From the PeachSites Archive
This article was published before PeachSites shifted its primary focus toward website migration and ownership. Some services, recommendations, or pricing may have changed.
Explore current website guides →A small business website does not need hundreds of pages or complicated features to be effective.
What matters most is whether customers can quickly understand the business, find the information they need, and know what to do next.
Here are eight things every small business website should have.
Visitors should be able to understand the business within a few seconds of arriving on the website.
The homepage should clearly explain what you offer, who you serve, and, when relevant, where you provide those services.
Customers should not have to search for a way to contact the business.
Depending on the business, that may include a phone number, email address, contact form, physical address, or service request form.
Important contact information should be especially easy to access on mobile devices.
A website should explain what the business actually provides instead of relying on vague marketing language.
For service businesses, dedicated service pages can also give customers useful information while helping search engines understand the website.
Every important page should give visitors a logical next step.
That might be:
The right call to action depends on how customers normally interact with the business.
A significant portion of website visitors may be using phones or tablets.
Text should be readable, navigation should be easy to use, buttons should be easy to tap, and forms should work comfortably on smaller screens.
Before contacting an unfamiliar business, customers often look for signs that the company is legitimate and dependable.
Useful trust signals can include:
A website should give search engines enough information to understand the business and its content.
That includes descriptive page titles, useful headings, relevant service information, logical internal links, and accurate location information for local businesses.
Good SEO starts with a useful, understandable website rather than simply adding keywords to pages.
Business owners should understand who controls the important parts of their website.
That includes the domain name, website files or platform account, DNS, analytics, and other services connected to the site.
Knowing where these assets are and who controls them can make future updates, redesigns, and website migrations much easier.
A website should not create another layer of confusion for the business or its customers.
It should clearly communicate what the company does, establish trust, help customers find useful information, and provide an obvious way to take the next step.
What comes next?
Start with a free PeachSites migration assessment to see what may be possible to preserve, improve, or redesign.
