The small business
website checklist.

Published 15 October 2026 · Updated 21 October 2026 · By TMF — The Media Foundry

For most small businesses, the website is where every other piece of marketing ends up. A reel, a Google search, a WhatsApp forward from a friend — sooner or later the curious ones tap through to your site. If that site is slow, confusing or broken on a phone, the effort that brought them there is wasted. This checklist is the one we work through on website design projects. It is written for owners, not developers, and every technical point links to the official source so you can check it yourself.

1. Give the site one main job

Before design, decide the single action you most want a visitor to take: send an enquiry, request a quote, visit the shop, or buy online. Every page should make that next step obvious. A site that tries to do ten things equally usually does none of them well.

2. Design for mobile first

Google uses the mobile version of your pages for indexing and ranking — this is called mobile-first indexing. Its mobile-first indexing guidance recommends responsive design and says the mobile version should carry the same primary content, headings, structured data and meta tags as the desktop version. In practice: check every page on an actual phone, tap every button with your thumb, and make sure nothing important is hidden on small screens.

3. Make it fast, and measure it

Google's Core Web Vitals are the standard way to measure real-world page experience. According to web.dev, a page is in the “good” range when, at the 75th percentile of visits:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — loading — is 2.5 seconds or less.
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP) — responsiveness — is 200 milliseconds or less.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — visual stability — is 0.1 or less.

Run your key pages through PageSpeed Insights. The usual fixes are compressing and correctly sizing images, removing unused scripts and plugins, and reserving space for images and embeds so the page does not jump while loading.

4. Cover the pages people expect

Visitors look for a short list of things: what you do, who it is for, where you are, why they should trust you, and how to get in touch. That usually means a clear home page, a page for each main service, an about page, and a contact page. Test every link to the contact page — a broken contact link quietly loses enquiries for months before anyone notices.

5. Write for people first

Google's guidance on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content is worth reading in full. The short version: write in your own words about what you actually know, answer the questions customers really ask, and show who is behind the business. Avoid padding pages with keywords or copied text.

6. Get titles, descriptions and headings right

Every page needs a unique title that says what the page is about, a short meta description that gives a reason to click, and exactly one main heading. Google explains how it creates title links in search results and why descriptive, concise titles work best. “Home” or “Untitled” are wasted opportunities.

7. Add structured data

Structured data is a small block of code that tells search engines what a page represents — your organisation, a breadcrumb trail, an article, a list of FAQs. Google's introduction to structured data explains how it works and which types it supports. It does not guarantee special search features, but it helps search engines understand the page correctly.

8. Make it accessible

An accessible site works for more people, including those using screen readers, keyboard navigation or larger text. The W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the recognised standard. Quick wins: meaningful alt text on images, sufficient colour contrast, form fields with visible labels, and buttons that can be reached with the keyboard.

9. Handle personal data responsibly

Contact forms, newsletter sign-ups and job applications all collect personal data. India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the rules made under it set out obligations around notice, consent and security, and these are being phased in. Check the latest position on the MeitY data protection page, keep a clear privacy policy, collect only what you need, and make sure form submissions are actually delivered and stored securely.

10. Install analytics before launch

Set up Google Analytics 4 or a similar tool on day one, and define the actions that count as success — form submissions, calls, purchases — as key events. Without this, you cannot tell which pages, campaigns or performance versus brand activities are working.

11. Connect local search

If customers visit you or you serve a particular city, set up and verify a Google Business Profile and keep your name, address and opening hours consistent between it and your website. Link to the website from the profile so people can move from map listing to enquiry in one tap. Our guide on how to optimize your Google Business Profile covers names, categories, photos and reviews in line with Google's rules.

12. Plan for maintenance

Launch day is the start, not the finish. Keep HTTPS active, update the platform and plugins, take regular backups, check for broken links, and refresh key pages when your services or prices change. Google's Search Essentials list the technical basics a site needs to be eligible to appear in search at all.

Before you hit publish

Print this list, open your site on your phone, and go through it line by line. If you find gaps you would rather not fix yourself, our website design team builds sites around these checks from the start, and our brand identity work makes sure the site looks and sounds like the rest of your business.

Sources

• web.dev — Web Vitals
• Google Search Central — Mobile-first indexing best practices
• Google Search Central — Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
• Google Search Central — Influencing title links
• Google Search Central — Introduction to structured data
• W3C — WCAG overview
• MeitY — Data protection framework