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, 3 min read
What to put on your small business home page
Seven blocks, in the order people read them. Plus the four things almost every small business puts at the top that nobody has ever read.
Most home pages fail in the first five seconds, and they fail the same way: the visitor cannot tell what the business does, so they leave. Not because the design is bad. Because the page opened with a welcome instead of an answer.
Here is what to put on it, in the order people actually read.
One: what you do, in a sentence
Plainly, at the top, before anything scrolls. "Wedding photography in Jaipur." "Physiotherapy clinic in Ajmer, open seven days." Someone who lands on your page should be able to say what you do out loud after five seconds without scrolling once.
This is also the sentence Google and AI assistants will quote about you, so make it factual rather than clever.
Two: who it is for
A visitor is trying to work out whether you are for them. Name the customer: families, small shops, brides, students preparing for an exam. Being specific loses you nobody worth having and wins the person who thinks you were built for them.
Three: the thing you want them to do
One clear action, repeated as they scroll: call, book, get a quote, message on WhatsApp. Not five options in a row. A page with five equal buttons gets fewer clicks than a page with one.
Four: prices, or at least a starting point
This is the one people argue with us about, and the numbers do not. Someone who cannot find a price assumes the worst and quietly leaves. A range, a starting price or a sample bill is enough. It also filters out the enquiries you were never going to convert, which saves you the phone call.
Every hidden price is a phone call you have to take before you know whether the person can afford you.
Five: proof
Photos of real work, a Google rating, the years you have been open, the number of families you have treated. Whatever is genuinely true. If you have nothing yet, say what standard you hold yourself to and let people check it, which is more convincing than a stock photo of a handshake.
Six: the practical details
- A tappable phone number.
- Opening hours, including the days you are closed.
- Where you are, with a map link that opens the right place.
- Which areas you cover, if you travel to customers.
These are the most visited parts of a small business site and they are usually the worst maintained.
Seven: an easy way to start a conversation
A short form with three fields, or a WhatsApp button that opens a chat with the first message already written. Every extra field costs you enquiries. Nobody has ever needed a company name and a dropdown to say "how much for a haircut".
What to leave off the top
- "Welcome to our website." It uses your best line of the page to say nothing.
- A long history of the business. Move it to the about page, where the people who care will find it.
- A slideshow that changes every four seconds. People read at their own pace, and the second slide is seen by almost nobody.
- Stock photos of offices you have never sat in.
- A mission statement, unless someone outside the business would recognise it as true.
The test
Open your home page on a phone, show it to someone who does not know your business, take the phone away after five seconds and ask them what you do and what it costs. If they cannot answer, the writing is the problem and no amount of design will fix it.
We work through exactly this when we build a site, and we send you an outline to fill in rather than asking you to write from nothing. If you are building it yourself, this list is the whole job.