Small business website checklist (27 things)

1. Domain & hosting

Your foundation. Get these right before anything else.

Custom domain name registered

Buy .com.au for Australian businesses (signals local trust to Google), plus the .com version. Costs $15–30/year from Namecheap, GoDaddy, or VentraIP. Avoid free subdomains like yourbusiness.wixsite.com — they look unprofessional and hurt SEO.

Hosting chosen and configured

For custom-built sites: Vercel is free and fast (recommended). For WordPress: Siteground or Kinsta. For e-commerce: hosting is usually bundled in your build. See our hosting costs guide for full pricing.

SSL certificate active (HTTPS padlock)

Google marks HTTP sites as "Not Secure" and ranks them lower. Vercel, Netlify, and most modern hosts provide free SSL automatically. Check that your site loads without warnings.

Professional email address set up

hello@yourbusiness.com.au looks far more credible than yourbusiness@gmail.com. Google Workspace costs around $9/month. Zoho Mail is free for one domain.

2. Must-have pages

Every small business website needs these pages — missing any of them costs you leads.

Homepage with a clear value proposition

Your homepage should answer three questions within 3 seconds: What do you do? Who is it for? How do they get started? If a visitor has to scroll to find out what your business does, you will lose them.

About page (builds trust)

The About page is often the second most-visited page on small business sites. Include who you are, how long you have been in business, why clients choose you, and a photo. Faceless businesses convert poorly.

Services or products page with pricing

List what you offer clearly. Even a "prices from $X" range helps — hiding prices makes visitors bounce to find a competitor who shows them. Each service should have its own section (or page) for SEO.

Contact page with multiple contact methods

Phone, email, contact form, and address (even if service-area only). Include your operating hours. A Google Maps embed helps for local SEO. Make your Contact page easy to find — in the main nav and footer.

Testimonials or case studies

Social proof is one of the highest-converting elements on any website. 3–5 genuine client quotes with names and business names outperform generic reviews.

FAQ page

Answers common objections before the visitor has to ask. Also earns a "People Also Ask" rich result in Google when properly marked up with FAQPage schema — free real estate in search results.

3. Design & mobile

Over 60% of Australian small business web traffic is mobile. If your site breaks on a phone, you are losing more than half your visitors.

Fully mobile-responsive design

Test on iPhone and Android. Buttons need to be at least 44px tall. Text must be readable without zooming. Navigation should collapse into a hamburger menu on small screens.

Clear call-to-action on every page

Every page should tell visitors what to do next: "Book a Call", "Get a Quote", "Shop Now". One primary CTA per page. Don't make visitors guess what the next step is.

Working contact form (and it sends emails)

Test your contact form from a different email address. Check that submissions arrive in your inbox and not spam. Many sites have broken forms and their owners have no idea.

High-quality images (optimised for web)

Images over 500KB slow your site down. Use WebP format. Compress images with Squoosh or TinyPNG before uploading. Every image needs descriptive alt text for SEO and accessibility.

4. SEO basics

You don't need to be an SEO expert. These basics ensure Google can find and understand your site.

Unique title tags on every page

Each page needs a unique title tag (50–60 characters) that includes your target keyword. Example: "Plumber in Parramatta | 24h Emergency Service | Sydney Pipes Co".

Meta descriptions written for every page

150–160 characters. Include the primary keyword and a clear reason to click. Google doesn't always use your meta description, but when it does, it's what drives CTR from search results.

One H1 heading per page

Each page should have exactly one H1 — the main heading. It should include your primary keyword naturally. Use H2s for subheadings and H3s for sub-subheadings.

XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console

A sitemap tells Google every page on your site. Submit it in Google Search Console under Sitemaps. Without this, Google might take weeks to find new pages.

Google Business Profile set up

Free from Google. Even service-area businesses (no shopfront) should have one. It's what makes you appear in Google Maps and the local 3-pack in search results. Get 5+ reviews and your visibility jumps significantly.

robots.txt and canonical tags correct

Make sure robots.txt isn't accidentally blocking Google. Every page should have a self-referencing canonical tag to prevent duplicate content issues.

5. Speed & performance

Google uses page speed as a ranking signal. A 1-second delay in load time reduces conversions by around 7%.

Google PageSpeed score above 80 on mobile

Test at pagespeed.web.dev. Mobile score matters more than desktop. The biggest wins: compress images, remove unused CSS/JS, enable text compression.

Core Web Vitals passing (LCP, CLS, INP)

Google's official performance metrics. LCP (largest content loads fast), CLS (no layout shifts), INP (responsive to user input). Check in Google Search Console under Experience → Core Web Vitals.

All images use a modern format (WebP) and have dimensions set

WebP images are 25–35% smaller than JPEGs at the same quality. Setting explicit width/height on images prevents layout shifts (improves CLS score).

6. Legal pages

Required under Australian law for any business collecting personal data (contact forms, email sign-ups, purchases).

Privacy Policy page

Required under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 if you collect personal information (contact forms, emails, analytics). Link it in your footer.

Terms & Conditions (if selling products or services)

Protects you legally. Outlines what you deliver, payment terms, refund policy, and limitations of liability. Use a lawyer or a reputable generator specific to Australian law.

ABN displayed (for Australian businesses)

Displaying your ABN in your footer builds trust and is expected by Australian B2B clients. For e-commerce, it's often legally required on invoices and receipts.

7. Analytics & tracking

You can't improve what you don't measure. These take 30 minutes to set up and pay dividends forever.

Google Analytics 4 installed

Free from Google. Shows you how many people visit, where they come from, what pages they view, and how long they stay. Set up key events: contact form submission, phone link click, calendar booking.

Google Search Console verified

Free from Google. Shows you exactly which Google searches are bringing people to your site. Submit your sitemap here. Essential for monitoring indexing issues.

Bing Webmaster Tools set up

Bing powers Microsoft Copilot and other AI web search. Import from Google Search Console in one click. Takes 5 minutes, gives you another traffic source.

Don't want to do this yourself?

Build First Site builds small business websites with every item on this checklist handled — domain setup, SEO, speed optimisation, legal pages, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console. Fixed price, delivered in 2–3 weeks. See how we build websites →

Common questions