What should actually be on your small business website?

The non-negotiables

What your business does, stated plainly, in the first few seconds someone lands on the page. A phone number or contact form that actually works. Opening hours or availability. A physical address or the areas you cover. A handful of real photos, not stock imagery. And reviews or testimonials, if you have them.

Nice to have, roughly in order of value

Pricing, or at least a price range, cuts down on time-wasting enquiries from people who were never going to be a fit. A short FAQ answering the three or four questions you get asked most. A simple line or two about who runs the business, people tend to trust people more than they trust a logo. And any social proof beyond reviews: press mentions, years trading, relevant certifications.

What usually isn't worth it on a first version

A blog nobody's going to keep updating. A live chat widget nobody's staffing. A members area. Multiple language versions for a purely local audience. A video background in the hero section, it slows the page down for limited benefit and most visitors barely notice it.

The one thing most sites get wrong

Burying the phone number or contact details below a big generic image, instead of putting them somewhere a visitor can act on immediately. If someone has to scroll to find how to contact you, that's a design decision working against you, and it's one of the more common trust-eroding mistakes covered in our guide on what makes customers trust a website.