How many pages should a small business site have?

One per service you want to be hired for, one about the business, one to make contact, and one for anything you get asked about repeatedly. For most local businesses that lands between five and twelve.

Do I own the site when it is done?

Yes. The domain and the hosting go in your name, not ours, and you can take it elsewhere whenever you want. We think that should be the default and it often is not.

Should I use a template or have one built?

A template is a genuinely good answer for some businesses, and we will tell you when it is. The case for a build is when the site has to do something specific, or when the template is making the business look like every other business in the category.

How long does a small business site take?

The build is rarely the slow part. The slow part is deciding what the site says and getting real photographs. Businesses that have those ready move quickly.

What does my website actually need?

Most small business sites are either three pages that say nothing or thirty that nobody reads. The useful version is smaller than you think and more specific than you expect.

A website for a local business has one job: somebody who has just heard your name, or just found you in a search, decides within a minute whether to call. Everything on the site either helps them decide or gets in the way.

What follows is what earns its place, and what usually does not.

One page per thing you want to be hired for.

This is the decision that shapes everything else. If you do five things and the site has one page that lists all five, then no page on the site is about any of them, a search engine has nothing specific to place, and the visitor has to do the sorting.

Five pages, each about one thing, each answering what it is, who it is for, what happens, and what to do next. That is a better site than a beautiful one-pager and it is usually less work than people expect.

Proof beats description

Everybody claims to be reliable and thorough. Nobody can check it. What a visitor can check is the specific thing: photographs of the actual work, the actual town names, the actual review with the reviewer's name on it, the year you started.

Real photographs of real work Yours, not stock. A visitor recognises stock photography instantly and it costs more trust than a plain page would.
Reviews with a source A quote with a name and where it came from. An unattributed testimonial reads as something the business wrote about itself, which half the time it is.
The names of places you actually serve It answers a real question, and it is the difference between "Metro Detroit" and something the visitor can check against where they live.

The contact path is the whole site

Every page needs a way to start a conversation without scrolling to find one, and the way needs to match how your customers actually reach you. Trades get called. Professional services get emailed. A form that goes to an inbox nobody watches is worse than no form.

One more thing, and it is the one most often missed: whatever the site promises about response time has to be true. "We reply within the hour" on a site nobody checks until evening does more damage than saying nothing.

What you can leave out

A blog you will not write. A team page for a team of one. A slider on the homepage. A chat widget nobody is behind. A newsletter signup before you have anything to send. Each one is a thing that has to be maintained, and an unmaintained thing on a website is visible.

The site should be as small as it can be while still having a page for every question you get asked twice.

The questions we get asked.

How many pages should a small business site have?: One per service you want to be hired for, one about the business, one to make contact, and one for anything you get asked about repeatedly. For most local businesses that lands between five and twelve.
Do I own the site when it is done?: Yes. The domain and the hosting go in your name, not ours, and you can take it elsewhere whenever you want. We think that should be the default and it often is not.
Should I use a template or have one built?: A template is a genuinely good answer for some businesses, and we will tell you when it is. The case for a build is when the site has to do something specific, or when the template is making the business look like every other business in the category.
How long does a small business site take?: The build is rarely the slow part. The slow part is deciding what the site says and getting real photographs. Businesses that have those ready move quickly.

Want a read on the one you have?

Send us the address. We will tell you what is working, what is costing you enquiries, and whether it needs a rebuild or a few afternoons.

Hello@GeekThangs.com Start a Project

Based in St. Clair Shores, working across Metro Detroit.