What a small business website should include: the short list
If you want the short version: say what you do, list your services, name your area, show prices, prove you are real, and make it easy to call or book. The rest of this page expands each point into a checklist you can use on your own site or give to whoever builds it.
Two companion guides cover different questions. Website structure for a service business shows which pages to have. The service page template shows what to put on a single service page. This one is the owner’s checklist across the whole site. For the bigger picture, see our guide to web design for service businesses.
Home page
The home page answers three questions in the first screen: what do you do, for whom and where, and what should I do next.
- A one-sentence description of your business, with your main service and area.
- A call or booking button visible without scrolling on a phone.
- Links to each main service.
- One or two proof points: a rating you can show, a license, years you can verify.
- Your phone number as a tap-to-call link.
Skip the stock-photo slider and the long welcome message. A customer should not need to scroll to learn what you sell.
Service pages
Give each main service its own page. A page that lists ten services in one paragraph answers none of them well.
- What the service is and who it is for.
- What is included and what is not.
- Price, a “from” price or what changes the price.
- How long it takes and how the process works.
- The areas you serve for this service.
- Questions customers ask, answered.
- A clear next step.
The exact blocks, in order, are in the service page template.
Proof and trust
BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults found that 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses and 54% visit the business’s website after reading positive reviews. Your site is where that visit ends, so it has to back up the reviews.
- Real reviews shown with permission and a link to where they live.
- Licenses, insurance and certifications you hold, with numbers where public.
- Photos of your own work and your own people.
- A named owner or lead, with a short description of what they do.
- The way you handle problems: warranty, re-do policy, cancellation terms.
Google’s guidance on helpful content asks who created the content and why, and says to make authorship clear. For a business, that means a real “about” page with real names. Do not use invented names or false credentials. Do not publish fake reviews.
Contact and booking
- A phone number on every page, tap-to-call on mobile.
- A short form that asks only what you need to reply.
- A booking link if the work can be scheduled online.
- Hours, including what happens after hours.
- Address or service-area statement, matching your Google Business Profile exactly.
- A promise you can keep about reply time.
Google says complete and accurate business information makes local results more likely to show you. Keep your name, address and phone number identical on the site and on every profile.
Prices
Many owners hide prices, then field calls from people who cannot afford the work. Show what you can:
- A “from” price for each service.
- A typical range based on your last 20 jobs.
- A line about what changes the price.
- What a quote costs, if anything, and how long it takes.
FAQ
Put 5 to 8 real questions on the pages that need them. Use the questions customers ask on the phone: cost, timing, what to prepare, guarantees, payment, service area. Google ended its FAQ rich results from May 7, 2026, so do not add FAQ markup expecting a special listing. The visible questions and answers still help customers, and they give AI assistants clear, quotable text.
Policies and legal basics
- A privacy policy if you collect information or use analytics. This is not legal advice.
- Terms of service or a cancellation policy if you take bookings or deposits.
- Texting consent wording next to any phone field if you will text customers. Business texting needs the customer’s consent (TCPA) and carrier registration (A2P 10DLC).
- For clinics, a note about what information to send through the website. Under HIPAA, even a patient’s name tied to an appointment request is protected health information, so use tools that sign a business associate agreement.
- For law firms, your state’s attorney advertising rules.
Our guide to website legal basics goes through these in more detail.
Technical basics
Customers never see these, but they notice when they fail.
- Works on a phone. Open each page on your phone and try to read, tap and fill in the form.
- Fast enough. If a page takes long to appear, people leave.
- HTTPS on every page.
- Readable text. WCAG 2.1 level AA asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text. Add alt text to images and labels to form fields.
- Facts in real text, not only inside images or a chat window.
- Indexed. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet in Search to appear in its AI features, and that no special markup is needed. Check in Google Search Console that your pages are indexed, and keep a sitemap.
- Structured data that matches the page. Google’s local business documentation requires a name and address and recommends fields such as telephone, hours and URL. Use the most specific business type, and never mark up facts the visitor cannot see.
- Ownership. Register your domain in your own name, with your own login.
What to skip at the start
- A blog with no one to maintain it.
- Pages for ten cities with the same text.
- Autoplay video, pop-ups that cover the page, music.
- A chat widget that is the only place your hours or prices live.
- Long “about” copy about the history of your industry.
Examples of what good looks like
Many lists of small business website examples show attractive designs. For a service business, look past design at the facts. Take a plumber as an illustration. A good site would say, above the fold, what it fixes and where; have separate pages for water heaters, drain cleaning and emergency repairs; show a “from” price and a license number; carry a real review with a link; and put a phone number on every screen. A weaker site with a prettier design would hide all of that behind a slogan.
When you review competitors, ask: can I find the price, the area and the phone number in ten seconds?
Your checklist
Copy this list and mark each line yes or no.
- One-sentence description of what you do, for whom and where.
- A page for each main service.
- Prices, “from” prices or ranges.
- Service area stated in words.
- Real reviews and credentials.
- Tap-to-call phone number on every page.
- A short form or booking link.
- Hours, address or service-area note, matching your Google Business Profile.
- FAQ with real customer questions.
- Privacy policy, and consent wording where you text.
- Works well on a phone, readable contrast, fast.
- Indexed by Google and listed in a sitemap.
If you want help with this, a multi-page service website is built around these points. If you would like a second opinion on yours first, ask for a free demo: a short call, then a demo of how customers and AI assistants see you today, one positioning idea, and 3-4 competitors side by side.
Published . Updated .