What should a small business website include? A 13-point checklist

The essentials

1. Mobile-friendly design. Google says it uses the mobile version of a site's content, crawled with its smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking (Google Search Central). If your site is hard to use on a phone, fix that first.
2. What you do, in one sentence, at the top. A visitor should know within seconds what you offer and where.
3. Tap-to-call and email links. A phone number should be a link, not just text.
4. One clear next step. A button to call, book, order or request a quote, repeated down the page.
5. Accurate hours and location. Including holiday hours, a map link and parking or access notes.
6. Services (or menu) with real detail. List what you actually do, with prices or price ranges where it makes sense.
7. Real photos. Your team, your space and your work. Stock photos don't build trust.
8. Reviews you already have. Quote real reviews word for word and link to where they came from.
9. An FAQ that answers questions directly. Lead each answer with the answer, then the detail.

The technical basics

10. Fast loading. Google's Core Web Vitals treat a Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, an Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and a Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less as "good" (web.dev).
11. HTTPS. A secure connection is standard; browsers warn visitors about sites without it.
12. A unique title and description for every page, plus structured data (schema.org) that matches what's visible on the page.
13. A matching Google Business Profile. Same name, hours, phone and website as your site. See the Google Business Profile guide.

How to use this checklist

Open your site on your phone and go through the list. Anything missing is a reason a customer might choose someone else. If several items are missing, a rebuild is often simpler than patching the old site.

Written by Alex

Founder of Alex Builds Studio, an online-only web studio building websites for US local businesses. About Alex