The website checklist for new businesses
Before your new business website goes live it needs: a domain you own, SSL, your phone number visible without scrolling, your services with prices or price guides, real photos, proof such as reviews or accreditations, a contact form that actually emails you, correct opening hours, fast loading on a phone, and a Google Business Profile that matches it. Work through the twenty points below in order.
Before anyone builds anything
- Register the domain in your own name. Your business name plus .co.uk or .com. Keep the login safe; this is the deed to your online address.
- Set up a professional email at that domain. you@yourbusiness.co.uk wins trust that yourbusiness@gmail.com does not.
- Write your one-line pitch. What you do, for whom, where. It becomes your homepage headline.
- List every service with a price or price guide. "From £X" beats silence; silence sends people to competitors who answer.
- Collect proof: reviews from early customers, qualifications, insurance, association memberships, photos of real work.
What the site itself must have
- Phone number at the top of every page, tappable on mobile.
- A short contact form, name, phone, message, nothing more. Every extra field loses people.
- SSL (the padlock). Non-negotiable; browsers mark sites without it as not secure.
- Mobile-first design. More than half your visitors are on phones, often standing on site or in the kitchen with the problem in front of them.
- Loading speed under three seconds on a phone signal, not office wifi.
- Your service area spelt out. The towns you cover, in words, on the page. Search engines cannot guess it.
- Opening hours and a map if people visit you.
- Real photos, not stock. One genuine photo of you or your work beats ten glossy strangers shaking hands.
- A page title and description for every page. These are the words Google shows; write them like a small advert.
- Legal basics: privacy notice, cookie information if you track, company details if you are a limited company.
Straight after launch
- Create or claim your Google Business Profile and make the name, address and phone match the website exactly.
- Submit the site to Google Search Console so you can see what you rank for and catch problems.
- Set up simple visitor measurement. You want two numbers a month: visitors, and enquiries.
- Ask your first five customers for a Google review. Reviews move local rankings more than almost anything else you control.
- Put the web address everywhere: van, invoices, email signature, social profiles.
Frequently asked questions
What pages does a new business website need?
Usually five or fewer: a homepage that could stand alone, a services page (or one page per main service), an about page with faces and proof, a contact page, and a reviews or gallery page if you have the material. More pages than you have content for is worse than fewer, fuller pages.
Do I need a privacy policy on a small business website?
Yes. If the site collects any personal data, even just a contact form, UK GDPR applies and a plain-English privacy notice is expected. It is a page of honest text, not a legal ordeal.
Should prices go on the website?
Where you can, yes, at least as guide ranges. Price silence does not stop price shoppers, it just makes them ring a competitor who answers the question. Ranges also filter out the enquiries you did not want.
What is the most common launch mistake?
Treating launch as the finish line. A website starts earning when it is measured, reviewed and improved. Check your two numbers monthly: visitors and enquiries. If visitors rise and enquiries do not, the site has a persuasion problem, and that is fixable.
The short version
- Own your domain and use an email address at it.
- Phone number visible without scrolling, on every page, tappable.
- Services with price guides, real photos, and gathered proof.
- SSL, mobile-first, under three seconds on a phone signal.
- After launch: Google Business Profile, Search Console, reviews, measurement.
Rather skip all this?
Every site we build ships with this whole checklist done: SSL, mobile-first design, proper page titles, the lot. You fill in a ten minute brief, we handle the other nineteen points.
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