outs". Below that, a short list of the three jobs they do most, a photo of the actual electrician, and two reviews with first names. Then a price range, the service area, and the same call button again. That is all. It loads in a couple of seconds and answers every question a worried homeowner has in under a minute.
If your homepage cannot be described that simply, that is the clearest sign of what to cut.
Next step
Want to see how your site stacks up before you change anything? Run the free grader and take the plain-English fix list it gives you straight to whoever manages your site. If you would rather have it handled, Belmo Studio builds a free preview of your improved site first, and you pay only if you like it.