Start with the bucket, not the tap
Most marketing budgets are spent topping up the tap, more ads, more SEO content, more social posts, when the bucket has a leak. Before you spend another dollar driving traffic, make sure the site actually converts the traffic you already have. This checklist is the patch.
The five-second test
Show your homepage to someone who has never seen your business. Give them five seconds. Then close the tab and ask: "What does this business do, who is it for, and what would you do next?" If they can't answer all three, your homepage is failing the most basic job it has. Fix that first; nothing else compounds until this one is right.
Speed (because every second under 3s buys conversions)
- Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5s on a phone over a 4G connection. Most small business sites are above 4s.
- Modern image formats: AVIF or WebP, properly sized for each breakpoint.
- Defer everything non-critical: chat widgets, analytics, third-party scripts.
- Real CDN: not "we put it on Cloudflare and forgot", actually configure caching.
If you want depth on this, see our post on Core Web Vitals and rankings.
The above-the-fold checklist
The first screen, on a phone, in landscape, with the browser chrome, the postage stamp of attention you actually get, must contain:
- A single, plain-language headline that names what you do and who you do it for.
- A one-sentence subheading that adds the reason-to-care.
- A single primary call-to-action button (call, book, quote, buy). Not three.
- One trust signal, review badge, customer logo, certification, "serving Canada since X".
Everything else can wait for the second screen.
Make the obvious action obvious
For a local-service business, the primary action is almost always one of: call, book, request a quote. Pick one. Make it the only primary button. Make it visible on every screen. Make it a real phone link (tel:) on mobile. Stop hiding it in a hamburger menu.
Trust signals (most sites under-do these)
- Real customer reviews, ideally pulled live from Google.
- A "Meet the team" page with real photos of real people, not stock.
- Project photography from your actual work (with permission).
- Certifications, licensing or association memberships shown plainly.
- A clear, human "About" page.
Forms that respect the user
Most quote forms ask for ten fields when they should ask for three. Each extra field costs you submissions. The right minimum: name, contact (phone OR email), and one project detail field. Get the detail you need afterwards on the phone.
If your service genuinely needs more info, for example, a renovation contractor wanting project type, scope and timeline, use a multi-step form so the user sees one question at a time. Conversion on multi-step forms is typically materially higher than the same questions on a single long page.
The things to delete (right now)
- The cookie wall that blocks the content.
- The newsletter pop-up that triggers in five seconds.
- The autoplay video. Yes, even with sound muted.
- The chatbot that interrupts with "Hi! Looking for something?" before the user has read anything.
- The carousel of three slides nobody is going to wait for.
Mobile is the site (in 2026 more than ever)
Most of your visitors are on a phone. Design for that first; the desktop is the secondary experience now. Tap targets at least 44×44px. Fonts at least 16px. No horizontal scroll, ever. Forms that don't require zooming. Phone numbers that dial when tapped.
The eight-page small business website
Most small businesses don't need more than eight pages, well-built:
- Homepage, the five-second test page.
- About, the trust page.
- Services, one parent + one page per major service.
- Service-in-region pages, one per important region (this is where the SEO compounds).
- Work / Case studies, the proof.
- Pricing, even if it is "starting at" and "by quote".
- Blog, for organic and for credibility.
- Contact, phone, email, form, hours, map.
If you have 40 pages, audit which 32 you should delete.
The boring stuff that wins
- HTTPS (everywhere, always).
- Working 404 page with helpful links back.
- Privacy policy, terms of service, cookie policy (PIPEDA-friendly in Canada).
- Accessible (WCAG AA at minimum, keyboard navigation works, contrast passes, alt text exists).
- Google Search Console verified, sitemap submitted, indexed.
Where to go from here
If you want us to run this checklist on your site and tell you exactly what is leaking, our website service includes a conversion audit and the work to fix what we find. Most engagements pay for themselves within a quarter through improved conversion alone.