SMALL BUSINESS WEBSITE CHECKLIST.
Nine things every small business site should get right, why each matters and how to check it yourself. Where we cite a standard or a threshold, we link to the organisation that sets it.
WHAT CHANGED RECENTLY
- Google retired FAQ rich results — FAQPage markup no longer produces the expanding SERP feature.
- Google treats back-button hijacking as spam — Blocking the browser back button is now a named spam practice.
This guide covers what stays true. The blog tracks the changes as they land.
THE CHECKLIST
| Item | Why it matters | How to check |
|---|---|---|
| Works on a phone | Many visitors arrive on mobile; Core Web Vitals are measured separately for mobile and desktop [1] | Open every key page on your own phone: text readable without zooming, buttons easy to tap, nothing cut off |
| Loads fast (Core Web Vitals) | Google's web.dev sets "good" as LCP within 2.5 seconds, INP of 200 milliseconds or less and CLS of 0.1 or less, at the 75th percentile of page loads [1] | Run your homepage through PageSpeed Insights and check the field data for mobile |
| HTTPS everywhere | HTTPS helps stop tampering between your site and visitors, protects their privacy and is required by many modern browser features [2] | Look for the padlock; type http:// before your domain and confirm it redirects to https:// |
| Clear contact or booking | A visitor ready to buy needs the next step immediately | From any page, can you call, book or get directions in one tap? |
| Linked to your Google Business Profile | Connects the listing customers find in Maps with your site; see Google's guidance on representing your business [3] | Tap the website button on your profile; it should land on a working page with matching name, address and phone |
| LocalBusiness schema basics | Google's LocalBusiness structured data needs at least name and address; Google doesn't guarantee rich results from it [4][5] | Paste a page URL into Google's Rich Results Test and confirm details match your profile. See our schema markup guide |
| Accessibility basics | WCAG 2.2 is the current W3C standard, built on content being perceivable, operable, understandable and robust [6] | Tab through a page with the keyboard only; check images have alt text, links are descriptive and text contrasts with its background |
| Privacy policy | Visitors should know what you collect through forms, bookings and analytics, and how it's used | Find a privacy policy link in the footer; confirm it names the tools your site actually uses |
| Analytics with consent | Measurement tells you what works; Google's consent mode lets tags adjust to visitors' consent choices [7] | Load the site in a private window: is consent requested where required, and does analytics respect the choice? |
Standards and thresholds change. Check the linked pages for the current version. Privacy and consent requirements vary by location; this is not legal advice.
WHERE TO START
- HTTPS and a working phone view. These are quick to check and affect every visitor.
- Contact and booking in one tap, plus the link from your Business Profile.
- Speed, measured with real field data rather than guesswork.
- Schema, accessibility, privacy and consent, page by page.
For the search side, run the local SEO checklist next.
Two items deserve their own read: website accessibility for small business and Core Web Vitals in plain English.
WHAT GOOGLE ACTUALLY ASKS FOR
Google's own SEO starter guide is short, and most of it is about being understandable rather than being clever.8
- Be findable through links. Google says it primarily finds pages through links from other pages it has already crawled.8 A page nothing links to is a page that waits.
- Use descriptive URLs. Words a person could read, rather than identifiers.8
- Group related pages into directories so Google can learn how often URLs in each part of the site change.8
- Write a title that is unique to the page, clear and concise, and that accurately describes the contents.8
- Write a meta description as a succinct one- or two-sentence summary of the page.8
- Give images alt text that explains the relationship between the image and your content, and place them near relevant text.8
On timing, Google says some changes might take effect in a few hours and others could take several months, and that you likely want to wait a few weeks before assessing whether the work helped.8 Anyone promising a faster verdict is guessing.
WHAT DOESN'T HELP
The same Google page is unusually blunt about things small business owners are still sold:
- The keywords meta tag. “Google Search doesn't use the keywords meta tag.”8
- Repeating your town and service over and over. Google calls excessive repetition tiring for users and says keyword stuffing is against its spam policies.8
- Buying a keyword-stuffed domain. Google says keywords in the domain name have hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs.8
- Hitting a word count. “The length of the content alone doesn't matter for ranking purposes (there's no magical word count target, minimum or maximum).”8
- Worrying about duplicate content as a penalty. Google says having duplicate content on your site is not a violation of its spam policies, though it does waste crawling.8
If a proposal is built mostly on this list, see how to choose a local SEO agency.
FAQ
What are "good" Core Web Vitals?
LCP within 2.5 seconds, INP of 200 milliseconds or less and CLS of 0.1 or less, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads.1
Does adding schema get me rich results?
Not automatically. Google says it doesn't guarantee that features using structured data will appear.4
Which accessibility standard should I follow?
WCAG 2.2 is the current version. Content that meets WCAG 2.2 also meets 2.1 and 2.0.6
Prefer a short checklist? Read What a small business website needs to turn searches into calls on our free small business guides site.
SOURCES
- web.dev, Web Vitals.
- web.dev, Why HTTPS matters.
- Google Business Profile Help, Guidelines for representing your business on Google.
- Google Search Central, Local Business (LocalBusiness) structured data.
- Schema.org, LocalBusiness.
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, WCAG 2 Overview.
- Google for Developers, Consent mode overview.
- Google Search Central, SEO Starter Guide.
KEEP READING
Websites and local SEO by trade: plumbers · electricians · roofers · HVAC · handymen · landscapers · general contractors · all industries
BOOK A STRATEGY CALL
Run the checklist on your current site, then bring what you found. We will walk through what to fix first.