What to put on a small business website

Most small business websites fail in one of two ways. They say too little, so a visitor cannot tell what is on offer, or they say a great deal without ever answering the question that brought the visitor. A useful site does the first job well: it states the facts a stranger needs before they will get in touch.

Say what you do in the first sentence

Open every page with a plain statement of what it covers, written the way a customer would describe it. “We repair and restore wooden furniture for homes in Ottawa” works better than “Crafting heritage for modern living.” Visitors skim, and search engines and AI assistants read the opening to decide what a page is about. If the answer is there first, both do their job quickly.

Say where you work, once and truthfully

Name the town, region or province you serve. If you serve several places, say so on one page rather than writing a near-copy of the page for each. Google’s spam policies treat large numbers of near-identical pages that differ only by place name as doorway abuse, and they do nothing for a real visitor. Create a separate location page only when it holds something specific to that place.

Show your prices, or say how they work

People hesitate when they cannot tell whether they can afford you. Nielsen Norman Group lists upfront disclosure of pricing and fees among the factors that build trust on a website. If you can publish a price, do. If prices depend on the job, say what they depend on and what a first conversation costs, even if the answer is nothing.

If a visitor has to ask whether they can afford you, some will not ask.

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Make the next step obvious

Choose one action for each page: call, book or send a note. Say what happens after. Keep any form short, with a visible label on each field. Nielsen Norman Group’s guidance on web forms favours fewer fields and clear labels, and the reason is practical: every extra question loses someone. Then do what you said. If you promise a reply, send it.

A phone number is only helpful if it is answered. If it is not, fix that first.

Prove it without inventing anything

Show real work, real processes and real constraints. Describe what you did and how, not only that it was excellent. Do not publish testimonials, ratings, logos or results you cannot produce evidence for, and if an example is illustrative, label it as such. A short honest page beats a long impressive one the visitor does not believe.

Write for someone who is skimming

Most visitors scan before they read. Make each heading say something, so a person who reads only the headings still learns what you do, what it costs and what to do next. Keep paragraphs short and put the point first. If a section needs a paragraph to get to its point, rewrite it.

What to leave out

• “Welcome to our website.” It uses the best spot on the page to say nothing.
• Words nobody uses. If a customer would not say it, do not write it.
• Claims you cannot support. “Best in the region” and “guaranteed results” invite doubt.
• Everything at once. A page that tries to speak to every customer speaks clearly to none.

Keep the facts identical everywhere

Use the same business name, contact details, service descriptions and hours on every page and on every profile you control. Inconsistent facts confuse visitors and make it harder for search engines and assistants to describe you correctly.

Google’s guidance on generative AI features, updated in July 2026, says no special files or markup are needed for them. Pages need to be indexable and genuinely helpful. That is the same advice as for ordinary search.

Do the basics that people forget

• A clear title and description on each page, different from every other page.
• Real headings in order, so the page reads as an outline.
• Descriptive link text, not “click here”.
• Text alternatives for images that describe what they show.
• Readable on a phone, with large enough text and tap targets.
• Accessible by build. Ontario’s accessibility rules for public websites apply to organizations with 50 or more employees, according to the Government of Ontario, but accessible sites work better for everyone. Aim for WCAG 2.2 AA.

Which pages you need

Most small service businesses need fewer pages than they think. A home page, one page for each main service, an about page, a contact page and a short page of common questions cover most visitors. Add a guide or a case study only when you have something real to say. Every page should have a job you could write in a sentence, and a visitor should be able to reach any of them in one click from the menu.

A one-minute check for any page

1. Does the first sentence say what this page is about?
2. Can I tell who it is for and where you work?
3. Do I know what it costs, or how that is decided?
4. Is there one clear next step?
5. Is anything on the page something you could not prove?