Small business websites tend to fail in a similar way, and it is usually not a matter of appearance. A site can be well made and still not say whether the business is open.
The underlying cause is that the site was built as something to look at rather than as something that answers questions: a template was chosen, an introduction was written, and the question of what a visitor arrives wanting to know was not settled first.
This is a checklist for that question. It is ordered by how often each item is the reason a visitor gives up and looks elsewhere, which is a different order from the one most websites are built in.
Start from what the visitor came for
Most visits to a small business website are short. Somebody arrives with one question and leaves once they have the answer, or once they conclude it is not there. The question is usually one of five: what is this, what does it cost, are you open, where are you, and how do I get in touch.
The order of the page therefore follows from which of those questions the business's visitors ask most often, and the answer to that one should be readable on the first screen without scrolling or clicking.
Most of the items below follow from that.
The checklist
In rough order of how often each is the reason somebody leaves.
- 1.What the business does, in the first sentence, in the words a customer would use rather than category words like "solutions" or "bespoke".
- 2.What it costs, or what it starts at. A page with "contact us for a quote" where a number could be is a common point of departure.
- 3.The address and opening hours, on the home page, for any business people physically visit.
- 4.A phone number that is a tappable link on a phone.
- 5.The area covered, for a business that travels to customers. It is the fastest way for a visitor to rule the business in or out, and it is often absent.
- 6.One way to make contact that takes under a minute — three to five fields rather than twelve.
- 7.Photographs of the actual place or the actual work, rather than a stock image that could belong to any business in the trade.
- 8.It has to work on a phone, which is where most of it will be read, often outdoors.
- 9.It has to load on a slow connection, for the same reason.
- 10.The main action the business wants a visitor to take should be visible on every screen, not only at the foot of the page.
The price question
Leaving prices off is usually deliberate, and the reasoning is usually that a phone call is a chance to sell. Sometimes that holds. It is a trade-off, and it is often made without a clear view of what it costs.
What it filters out is everybody who was not going to phone, which is most visitors. It keeps the smaller number who were. Where the close rate on the phone is high and the volume is low, that can work out; for a salon, a garage or a cleaning company it is less likely to.
"It depends" and "we can't say" are different
Most businesses that cannot publish a fixed price can publish a starting price, a range, or a worked example: bathroom installs from a stated figure, driveways typically between two figures, a standard service at one price with the things that add to it listed.
Each of those does what the number would have done — it tells a visitor whether they are in the right place, which is more useful before the phone call than after it.
What an absent price tends to suggest
When no price is given, the common assumption is not that the work is complicated. It is that the work is expensive, or that the price varies with who is asking.
Whether that trade is worth making depends on how many additional calls the omission actually produces.
Hours and address belong on the home page
For a business people walk or drive to, the opening hours and the address are not contact details; they are part of what is being offered. Somebody deciding where to eat this evening, or whether a car can be looked at this afternoon, is asking about exactly those.
Placing them behind a Contact link is one of the most common structural choices on local business websites, and it is largely inherited from templates written for businesses without a front door.
Day by day, in full. "Open 9–5" does not answer the question that is usually being asked, which is whether the business is open on Sunday.
The contact form, and the cost of each extra field
Longer forms are completed less often. It is a well-established pattern, and it is easy to check by imagining filling in the form one-handed at a bus stop.
Three to five fields covers most cases: a name, a way to reply, and enough about the request to reply usefully. The rest can be asked in the reply.
Which enquiries a long form filters out
The number lost matters less than which ones. A long form selects for patience, and patience is not a good proxy for intent to buy — for urgent work it tends to select against it.
Somebody with a leak is unlikely to complete twelve fields; the search results are still open in the next tab.
Where the submissions end up
A form that only sends an email depends on that email being kept. It is worth establishing, before relying on it, whether submissions are stored anywhere that can be searched later.
That question tends to come up at an inconvenient moment: six weeks later, when somebody asks about a quote they requested.
Photographs of the real thing
A single stock photograph on a page of text is a recognisable sign that a site was assembled from a template, and most visitors read it that way without articulating it.
Photographs of the actual room, the actual work or the actual food carry more information than a paragraph about quality, and gathering them is among the highest-return work available to a small business with a website.
A photographer is not required to start. A recent phone, daylight, and taking thirty photographs to keep six will produce something specific to the business.
The things that matter less than they appear to
These are worth naming because they absorb a large share of the time and money spent on small business websites.
- An animated hero. It is rarely the reason a customer chooses one business over another.
- A mission statement. Most visitors are trying to establish what the business does rather than why it exists.
- A blog that will not get a second post. One post dated three years ago reads as neglect.
- Social icons pointing at accounts that stopped in 2019. A link to an inactive account is worse than no link.
- A carousel. Later slides are seen by a small fraction of visitors.
- A chat widget with nobody behind it. An unanswered chat leaves a worse impression than no chat.
How this maps onto a generated site
Most of the checklist is about ordering and emphasis, which is the part a template cannot decide, because a template does not know whether the business has a front door.
Sitemo builds the site from a description, so a business people visit gets its hours, address and map on the home page rather than behind a link, and a business that travels gets its coverage area stated near the top. Prices are editable data rather than text set into the design, so publishing them does not mean rebuilding the page when they change.
Photographs remain the part the business supplies. The site ships with stock imagery chosen for the description so that it is complete on arrival, and every image can be replaced by clicking it in the editor.
The bottom line
A small business website is mainly a way of answering five questions quickly, and most of the failures are a failure to answer one of them near the top of the page.
If only one item on this list gets attention: put the price, the hours and the phone number where they can be found in a few seconds on a phone.
Design still matters. It matters less than being able to tell whether the business is open.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to put prices on my website?
- Some indication is more useful than none. A starting price, a range or a worked example all tell a visitor whether they are in the right place. Where no figure is given, a common assumption is that the price is high, and the visitors who assume that generally do not ring to check.
- How many pages should a small business website have?
- Most need between one and five. A single well-ordered home page tends to work better than five thin pages, and a page is worth adding when there is a genuine amount to say — a service that needs explaining, or a menu too long for the home page.
- What should be on the home page specifically?
- What the business does in the first sentence, what it costs or starts at, the address and hours if people visit, the area covered if the business travels, and one obvious way to make contact. The rest is optional.
- Is a blog worth it for a small business?
- Only where it will be kept up. A blog with a single post from three years ago reads as neglect rather than as activity. Nothing else on this checklist depends on having one.
- How important is mobile?
- It is the primary case rather than a consideration. Most people checking opening hours, prices or an address are doing it on a phone, often outdoors. A layout that works there generally works on a desktop as well.
- Do I need photographs of my own?
- In the end, yes, and they are among the highest-return work available. Stock imagery is a reasonable starting point so that the page is complete, and photographs of the actual room and the actual work are what carry specific information.