Small business website: the pages that actually make people call

What your customer is looking for in ten seconds

Your visitor is often on their phone, sometimes with a leak under the sink or a car that won't start. They want to know whether you do what they need, whether you come to them and how to call you. Every page should get them there without detours.

The essential pages

• Home: your trade and your area from the very first line, your phone number visible, three or four services, some of your work and your reviews.
• One page per key service: "Water heater repair", "Boiler servicing"… Each page can rank for a specific search your customer types.
• Your service area: the towns you really cover, with what's specific to each (response times, type of homes, examples of jobs). Not 50 copy-pasted pages.
• Your work: real photos, before and after if possible, with a line of explanation (what, where, how long).
• About: who you are, since when, your qualifications, certifications or insurance if your trade requires them. People buy from people.
• Contact: a tappable phone number, a short form (name, phone, need), an announced response time, and a link to your Google profile.

The legal notice, mandatory in France

Every business website in France must display a legal notice ("mentions légales"): company identity, contact details, registration number, web host, and information about personal data and cookies. Leaving it out is penalised.

The technical basics for Google

Google sums up the essentials in its SEO starter guide: useful content written for your customers, a unique title and description for each page, and clear page URLs.

Your website must also load fast and not "jump" while loading, especially on phones. Google measures this with Core Web Vitals: main content displayed in under 2.5 seconds, quick response to taps and clicks, a stable layout.

A slow website on mobile is a customer who hits the back button and calls the next competitor.

The extras that make a difference

• Online booking or quote requests that land straight in your calendar or inbox.
• Your Google reviews displayed on the site.
• An automatic reply to every request, so the customer knows you've received it.
• If your customers speak English and French, both languages, each page linked to its translation.

The website is only part of the job: it must be backed by a well-kept Google profile to move up in local searches. What we include in a website: website design.