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The pages a small-business website needs

A small-business site doesn't need to be big. It needs to answer a stranger's questions fast and honestly. Five pages do most of that work.

Last checked October 15, 2026 · about 6 minutes to read · drafted and checked with AI help, here's how

Think about the last time you looked up a business you'd never used. You probably wanted to know four things: what they do, whether they do it where you are, how to reach them, and whether they seem trustworthy. If the site answered those quickly, you called. If you had to dig, you went back to the search results.

Every page below exists to answer one of those questions. You can add more later. Start with these and make each one good.

Home page

Someone landing on your home page should know within a few seconds what you do and where. Put it in a plain sentence near the top: "We repair furnaces and boilers in Duluth and the North Shore." Not a slogan. A slogan can come second.

Then give them the one thing you most want them to do, whether that's call, book, get a quote or visit, and make it easy to find on a phone without scrolling. Below that, a short summary of your main services with links to their pages, your service area or address, and your hours.

What to leave off: auto-playing video, a slideshow of stock photos, and a wall of text about your "commitment to excellence". Most visitors skip all three.

Services (one page per main service)

If you do a few distinct things, give each its own page. A page about drain cleaning and a page about water heater installs can each say something specific and useful. A single "Services" page with a bulleted list says very little.

A good service page covers:

  • what the service is and who it's for, in the words a customer would use
  • what's included and what isn't
  • how it works from first call to finished job
  • how pricing works, honestly. If you can give a range or a "starting at" price that's true, do. If every job is different, say what affects the price.
  • common questions you hear on the phone, answered

One warning: don't make a stack of near-identical pages for each town you serve, with only the town name changed. Google's spam policies give city-by-city pages that all funnel visitors to the same place as an example of "doorway abuse". One honest page listing your service area works better.

About page

This is where a stranger decides whether to trust you. Google's guidance on helpful content asks whether it's obvious to visitors who made your content, and mentions an About page as one way to build trust. For a small business, the about page is where that answer lives.

  • Who runs the business, by name. A real photo helps more than you'd think.
  • How long you've been doing this work, and how you got into it. Only what's true.
  • Licenses, certifications or memberships you actually hold, ideally with a way to look them up. If you don't hold one, don't hint that you do.
  • Where you're based and the area you cover.

Leave out testimonials you can't trace to a real customer. Made-up reviews break the FTC's rule on fake reviews and testimonials (more in the first-visitors guide).

Contact page

A contact page that only has a form makes people nervous. Give them:

  • a phone number that's tappable on a phone
  • an email address, ideally at your own domain (see the email guide)
  • your address if customers come to you, or your service area if you go to them
  • your hours, and how quickly you usually reply
  • a short form, if you want one, asking only for what you actually need
  • what happens after they get in touch: "We'll call you back the same day to set up a visit" is reassuring. Only promise what you'll actually do.

Privacy page

Many small-business owners skip this. Whether you need one depends on what your site collects, and the answer is usually "something".

  • California's law. The California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) requires commercial websites that collect personal information, such as a name, email or phone number, from California residents to post a privacy policy where people can easily find it. If your contact form collects those details from people in California, the law applies to you, even if your business is somewhere else.
  • Tools you add. Analytics, ad networks and some form or chat tools have their own terms that require you to tell visitors what they collect. Google's AdSense program, for example, requires a privacy disclosure about its cookies.

What goes in it: what you collect (form fields, analytics, cookies), why, who else gets it (your email provider, analytics company, ad network), how long you keep it, and how to contact you. Write it in plain words, and make it match what your site really does. A copied template that mentions things your site doesn't do, or misses things it does, isn't much help to anyone. This is general information, not legal advice. If you collect sensitive data, take payments or serve customers outside the US, talk to a lawyer.

Small things that make every page work harder

Titles

Every page needs its own <title>. Google says titles should be distinct, descriptive and concise, with no keyword stuffing or repeated boilerplate. "Drain Cleaning in Duluth | Northland Plumbing" beats "Services | Northland Plumbing" and beats "Plumber Duluth Plumbing Drain Plumber Best Duluth". Google writes the title links in search results automatically and may pull from your heading or elsewhere, but a good title is its best raw material.

Descriptions

The meta description is a short summary you can add to each page. Google says its search snippets are mainly created from the page content itself, and it uses your meta description only sometimes, when it describes the page better. It's still worth writing one sentence for each main page. Just don't expect it to show up word for word.

Structured data, if your builder supports it

Structured data is a block of code that labels facts about your business so search engines can read them reliably. For a local business, Google requires only your name and address, and recommends adding your phone number, website address, opening hours and map location. Many site builders and SEO plugins (add-ons that help with search) can add it for you. Look for "local business" or "schema" settings.

One trap: don't add star-rating code about your own business. Google recommends review and rating markup only for sites that review other businesses.

Accessibility basics

A site that works for people with disabilities works better for everybody. A few basics cover a lot of ground:

  • Alt text on images that carry meaning: a short description that does the same job as the picture. Purely decorative images should be hidden from screen readers (software that reads a page aloud for people who can't see it) instead.
  • Contrast. Under the WCAG accessibility guidelines (level AA), normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background, and large text at least 3:1. Dark gray on white passes; light gray on white usually fails. Free contrast checkers will tell you in seconds.
  • Real text, not pictures of text. Hours and prices baked into an image can't be read by screen readers, translated or searched.
  • Links that say where they go. "See our drain cleaning prices" beats "click here".

On the legal side, the US Department of Justice's 2022 guidance says the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to the websites of businesses open to the public. It doesn't set a specific technical standard for private businesses and calls the WCAG guidelines helpful guidance. The 2024 rule that requires WCAG 2.1 level AA applies to state and local governments, not private businesses.

Pages you can skip for now

  • A blog, unless you'll actually post. A blog whose newest entry is from launch week makes the whole site look abandoned.
  • A "testimonials" page before you have real ones. Add it when you do.
  • Separate pages for every town you serve (see above).

An FAQ page is worth adding once you notice the same questions coming in by phone. Write down the answers you give, and you've written it.

Sources

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