What to actually put on a small business website
Page by page and section by section, with the specific things a visitor came to find — and the things every site includes that nobody reads.
Almost every small business website contains the same six paragraphs about quality and commitment, and almost nobody reads them. Meanwhile the three facts a visitor actually came for are missing, wrong, or four clicks away.
This is a guide to writing the second kind of site. It is organised by page, and every recommendation comes from the same principle: a visitor arrived with a question, and your job is to answer it before they give up.
Start by writing down the four questions
Before any pages, list the four things people phone you to ask. Not what you wish they asked — what they actually ask, this month.
For most small organisations the list looks something like:
- Are you open now / on Sunday?
- How much is it?
- Where exactly are you?
- Do you do [the specific thing I need]?
Those four answers are your website. Everything else is supporting material. If a visitor cannot get all four within about fifteen seconds, the site has failed regardless of how it looks — and you will keep taking those calls.
The homepage
The homepage has one job: tell a stranger what this is, and send them to the right place. It is not a summary of everything.
The first screen, before any scrolling
- Who you are and what you do, in a sentence that names the thing. “Family-run guesthouse in Paro, ten rooms, five minutes from the airport.” Not “Welcome to our website.”
- The one action you want. Call, enquire, book, visit. One primary button, said as a verb.
- Where you are. Town at minimum.
That is the whole first screen. A photograph behind it is fine — a photograph instead of it is the most common mistake on the internet.
Then, in this order
- What you offer — three to six items, each a heading and two lines. Link them to fuller pages if they deserve one.
- Why you — specific and checkable. “Open since 1998”, “we speak Dzongkha, English and Hindi”, “we deliver in Thimphu before 11am”. Not “quality service”.
- Proof — a photograph of the real place, real people, or something a customer actually said. If you have no testimonials, leave the section out rather than inventing one.
- Practical details — hours, location, phone. Repeated here even though they are also on the contact page, because this is where people look.
- The action again — the same button as the top. Someone who has just finished reading is the most likely to act.
The about page
More read than you would think, because it is where people decide whether you are real.
Include:
- When you started and, briefly, why.
- Who is actually involved. Names. A photograph of a real person outperforms any stock image ever taken.
- Something specific that could not be said about anyone else in your trade.
Leave out:
- “We strive to deliver excellence through customer-centric solutions.” This sentence appears on thousands of sites and has never persuaded anyone of anything.
- A mission statement written for a grant application.
- A history of your industry.
A good test: could a competitor put their name at the top of your about page and change nothing? If so, it says nothing.
Services, products or rooms
One page listing them, or one page each if they are substantial. For each item, give a visitor what they need to decide:
- What it is, in the words a customer would use rather than your internal term.
- What it costs. See below.
- How long it takes, if that is a question people ask.
- What is included and what is not. Most complaints start here.
- A photograph of the real thing.
On prices
Put them on. The usual objections are real but almost always outweighed:
“Competitors will see them.” They already know. They can telephone.
“It depends on the job.” Then say what it depends on and give a range or a starting point. “Site visits from Nu. 1,500 depending on distance” tells someone whether to call. Silence tells them to call somebody else.
“I want them to enquire so I can sell.” A visitor with no price does not enquire. They assume it is expensive and leave, and you never learn they were there.
If you genuinely cannot publish prices, publish the shape of the pricing: what is charged by, what a typical job runs to, what makes it more.
The contact page
The most-visited page on most small business sites, and routinely the thinnest. Everything here should be tappable on a phone.
- Phone number, as a link that dials. A number you cannot tap is a number you have to memorise, switch app, and retype.
- Email address, as a link that opens mail.
- WhatsApp or the messaging app people actually use, if that is how you prefer to be reached. Say so.
- The address, plus a landmark. “Above the pharmacy, opposite the school” is more useful than a plot number, because that is how directions are given here.
- A map link.
- Hours, laid out by day, with the exceptions written down.
- How fast you reply. “We answer emails within a working day” sets an expectation and stops people phoning twice.
- A form, for people who will not phone. Keep it to name, contact, message. Every additional field loses you enquiries.
Hours deserve their own paragraph
Write the real ones, including the awkward parts. Closed 1–2 for lunch? Say so. Different in winter? Say so. Closed on government holidays? Say so.
The point of publishing hours is that someone can rely on them. Hours that are approximately right are worse than none, because they send people to a locked door — and that person tells other people.
What to leave out
- A welcome message. The visitor knows they arrived. Use the space to say something.
- A slideshow. They are rarely looked at past the first image, they push your actual content below the fold, and they cost your visitors data.
- “Coming soon” pages. An empty page in your navigation is a promise you are visibly not keeping. Remove the link until the page exists.
- A blog you will not write. One post from three years ago is worse than no blog — it makes the whole site look abandoned.
- Stock photographs of people who are not you. Everyone recognises them, and they quietly say “this could be anybody”.
- Social feeds embedded in a page. They slow the site down and show whatever you last posted, which may be nothing for six months.
- A visitor counter. If the number is small it undermines you; if it is large nobody believes it.
Writing that gets read
- Short paragraphs. Two or three sentences. Long blocks get skipped on a phone.
- Headings that say what follows, not clever ones. People scan headings and read one section.
- “You”, not “our valued customers”. You are writing to one person.
- Concrete over abstract. “Ready in 48 hours” beats “fast turnaround”. “Ten rooms” beats “spacious accommodation”.
- Cut the first sentence. Most paragraphs start with a run-up. Delete it and the paragraph is better.
Before you call it finished
Give your phone to somebody who does not know your business and ask them to find:
- What you do.
- Whether you are open on Saturday.
- Roughly what it costs.
- How to reach you.
Do not help them. Watch where they hesitate and where they scroll past what they needed. Ten minutes of that is worth more than any amount of opinion about the design, and it is the only test in this guide you cannot do alone.