Guide · published 15 July 2026

The small business website checklist.

Everything a small business website needs to actually work - the technical essentials, local SEO, the things that turn visitors into enquiries, the UK legal boxes, and the upkeep nobody mentions. 37 checks, all doable yourself, no jargon.

Tick items off as you go - or print the page and work through it on paper. We build websites in Blackpool for a living (one plan, £29.99 a month), but nothing below requires hiring us or anyone else.

0 of 37 ticked

The essentials

Get these wrong and nothing else on this page matters. Most take minutes to check and cost nothing to fix.

It works properly on a phoneMost local searches happen on a phone, so test on a real one - not a shrunk browser window. Buttons big enough to tap, text readable without pinching, nothing spilling off the edge.
It loads in about three seconds or lessRun your address through Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool. The usual culprit is huge photos uploaded straight from a phone - compressing them is free and often halves the load time.
It has SSL - the padlock in the address barWithout it, browsers stamp “Not secure” next to your name and Google marks you down. Certificates are free from Let’s Encrypt and most hosts switch them on with one click.
Your phone number is on every pageIn the header or footer, not buried on a contact page. Someone ready to call shouldn’t have to hunt - every extra tap loses a percentage of them.
Your opening hours are published - and trueNothing burns trust like a closed door the website said was open. Put hours on the site, keep them matching Google, and update both for holidays.
Your Google Business Profile is claimed and linked upThe free profile that puts you on Google Maps. Claim it, fill in every field, add photos and link it to your website. For most local firms it brings more calls than the site itself.
Your email address matches your domainEnquiries to [email protected] look established; a gmail address on a business website quietly undermines everything else. Mailboxes cost a pound or two a month, if your host doesn’t include them.
Every page has its own sensible titleThe text in the browser tab and on Google’s results page. “Home” tells Google nothing; “Roofer in Fleetwood | Smith Roofing” tells it everything. One unique title per page, under 60 characters.

Local SEO fundamentals

You don’t need an SEO agency to rank for your trade in your town. You need the basics done consistently - and most of your competitors haven’t done them.

Your name, address and phone number are identical everywhereWebsite, Google Business Profile, Facebook, directories - the exact same spelling, format and number. Google cross-references these; “St Annes Rd” here and “Saint Annes Road” there muddies the signal.
Pages say what you do and where you do itGoogle can’t rank you for “electrician in Poulton” if those words never appear together on your site. Work your trade and your towns into headings and text - naturally, the way you’d say it to a customer.
You have a page for each area you genuinely serveA Blackpool tradesperson who also covers Cleveleys and Lytham should have a real page for each, with genuinely different content - not one paragraph with the town swapped, which Google filters out. Our own area pages are this tactic in practice.
LocalBusiness structured data is on the siteA small block of code (schema.org markup) spelling out your name, address, hours and phone for search engines. Invisible to visitors, it helps Google show your details correctly - free generators exist.
You’re collecting Google reviews - and replying to themOne of the strongest local ranking signals and the first thing customers read. Ask every happy customer, make it easy with a direct link, and reply to all of them - especially the bad ones.
Every page has a unique meta descriptionThe couple of lines under your title in Google results. It doesn’t affect ranking directly, but it decides whether people click you or the listing below - write each like a small advert.

Conversion basics

Traffic is worthless if visitors leave without contacting you. These are the difference between a website and a brochure nobody reads.

A first-time visitor understands you in five secondsOne plain sentence at the top of the homepage: what you do, who for, where. “Plumbing and heating across the Fylde coast” beats “Welcome to our website” every time.
Each page has one obvious next stepCall, book, get a quote - pick one and make it the biggest, brightest thing on the page. Five competing buttons convert worse than one clear one.
Phone numbers are tap-to-callOn a phone, your number should dial when tapped - a one-line change (a tel: link) plenty of sites miss. If you use WhatsApp for enquiries, add a wa.me link too.
Your contact form asks for almost nothingName, one way to reach them, message. Every extra required field loses real enquiries - the ten-field form protects your inbox at the cost of your order book.
Trust signals are real, not stockPhotos of your actual work, van and face; genuine review quotes; accreditations; “established 2016” if you can say it. One real photo beats any stock handshake - our case studies lean on this.
Prices - or at least honest ranges - are publishedThe business that publishes prices gets the enquiry from everyone tired of “contact us for a quote”. Can’t give exact figures? Publish “from” prices or typical ranges. We publish every price we charge for exactly this reason.

Accessibility basics

Around one in five people in the UK has a disability. An inaccessible site turns those customers away - and every fix below helps everyone, including your ranking.

Text has enough contrast to actually readPale grey on white looks elegant in a mockup, but plenty of people can’t read it - especially outdoors on a phone. The standard is a 4.5:1 contrast ratio for body text; free checkers like WebAIM’s tell you in seconds.
Images that carry meaning have alt textA short written description read out by screen readers and shown when images fail to load. Describe what matters (“slate roof repair in Bispham”), skip decoration, never stuff it with keywords.
The whole site works with a keyboardTab through every menu, link and form field. If you can’t see where you are - no visible focus outline - or you get stuck, so does anyone who can’t use a mouse.
Form fields have proper labelsReal labels, not grey placeholder text that vanishes when someone starts typing. Screen readers need them, and everyone benefits when the label stays visible mid-form.
Headings are structured, not just styledOne main heading (h1) per page, subheadings in logical order beneath. Screen reader users navigate by headings, and search engines read the page the same way.

UK legal must-haves

Not legal advice - but these obligations apply to almost every UK small business website, and they’re the items most often missing.

A privacy policyIf your site collects any personal data - a contact form or analytics both count - UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 require you to say what you collect, why, and for how long. See our privacy policy if you want to see the shape of one.
Cookie complianceUnder PECR you need consent before setting non-essential cookies - which includes most analytics and all advertising pixels. Know what your site actually sets, then be honest about it; a plain site with no tracking may need very little.
Your legal business details, on the siteA limited company must display its registered name, company number and registered office (Companies Act 2006) - the footer is fine. Sole traders should show their trading name and a contact address. VAT registered? Show the number.
Terms and conditions if you sell or take bookings onlineThe Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give online customers cancellation and refund rights you must spell out before they buy. Even service businesses benefit - ours are public, and they settle arguments before they start.
Prices shown honestlyPrices shown to consumers must include VAT and any unavoidable fees. “£99 (+VAT, +booking fee)” discovered at checkout is drip-pricing territory and a guaranteed abandoned basket.
Reasonable accessibilityThe Equality Act 2010 treats a website as a service, so you’re expected to make reasonable adjustments for disabled users. There’s no fixed private-sector standard, but the accessibility basics above are the accepted baseline.

Maintenance realities

A website isn’t a one-off purchase, whatever the invoice said. This is the part nobody mentions at the sales stage - so we will.

Backups run automatically - and you’ve tested a restoreA backup stored on the same server that fails with it is not a backup. It should run without you thinking about it, live somewhere separate, and someone should have proven it restores.
Software updates are actually happeningIf your site runs WordPress or similar, out-of-date plugins are how most small business sites get hacked. Someone needs to apply updates monthly and check nothing broke. “Nobody’s job” is the usual answer, and it shows.
Your domain is registered in your name - and you know whereBusinesses genuinely lose their domain because it sat under a web designer’s account and renewal quietly lapsed. Know the registrar, keep the registration in your business’s name, turn auto-renew on.
You know what hosting really costs after year oneThat £2.99-a-month hosting deal typically renews at three or four times the price. Not a scandal - just check the renewal figure now rather than on a bank statement.
Broken things get noticed within days, not monthsContact forms fail silently - the visitor sees “thank you”, the email never arrives, and you lose enquiries for months without knowing. Send yourself a test enquiry now and again, and click round the site quarterly on a phone.
One named person is responsible for all of the aboveYou, someone on your team, or a provider you pay. This section is the real argument for managed plans like ours - not the design; the fact that backups, updates, renewals and monitoring are permanently somebody’s job.

If your site passes all 37, it’s better than most.

Genuinely - work through this list and you’ll be ahead of most small business websites in any town, including plenty that cost thousands. The hard part isn’t any single item; it’s that the last section never finishes, and those are the checks that quietly lapse first.

That ongoing part is the actual product we sell. Design gets the attention, but the reason our customers - from hotels to B&Bs, across Bispham, Cleveleys, Lytham St Annes and the rest of the coast - stay is that every box on this page is permanently somebody’s job. Ours.

Checklist questions

Asked before you have to.

Anything else, WhatsApp us or email [email protected] - happy to answer even if you’re doing it all yourself. Ask for Lee.

What does a small business website actually need?

Six things, in order: it works on a phone, loads fast with SSL, shows your contact details and hours everywhere, ties into your Google Business Profile, gives visitors one clear way to get in touch, and covers the UK legal basics. Everything else on this checklist builds on those.

How much does a small business website cost in the UK?

It varies enormously. DIY builders like Wix or Squarespace typically run £10-£40 a month plus your own time; freelancers we've seen commonly charge £500-£1,500 for a small site; agency builds typically start around £2,000-£5,000 up front, with hosting and maintenance billed on top. Our model is £99 setup then £29.99 a month, everything included.

Do I legally need a privacy policy on my website?

If the site collects any personal data - and a contact form or analytics both count - then yes, UK GDPR requires you to explain what you collect and why. It doesn't need to be long or written by a solicitor; it needs to be accurate.

How many pages should a small business website have?

Most small businesses need five or six: home, services (or one page per main service), about, contact, and a page for each area you genuinely serve. More pages only help if each one answers a real question a customer has - ten thin pages rank worse than five good ones.

Can I work through this checklist myself, without hiring anyone?

Yes - that's the point of it. Nothing here requires an agency: the tools mentioned are free, and most items are an afternoon's work. The honest trade-off is time - especially the maintenance section, which never ends. Rather have it all handled for one monthly fee? That's what we do - but the checklist works either way.

Rather have every box handled for you? £99 setup · £29.99 a month, all-in

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Cancel anytime with 30 days' notice · yours to keep after 12 months. Full detail on the pricing page, or call 01253 835 836.