A website doesn’t need to be complicated. But it does need to do a few things well. Here are five things every small business website should have — and most are missing at least one.
1. A clear explanation of what you do
You’d be surprised how many business websites don’t actually say what the business does. Someone should land on your homepage and know within five seconds who you are, what you offer, and where you’re located.
Don’t make people dig for it. Put it front and centre.
2. A way to contact you
This sounds obvious, but a lot of sites bury their contact info three clicks deep. You need a contact page with a form or an email address, and ideally your email or phone number in the footer on every page.
If someone is ready to hire you, don’t make them work to find you.
3. Mobile-friendly design
Over 60% of web traffic comes from phones. If your site doesn’t look good on a phone, more than half your visitors are having a bad experience — and most of them will leave.
A mobile-friendly site isn’t a nice-to-have anymore. It’s the bare minimum.
4. Fast load times
If your site takes more than three seconds to load, people bounce. They don’t wait. They go to the next result on Google.
The biggest culprits are uncompressed images, bloated plugins, and cheap hosting. Fix those three things and your site will be noticeably faster.
5. Basic SEO
SEO doesn’t have to be complicated. At minimum, your site needs a unique page title and meta description for every page, proper heading structure, image alt text, and a sitemap.
That’s the foundation. Without it, Google doesn’t know what your site is about, and you won’t show up in search results.
Need help with any of this?
We build websites that check every one of these boxes — fast, mobile-friendly, and set up right from day one. If your current site is missing any of these, or if you don’t have one yet, we can help.