A small business website should include seven things: a hero that says what you do, where, and what to do next; your services with prices or price ranges; a short about section; proof, such as reviews, photos and accreditations; answers to common questions; how to find or book you; and a way to get in touch. That is enough for a salon, a plumber, a cafe, a shop or a personal trainer, and it fits on one page. What changes between those businesses is what goes in each section, which is what the rest of this post sets out.
Why these seven and not more?
A first-time visitor on a phone has a short list of questions: is this the right kind of business, is it near me, what does it cost, can I trust it, and how do I book or call. The seven sections answer those in the order people ask them. Pages that exist because a template had a slot for them, such as a news section with one old post, answer nothing.
Order matters too: the most urgent answer at the top, contact details at the bottom.
1. Hero: what you do, where, and one action
The hero is the first screen. It needs your business name, one plain line saying what you do and where, and a single button for the action you most want. One action, not three; a visitor offered "book", "call" and "get a quote" at once often does none of them.
| Business | The one line | The one action |
|---|---|---|
| Salon or barber | "Barbers, Gravesend high street" | Book online |
| Tradesperson | "Gas Safe registered heating engineer, Gravesend and Dartford" | Call |
| Cafe or takeaway | "Neighbourhood cafe, Gravesend", plus today's hours | Book a table, or Order |
| Shop | "Independent bookshop, Gravesend" | Find us |
| Personal trainer or tutor | "GCSE maths tutor, online and in Dartford" | Book a free call |
Use your own photo of the shop front, van, room or counter. If you work from home and travel to customers, name the area you cover instead of a street address.
2. Services, with prices or price ranges
Most visitors want a rough idea of price before they get in touch, and a page with no prices sends them to one that has them.
- Salon or barber: a grouped price list (cut, colour, nails, brows) with the time each takes. Note patch tests and deposits where they apply. Only write "from" if you genuinely quote from.
- Tradesperson: four to six named jobs in the trade's own words, such as "boiler service", "landlord gas safety certificate" or "consumer unit replacement". If you quote after a visit, say so, and say the quote will be in writing.
- Cafe or takeaway: the menu as text on the page, not only a photo or a PDF, with prices. For food ordered online or by phone, the Food Standards Agency's best practice is that written allergen information is available before ordering, and if it is not on the menu itself it should be no more than "one click away".
- Shop: what you sell, by category, with a few photos. Prices are optional unless you take orders.
- Personal trainer or tutor: packages or session fees, where sessions happen (gym, home, online) and, for tutors, subjects, levels and exam boards.
3. About
Two or three short paragraphs at most: who you are, how long you have been doing this, and why someone should choose you rather than the business two streets away. For a salon, the team and each person's specialism. For a tradesperson, years on the tools and the towns you have worked in. For a cafe, who cooks and where the ingredients come from. For a shop, why it opened. For a trainer or tutor, your qualifications and your approach in plain words.
A photo of you or your team belongs here. People book people.
4. Proof: reviews, photos and accreditations
This is where a visitor decides whether to believe sections one to three.
- Reviews. Link to your Google reviews rather than retyping them, and quote a few only with the reviewer's permission. Google lets you share a review link or QR code with customers, and says offering incentives in exchange for reviews is strictly prohibited. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, posting or commissioning fake reviews is a banned practice, enforced by the CMA.
- Photos. Six to nine of your own: finished cuts and colour for a salon, job photos with the town and month for a trade, dishes and the room for a cafe, the shelves for a shop, the space where sessions happen for a trainer.
- Accreditations. Write them as text with the number and link to the official register. For a heating engineer, that is the Gas Safe registration number, which a homeowner can check on the Gas Safe Register; the HSE says anyone employed to work on gas appliances in domestic premises must be a Gas Safe registered engineer. For an electrician, membership of a competent person scheme such as NICEIC or NAPIT, which lets you self-certify certain work. For a cafe, your food hygiene rating. For a tutor, your DBS check and a safeguarding statement. For a trainer, your qualification and insurance.
5. Frequently asked questions
Four to six questions, answered in a sentence or two each. Use the ones customers actually ask you.
Salon: walk-ins, cancellation and no-show policy, patch tests. Trades: whether you charge a call-out fee, how quickly you can come, whether quotes are written. Cafe or takeaway: dogs, step-free access, group bookings, delivery area. Shop: parking, click and collect, gift vouchers. Trainer or tutor: what happens in the first session, cancellation notice, online options.
Written answers save you repeating them, and they are often the words people type into Google.
6. How to find or book you
For a business with a door: the full address, a map link, parking and the nearest station, and opening hours by day. For a business that travels to customers: the towns and postcode areas you cover. Google's guidance for service-area businesses is that you should hide your address on your Business Profile and set a service area instead, so the website should match.
For booking, link to the tool you already use (Fresha, Treatwell or Booksy for salons; a table-booking system or delivery app for food; Calendly or a class booking tool for trainers and tutors) rather than paying for something new. Your Google Business Profile can carry a menu link and up to 10 links per category for bookings, reservations and orders, and this section is where they should point. Our Google Business Profile setup guide covers the rest.
7. Contact
A phone number that dials when tapped, an email address, a WhatsApp link if you use it, and a short form: name, contact details, what they need. The ICO's worked example of good practice puts the privacy notice link where people can see it before they start putting their details into the form.
Then the footer. If you trade as a limited company, GOV.UK says your website must show the registered number, the registered office address, where the company is registered and the fact that it is a limited company. A sole trader should still give a real trading name and an address or service area; a business that offers only a mobile number is harder to trust.
What does every page need, whatever the business?
- Made for a phone first. Google uses the mobile version of a site's content for indexing and ranking. If it is awkward on a phone, it is awkward for most visitors.
- Fast. Google's page experience documentation says Core Web Vitals are used by its ranking systems, while adding that relevance comes first. Oversized images and third-party widgets are the usual causes of a slow page.
- Honest details. A real address or service area, real photos, real reviews, and the company number if you have one.
- Your own photos. GOV.UK notes that copyright protection is automatic and covers photography, so an image being easy to download does not make it free to use.
What should you leave out?
- Auto-playing video. It slows the page, uses the visitor's data and covers the thing they came to read.
- Stock photos of models. A smiling stranger in a hard hat says nothing about you; an imperfect photo of your actual van says a lot.
- Walls of text. Nobody reads six paragraphs on a phone. Short lines, headings and lists.
- Anything "coming soon". An empty blog, an unfinished gallery or a shop page with no products makes the whole site look abandoned.
If you would rather not do this yourself
The seven sections above are the same seven that make up our one-page website: a one-page website with up to seven sections and one round of revisions, for a one-off £99.99 including VAT. You buy your domain and hosting from a provider you choose and we set them up. The 48 hours starts when we receive your completed brief. It helps to have your prices, photos and answers ready first, and our guide to writing a website brief shows what to gather. If you need more than one page, our web development service quotes larger sites, and what a small business website costs in the UK sets out typical ranges.