Guide

What should a small business website include?

By the Cider Websites team · Updated October 11, 2026 · 7 min read

The must-haves on every small business website

Most visitors arrive with one question: can this business help me, and how do I reach them? A good small business site answers that in seconds, then gives search engines and careful readers the detail they need.

The first screen

What you do, where, and how to get in touch, above the fold. Before anyone scrolls, the first screen should say what the business is, the area it serves, and give a phone number, a booking button or a quote form.
One clear call to action on every page. Call, book, order, get a quote, visit: pick the main one and make it easy to find on a phone.

The pages

Your services. A page, or a clear section, for each main service, with a sentence or two on what's included and prices or starting prices if you can share them.
About. Who's behind the business, how long you've been doing it, and why someone should choose you.
Contact, consistent everywhere. Your business name, address and phone number (often called NAP) written exactly as they appear on your Google Business Profile and in directories, plus your hours, a map and an email or form.

Trust

Real photos. You, your team, your premises and your work. Real photos do more for trust than any stock image.
Licenses, insurance and memberships. Essential for trades and professional services, and worth showing for anyone else who has them.
Reviews, linked from where they were left. Show a few reviews and link them to your Google Business Profile or the review site they came from, so visitors can see they're genuine.

Behind the scenes

Works well on phones. Text readable without zooming, buttons big enough to tap, and a phone number that calls when tapped.
Loads fast. Compressed images and no heavy scripts. A slow site loses visitors before they've read a word.
A privacy policy. If your site has a contact form, a newsletter sign-up or analytics, it collects personal information, and you should explain what you do with it.
Accessibility basics. Enough contrast, readable text sizes, descriptions on images (alt text), headings in order, and forms that work with a keyboard.
Page titles and descriptions. Each page has its own title and description, naming the service and the town, because that's what shows in search results.
A link to your Google Business Profile. It's often how local customers find you first, and linking it helps visitors check your reviews and directions.
Analytics. A simple, privacy-respecting count of visitors and where they came from, so you know what's working.

Where each must-have goes, and why it matters

Small business website essentials and where they belong
What	Where it goes	Why it matters
What you do and where	The first screen of the home page	Visitors decide in seconds whether they're in the right place
Phone number or booking button	The header of every page	People on phones want to call or book without scrolling
Name, address and phone	The footer and the contact page	Matching your Google Business Profile helps local search
Services	Their own pages or sections	Each service can be found in search on its own
Reviews	The home page and service pages, linked to the source	Proof from someone other than you
Licenses and insurance	The about page or the footer	Expected in trades and professional services
Privacy policy	A link in the footer	Needed when you collect names, emails or analytics data
Page titles and descriptions	Each page's settings	They're what people see in search results
Analytics	Across the whole site	Tells you which pages bring customers

Not sure which pages your business needs? How many pages does a website need? has typical page sets for cafés, trades, practices and firms.

Nice-to-haves once the basics are done

These help many businesses, but only add them once the essentials are solid, and only if you'll keep them up to date.

An FAQ section. Short answers to the questions customers ask most: parking, prices, how long a job takes, what to bring. Clear questions and answers also help search engines and chat-style search tools quote you; see answer engine optimization.
A gallery or recent work. Before-and-after photos, finished projects, dishes, rooms.
Team pages. Short bios and photos, especially for practices and firms where people choose a person.
A page for each service area or location, if each has something real and local to say.
Online booking or ordering, linked from the system you already use rather than rebuilt.
A newsletter sign-up, if you'll actually send one.
Other languages, if many of your customers prefer one.
Articles or news, only if you'll publish regularly. An abandoned blog makes a business look closed.

What to leave out

Some things make a small business site worse, however common they are.

Walls of stock photos. Generic smiling people tell visitors nothing about you. A few real photos beat dozens of stock ones.
Autoplay video or music. It's jarring, it slows the page, and many visitors leave straight away.
Key information in PDFs. Menus, price lists and forms buried in PDFs are hard to read on phones and harder for search engines to understand. Put them on the page.
Pop-ups the moment the page loads. Let people see what you do before you ask for their email.
Sliders that hide your message. If the most important line rotates away after three seconds, most people never read it.
Vague slogans. "Excellence in everything we do" says nothing. "Family plumbers in Tacoma since 1998" says a lot.
Out-of-date details. Old hours, expired offers and "coming soon" pages cost trust quickly.
Long contact forms. Ask only for what you need to reply.

What every Cider Websites site includes

Every launch includes the foundations: a design made around your own photos, logo and words, pages that work well on phones, search-ready page titles and descriptions, and a launch on your own domain with https. A person on our team checks every first draft before you see it, and your rounds of changes are the time to check the draft against the list below.

We link the systems you already use for booking, ordering and reviews rather than rebuilding them, so nothing changes for your customers or your staff.

We write the words for every page, on every launch. A simple logo design is $149, or included in the Signature launch. After launch, our care plan and add-ons such as SEO & AEO care, or Google Business Profile upkeep, keep things current. See what each launch includes, or browse websites by industry.

A small business website checklist

Print this, or keep it open while you review your site before launch. Every line should be a yes.

The first screen says what you do and where, without scrolling.
A phone number, booking button or quote form is visible on every page.
Each main service has its own page or clear section.
Prices or starting prices are shown where you can share them.
The about page says who you are and why to choose you.
Your name, address and phone match your Google Business Profile exactly.
Your hours are on the site and up to date.
Photos are real: your team, your premises, your work.
Licenses, insurance or memberships are listed if you have them.
Reviews link back to where they were left.
Every page works and reads well on a phone.
Pages load quickly, even on a weak mobile signal.
Each page has its own title and description.
Images have short descriptions (alt text), and text has enough contrast.
Forms work, and the messages they send arrive.
A privacy policy is linked in the footer.
Your Google Business Profile is linked.
Analytics is set up.
There's no key information locked in a PDF.
Nothing says "coming soon" or shows an old offer.

For help getting found once the site is live, read How to get your business on Google.

Questions people ask

What is the most important page on a small business website?

The home page, because most visitors land there first and decide in seconds whether to stay. For search, though, service pages often bring in visitors looking for exactly what you do.

Does a small business website need a privacy policy?

In most cases, yes. If your site has a contact form, a newsletter sign-up or analytics, it collects personal information, and many laws and services expect a privacy policy; rules vary by state and country, so check what applies to you.

Should I put prices on my website?

If you can, yes, even as starting prices or ranges. Prices answer the question most visitors have and cut down on inquiries that aren't a fit; if every job is different, explain what affects the price.

Do I need a blog on my business website?

No. A blog helps only if you'll publish useful posts regularly, and an abandoned one makes a business look inactive; solid service pages and a good FAQ do more for most small businesses.

Should I put reviews on my website?

Yes, but link them to where they were left, such as your Google Business Profile, so visitors can check they're real. Quotes without a source are easy to ignore.

Want it done for you? The first draft is free

Tell us about your business and we'll do the rest. Questions first? Email hello@ciderwebsites.com.

Start your site

You pay only when you launch.