The small business website checklist: 20 things every site needs

Most small business websites in India don’t fail because they look bad. They fail because something basic is missing: the phone number isn’t tappable, the hours are from last year, the menu is a blurry photo, or nobody knows who owns the domain. A customer who hits one of those gaps goes back to Google and taps the next result.

This is the small business website checklist we work through on every site we build, whether it’s for a clinic in Garia or a café in Lake Town. It answers the question “what should a business website have?” in 20 items, grouped by the job each one does. You can check your current site against it in about half an hour, with or without a web designer.

Found on Google: what search engines look for

These four items help Google understand who you are, where you are and what you offer, so your site can show up when someone nearby searches.

1. Name, address and phone that match your Google listing

Your business name, full address and phone number should appear on the site exactly as they do on your Google Business Profile (the listing that shows on Maps). Same spelling, same number, same landmark. If the site has an old landline and the listing has your mobile, or the two spell the business name differently, both Google and customers get mixed signals. Link the two together: add your website to the profile, and link to your map listing from the site. Our Google Business Profile setup guide covers the listing side.

2. A clear page title and description on every page

The page title is the clickable headline in Google results. It should say what the page is about and where, like “Dental clinic in Garia | Nilachal Dental Studio”, not just “Home”. Each page needs its own title, plus a one- or two-sentence meta description that reads like a reason to click. Google’s own guide to title links (opens in a new tab) asks for titles that are descriptive, concise and unique to each page, without stuffing in keywords.

3. A page or section for each main service

If you do root canals, braces and teeth cleaning, each deserves its own short page or a clearly headed section. Use the words customers actually type (“hair spa”, “keratin treatment”, “JEE coaching”), not internal jargon. One vague page saying “we offer a wide range of services” gives Google nothing to match against a search.

4. Menus, price lists and timings as real text

A photo of your printed menu or a PDF price list is hard to read on a phone and harder for Google to understand. Type it out as text on the page instead. Text loads faster, zooms properly, can be updated in minutes, and lets your dishes, treatments or courses show up in searches. Keep the PDF as an extra download if you like.

Trust: show that you’re real

People decide within seconds whether a site feels genuine. These items answer the silent questions every new customer has: is this place real, what will it cost, and who runs it?

5. Real photos of your place, team and work

Use your own photos: the shop front (so people recognise it from the street), the inside, the team, and your actual work or dishes. Stock photos of smiling models are easy to spot and make a small business look like it’s hiding something. A decent phone camera in daylight is enough.

6. Prices, or at least “starting from”

You don’t have to publish every rate, but give people a sense of cost: “Consultation ₹500”, “Haircut from ₹300”, “Veg thali ₹180”, “Fees from ₹2,500 a month”. A visible price saves both sides time. You get fewer “how much?” messages, and the people who do get in touch already know roughly what to expect. If prices genuinely vary, say what they depend on.

7. Who is behind the business

Add a short About section with real names and faces. Professionals should list their qualifications and any registration details customers expect to see, such as a doctor’s registration number. A food business can show its FSSAI licence number. This is exactly what a careful customer looks for before booking with someone new.

8. Reviews that point back to Google

Show a few genuine reviews and link to your Google reviews so people can check them for themselves. Never write reviews yourself or invent quotes: fake reviews break Google’s policies, and customers can usually tell. Asking happy customers to leave a review on Google is perfectly fine, and a review link on your site makes it easy for them.

Contact and booking: make the next step one tap

Most visitors to a local business site want to do one of three things: call, message or find you. Make each of those effortless.

9. Tap-to-call and WhatsApp buttons on every page

Your phone number should be a link that dials when tapped. A WhatsApp button should open a chat with a ready-made first line, like “Hi, I’d like to book a table for Saturday”. Keep both visible on every page; on phones, a small bar fixed to the bottom of the screen works well. For a lot of Kolkata customers WhatsApp is the first choice, so don’t bury it in the footer. Our WhatsApp booking guide explains how pre-filled messages and booking forms work.

10. Opening hours, including holidays

List your hours for each day, mention your weekly off, and update them for holidays and festival closures: Durga Puja, Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Poila Baisakh. Wrong hours are one of the quickest ways to lose a customer, because nobody forgives a wasted trip. Change your Google listing at the same time; Google’s tips to improve local ranking (opens in a new tab) recommend keeping both regular and special hours accurate on your profile.

11. A map and clear directions

Embed a Google Map with your actual pin, then add written directions with landmarks people know: “first floor above the pharmacy, entrance from the lane on the left”. Mention parking, the nearest metro station or bus stop, and whether there’s a lift. A map pin alone can drop people at the wrong gate; one line of local directions gets them to your door.

12. A short enquiry or booking form

Some people would rather fill a form than call. Keep it short: name, phone, what they need, and a preferred date or time. Every extra field loses people. The form should send to somewhere you actually check every day (WhatsApp, or an email inbox you read), and the visitor should see a clear message that it worked.

Speed and phones: built for how people browse

For a local business, expect most visitors to arrive on a phone, often on mobile data, often standing on a footpath or sitting in an auto. Design for that first.

13. Designed for a phone first

Text should be readable without zooming, buttons should be big enough for a thumb, and the important things (what you do, where you are, how to contact you) should be visible without much scrolling. Check your own site on your phone, and on an older or cheaper phone if you can borrow one. Pop-ups that cover the whole screen on mobile are a quick way to make people leave.

14. Fast on ordinary mobile data

A local business site should feel close to instant. The usual reasons a site is slow are huge photos straight from the camera, heavy image sliders, and too many plugins or tracking scripts. Compress your images, drop what you don’t need, and test the site with Google’s free PageSpeed Insights (opens in a new tab) tool. Don’t chase a perfect score; fix the big red items and check that the page opens quickly on your own phone.

Ownership and safety: make sure it stays yours

This is the section most people skip, and it’s the one that causes the most painful problems later, usually when a designer stops replying or a renewal is missed.

15. HTTPS, the padlock in the address bar

Your site should open on https:// with a padlock in the browser. Without it, Chrome shows a “Not secure” label, which puts people off, especially on a page with a form. Basic HTTPS certificates are free with most decent hosting today, so there’s no reason to go without one.

16. A domain registered in your name

The domain (yourbusiness.in or yourbusiness.com) should list you or your business as the owner, with your own email address as the contact. Not your designer’s, and not a nephew’s. Turn on auto-renew or set a yearly reminder. If the domain lapses or sits in someone else’s account, you can lose your web address and every visiting card that points to it. Our guide to choosing between .in and .com goes into this in more detail.

17. Backups, and your own copy of the logins

Ask who keeps backups of the site and how often they’re taken. Then make sure you hold the logins yourself: domain registrar, hosting, the site’s admin panel if it has one, Google Business Profile and Analytics. Keep them somewhere safe (a password manager is better than a diary). If you ever change designers, these are the keys you’ll need.

18. A privacy page, and only the data you need

If your site has a form, it collects personal data, so add a simple privacy page saying what you collect, why, and who to contact about it. India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is being phased in, and it expects businesses to be clear about exactly this. The easiest protection is to ask for less: a clinic booking form doesn’t need anyone’s medical history or Aadhaar number. (This is general guidance, not legal advice.)

After launch: keep it working for you

A website isn’t finished on launch day. Two habits make the difference between a site that keeps bringing enquiries and one that slowly goes stale.

19. Google Analytics and Search Console

Google Analytics (opens in a new tab) tells you how many people visit and which pages they use. Google Search Console (opens in a new tab) shows which searches bring people to your site and alerts you when Google finds a problem. Both are free Google tools. Set them up on day one, even if you only look once a month, because you can’t go back and collect data you never recorded.

20. Fresh offers, prices and hours

Put a monthly reminder in your phone to check the site. Update prices, remove last season’s offers, add your Puja timings, and change photos when you renovate. An out-of-date offer (a “Diwali discount” still showing in March) tells visitors nobody is minding the shop. If you can’t edit the site yourself, agree with your designer how small changes get done and what they cost.

Using this checklist

You don’t need all 20 on day one, but items 1, 9, 10, 15 and 16 are worth fixing this week: they’re the ones that cost you customers or control of your site when they’re wrong. The rest can follow over a month or two.

We build every site against this list. Our Starter plan (₹7,999 one-time) already covers the Google Business Profile set-up, call and WhatsApp buttons, a form that sends to WhatsApp, and a domain with a year of hosting; our pricing page shows what each plan adds. To see the checklist in practice, browse our sample sites, built for fictional Kolkata businesses. And if you’d rather do it yourself, that’s fine too: work down the list and fix the gaps one at a time.