The pages you need
| Page | What it must do |
|---|---|
| Homepage | Say in one sentence what you do, for whom and where, with a clear way to get in touch straight away. |
| A page for each main service | Explain the service, who it’s for, roughly what it costs and how it works. One page per service also helps Google match you to searches. |
| About | Show the real people behind the business. People buy from people, especially from small businesses. |
| Contact | Phone, email, a contact form that’s been tested, your area or address, and your hours. |
| Reviews or examples of work | Proof that you’re good at what you do: Google reviews, testimonials, photos or case studies. |
| Privacy policy | Required by UK law if you collect any personal details, even through a contact form. |
Nice to have: a frequently asked questions section, prices or “from” prices, and a page for each main area you cover.
On every page
- A clear next step: call, book, get a quote or message you. Make it obvious, and make it easy on a phone.
- Tap-to-call phone number and email in the header or footer.
- Your business name, area and contact details the same everywhere, matching your Google Business Profile.
- Real photos of you, your work and your premises where you can. Stock photos are fine as a backup, not the main event.
Behind the scenes: the checklist
- Secure address (https) with a valid SSL certificate, so browsers don’t show “Not secure”.
- Works properly on phones, tested on real ones, not just on a computer.
- Fast: images compressed, caching on, nothing huge loading at the top. See why is my website slow.
- Set up for Google: a title and description for every page, one main heading per page, image descriptions (alt text) and a sitemap sent to Google Search Console.
- Business details for Google and AI: structured data describing your business, linked to your Google Business Profile.
- Cookie banner if you use analytics or advertising cookies, with a real choice to say no.
- Accessible: readable text, enough colour contrast, and usable with a keyboard.
- Contact form tested end to end, so enquiries actually reach you.
- Analytics, so you can see what’s working.
- Backups switched on, kept somewhere other than the website itself.
- Your domain in your name, not your designer’s.
Run the free check
What you can leave out
- A blog you won’t keep up. An abandoned blog with three posts from 2022 does more harm than none. A few genuinely useful guides are better.
- Sliders and autoplay carousels. They slow pages down and most people never see past the first slide.
- Pages for the sake of it. Every page should help a customer decide or get in touch.
The checklist I use
Every website I build goes through the same launch list before it goes live: custom design and build, tested on phones, tablets and computers; a lean, fast build with caching and compressed images; titles, descriptions, a sitemap sent to Google and image descriptions; accessibility checks for colour contrast and keyboard use; SSL; the contact form tested end to end; and backups switched on.
When you don’t need me
If you’re building your own site, use this list as your launch checklist and you’ll be ahead of most small business websites. If you’d rather it was all done properly for you, see my website design service, from £1,995 with a fixed quote.
Written by Ben Brailsford-Chambers, the web designer behind Clever Rabbit in Oldbury. Last updated 25 October 2026. More guides