Checklist

What a small business website actually needs

6 min read · Reviewed September 2026

Contents

The nine
Things you probably do not need
Questions to ask whoever is quoting you

I build websites for local businesses, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt. But the honest version is that most small businesses need far less website than they are sold. A site that does these nine things well beats an expensive one that does thirty things badly. Print this and hold your current site against it.

The nine

0 / 9 done

It says what you do and where, above the fold, in plain words. Not Welcome to our website. Not Excellence since 1994. Auto detailing in Bellingham. Someone should know in two seconds whether they are in the right place.
A phone number that is a tap-to-call link on a phone. Written as text, not baked into an image. This one thing generates more business than every other item on this list.
Hours and address, as real text, on the home page. Not only on a contact page. Not only in a picture.
It loads in under three seconds on a phone on cell data. Test it standing in a parking lot, not on your office wifi.
It works on a phone first. More than two-thirds of the people looking you up are on one. If you have to pinch to zoom, the site is broken regardless of how it looks on your laptop.
Real photos of your actual business. Stock photos of a generic smiling team read as fake, and people are much better at spotting them than businesses assume.
One obvious next step on every page. Call, book, get a quote, order. One. Two buttons of equal weight is the same as zero.
A form that actually reaches you, tested from a phone you do not own. Broken contact forms are startlingly common and nobody ever tells you.
The same name, address and phone number as your Google profile, character for character. Mismatches quietly hurt your local search ranking.

Tick as you go. Your progress is kept in this browser only, so you can close the tab and come back to it.

Things you probably do not need

A blog, unless someone is genuinely going to write it monthly. An abandoned blog with three posts from 2021 is worse than no blog.
A photo carousel on the home page. People do not wait for slide two.
A chatbot, unless someone answers it.
A newsletter signup before you have anything to send.
Ten pages. Most local businesses need four: home, services, about, contact. Some need one.
An animation on scroll for every element. It makes the site feel slow, which is the only thing a visitor will actually notice.

Questions to ask whoever is quoting you

Who owns the domain, and is it registered in my name? The answer should be you, always.
If I stop paying you, what happens to my site? A real answer exists. Vagueness here is the biggest red flag in this industry.
Can I get the files? You should be able to walk away with your site.
What is included in the monthly fee, in hours or in specific tasks?
Who writes the words, and who takes the photos? These are the two things that actually take time, and the two most often left as your problem after you have paid.
What happens when I want the hours changed on a Sunday?

If a site fails four or more of the nine, it is costing you money every week it stays up. That is true whether I rebuild it or you do.

For what a build actually costs, the Suubi rate card is on this page too. One-page sites start at $1,500 and a full business site starts at $2,500, with the domain registered in your name and the files yours to walk away with.

Get a free look at your current site

Send me your link and I will tell you what I would change, whether or not you hire me.