What to Put on Your Small Business Website (Page by Page)

“I dunno really. The usual stuff?”

That’s what most people say when I ask what they want on their website. And fair enough — nobody teaches you this. You look at what your competitors have done, copy the bits that seem right, and hope for the best.

The problem is your competitors probably got it wrong too. Most small business websites have the same five pages and four of them are useless. A homepage with a stock photo and a tagline like “Quality Service You Can Trust.” A services page that lists eight things with no detail. An about page that reads like a CV.

None of that helps anyone decide to pick up the phone. Here’s what actually works, page by page.

Homepage: you’ve got about five seconds

Your homepage isn’t there to tell your life story. It’s there to answer three questions, fast:

1. What do you do?
2. Who do you do it for?
3. How do I get in touch?

That’s it. A visitor should be able to answer all three within five seconds of landing on your site. If they can’t, they’re probably gone.

What to actually write:

Start with a clear headline that says what you do and where. Not clever, not cute — clear. For example:

• “Kitchen and bathroom fitting in Bristol and Bath”
• “Bookkeeping for freelancers and small businesses across the South West”
• “Commercial cleaning for offices, shops, and restaurants in Bristol”

Notice how none of those are trying to be witty. They’re just immediately useful.

Below that, a short paragraph (two to three sentences) that adds a bit of personality and mentions something that makes you different. Maybe you’ve been doing it for fifteen years. Maybe you specialise in a particular niche. Maybe you offer free quotes. Whatever it is, get it in early.

Then: a clear button or link to your contact page. Not buried at the bottom. Right there, near the top.

Other things worth including on the homepage:

• A few photos of your actual work (not stock images — I’ve written about this before)
• Two or three short testimonials from real customers
• A brief summary of your main services, linking to more detail
• Your phone number, visible without scrolling

What to leave off:

• Long paragraphs about your company history (save it for the about page)
• Sliders or carousels (most people never click past the first slide)
• Autoplay video (annoying on mobile, uses up data)

Services page: be specific or don’t bother

This is where most small business websites really let themselves down. I see services pages that are basically just a bullet list:

• Plumbing
• Heating
• Boiler installation
• Repairs

That tells me nothing. What kind of plumbing? Do you do emergencies? What areas do you cover? What does the process look like? How much does it roughly cost?

What to actually write:

For each service, write a short paragraph (three to five sentences) that covers:

• What it involves — explain it like you’re talking to someone who’s never hired this service before
• Who it’s for — “ideal for homeowners looking to…” or “we mainly work with small retail businesses who need…”
• What to expect — “typically takes two to three days” or “we’ll visit for a free assessment first”
• Rough pricing — even a starting price or price range is better than nothing. People want to know if they can afford you before they call. I’ve written a detailed breakdown of website costs if you want to see how I handle this on my own site.

Here’s a template you can adapt:

[Service Name]

[One sentence explaining what this service is in plain English]. We work with [type of customer] in [area you cover].

[What the process looks like — what happens when someone gets in touch]. [How long it typically takes].

Prices start from [£X] for [basic version of service]. [Any extras or variables that affect pricing].

[Call to action — e.g. “Get in touch for a free quote.”]

If you offer more than four or five services, consider giving each one its own page. A dedicated page with genuine detail will always perform better than a cramped list.

About page: make it about the customer (mostly)

Here’s a mistake I see constantly: about pages that read like a LinkedIn profile. “Founded in 2014, we are a dynamic team committed to delivering excellence in…”

Nobody cares. Sorry, but they don’t.

Your about page should answer one question: why should I trust you with my money?

What to actually write:

Start with your story, but keep it brief and relevant. People want to know:

• How long you’ve been doing this
• Why you started (the real reason, not the polished version)
• What kind of customers you typically work with
• What makes your approach different

Two or three paragraphs is plenty. Write it like you’re introducing yourself at a networking event, not accepting an award.

Then — and this is the bit most people miss — add some proof. This could be:

• Longer testimonials with names (and photos if you can get them)
• Specific results you’ve achieved (“helped reduce energy bills by 30%”)
• Qualifications, accreditations, or insurance details
• How many jobs you’ve completed, or how many years you’ve been trading

A photo of you is genuinely important here. People buy from people, and putting a face to the business builds trust faster than anything else you can write. It doesn’t need to be a professional headshot — a decent photo of you at work is often better.

What to leave off:

• Mission statements (unless you actually have one that means something)
• “Our values” sections with generic words like “integrity” and “excellence”
• Team bios for people the customer will never interact with

Contact page: remove every possible barrier

Your contact page has one job: make it as easy as possible for someone to get in touch. Every extra step, every unnecessary form field, every moment of confusion costs you enquiries.

What to actually include:

• A short contact form — name, email, phone number, message. That’s it. Don’t ask for their postcode, how they heard about you, their budget range, or what day suits them. You can ask all of that later.
• Your phone number — displayed prominently, and make it a clickable link on mobile
• Your email address — some people prefer email, and that’s fine
• Your location — a general area is fine if you work from home. “Based in Bristol, covering BS and BA postcodes” tells people what they need to know without giving away your address.
• Response time — “I typically reply within a few hours” manages expectations and actually encourages people to send a message

What to leave off:

• CAPTCHA puzzles (they reduce spam but also reduce genuine enquiries — there are better ways to handle this)
• More than five form fields
• Required fields for information you don’t actually need
• A contact form that doesn’t confirm the message was sent (test yours — I’ve seen forms that have been silently broken for months)

Pro tip: Put your phone number and a short contact form in the footer of every page, not just the contact page. People decide to get in touch at unpredictable moments, and making them navigate to a separate page adds friction.

Pages you probably don’t need

Not every business needs a massive website. In fact, some of the best-performing sites I’ve built have been four or five pages. Here are some pages I’d skip unless you have a genuine reason for them:

Blog (maybe): A blog can be excellent for SEO and building trust — but only if you’re actually going to write for it. An empty blog, or one with a single post from 2023, looks worse than no blog at all. If you’re going to commit to posting once or twice a month, brilliant. If not, leave it off for now and add it later.

FAQ page: Nine times out of ten, the questions on an FAQ page should just be answered on the relevant service page. If someone’s wondering how much a boiler installation costs, that answer should be on the boiler installation page, not buried in a separate FAQ.

Gallery page (on its own): Photos of your work are important, but they’re more powerful when they’re on the relevant service pages. A standalone gallery with no context is just a collection of pictures. Put your kitchen photos on the kitchen page, your bathroom photos on the bathroom page.

Testimonials page: Same logic as the gallery. Spread your testimonials across the site where they’re most relevant. A quote about your excellent plumbing work has more impact on the plumbing page than on a separate testimonials page that most visitors will never find.

“News” or “Updates” page: Unless you’re regularly announcing something genuinely interesting, this just becomes a graveyard of posts from 2022 about your new van livery.

The one thing that matters more than any of this

I’ve given you a lot of specific advice here, and I stand by all of it. But if I had to boil it down to one principle, it’s this:

Write for real people, not for Google.

Yes, SEO matters. Yes, keywords are important. But the best thing you can do for your website is write like a human being talking to another human being. Be clear. Be specific. Be honest about what you do and what you charge.

The landscaper I mentioned at the start? We ended up building him a five-page site with a clear homepage, three service pages with real photos and honest pricing, and a simple contact page. Nothing fancy. He told me last month he’s had more enquiries in six months than he had in the previous two years.

It wasn’t the design that did it. It was the content. He actually told people what he does, how he does it, and what it costs. That’s all most customers are looking for.

If you’re staring at a blank website wondering what to write — or you’ve got an existing site that’s just not working — I’m happy to help. I build small business websites from £69/month with no upfront cost, and that includes writing the content with you so you’re not doing it alone. Get in touch and we’ll get it sorted.