What a small business website needs, and how to score yours.

How to score your site

Open your site on your phone and give yourself one point for each item you pass. Each check takes about a minute with a browser and the free Google tools linked below. Every threshold comes from a page Google or the W3C published, named where it's used.

The first 5 seconds

A visitor decides fast whether they're in the right place. These four are what they look for first.

1. What you do and where, in the first line. What it is: the biggest text on the homepage names the service and the area, like "Roof repair in Sheboygan County." Check: read only the first screen on your phone. Good: a stranger could say what you do and where without scrolling.
2. One obvious next step. What it is: the one thing you want a visitor to do, a call button or a quote form, on the first screen and at the bottom of every page. Check: count the buttons on your first screen. Good: one stands out, and it works when tapped.
3. Photos of your actual work. What it is: your trucks, your dining room, your crew, your finished jobs. Check: ask whether each homepage photo could sit on a competitor's site unnoticed. Good: at least one real photo on the first screen.
4. Text you can read. What it is: dark text on a light ground, or the reverse, at a size that needs no pinching. The W3C's WCAG page on minimum contrast sets a 4.5 to 1 ratio for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text. Check: paste your text and background colors into any free contrast checker. Good: 4.5 to 1 or better for body text.

The contrast numbers come from the W3C's Understanding Contrast (Minimum) page (opens in a new tab).

Trust

Once a visitor knows they're in the right place, they look for proof you're real.

1. Your name, location and hours match everywhere. What it is: the same business name, address or service area, and hours on the site, on Google and on your truck. Google's Business Profile guidelines say the name should reflect what's on your storefront and website, and the hours should be your regular customer facing hours. Check: compare your footer to your Business Profile. Good: all three match, word for word.
2. Proof someone can verify. What it is: a license number, years in business, insurance, or a review count that links to the real reviews. Check: pick one claim on your homepage and ask how a stranger would confirm it. Good: every claim is checkable.
3. The padlock. What it is: your site loads over HTTPS, so the browser shows a lock instead of a "Not secure" warning. Google's page experience doc asks whether your pages are served in a secure fashion. web.dev's HTTPS guide says to send the old http address to https with a 301 redirect. Check: type your address with http:// in front and see where it lands. Good: https://, with the lock on every page.

Name and hours rules are in Google's guidelines for representing your business (opens in a new tab).

The redirect advice is in web.dev's Enable HTTPS on your servers (opens in a new tab).

Being found on Google

A site nobody finds is a brochure in a drawer. These checks use Google's own tools.

1. Google has your site at all. What it is: your pages are in Google's index. Google's "Get your website on Google" page says to search site:yourdomain.com to see what's indexed. It also lists why a site goes missing, like a new site Google hasn't found yet. Check: run that search. Good: your homepage and every service page appear.
2. A complete Business Profile that links to the site. What it is: your free Google Business Profile, filled out and pointing at your site. Google's local ranking help page says results depend on relevance, distance and prominence, and that complete info, hours, photos and review replies all help. Check: search your business name and look at the panel. Good: address or service area, hours, photos, website link, and a reply under recent reviews.
3. Page titles that say the service and the place. What it is: the text in the browser tab, also the blue link on Google. Check: look at your result in the site: search you just ran. Good: "Drain cleaning in Sheboygan, WI" instead of "Home" or your business name alone.
4. Structured data for a local business. What it is: a block of code that gives Google your name, address, hours and phone in a format it reads directly. Google's structured data intro recommends the JSON-LD format and points to its Rich Results Test. Check: paste your homepage into that test. Good: a LocalBusiness result with no errors.
5. Alt text on every image. What it is: a short description of each image in the code, read by screen readers and Google. The W3C's images tutorial says images must have text alternatives, and Google's mobile indexing page says to keep the same alt text on mobile and desktop. Check: in Chrome on a computer, right click a photo, pick Inspect, and look for alt="...". Good: real descriptions on photos, alt="" on decoration.

The site: search is from Google's Get your website on Google (opens in a new tab).

Local ranking factors are from Google's tips to improve your local ranking (opens in a new tab).

The JSON-LD recommendation is in Google's introduction to structured data (opens in a new tab).

Test a page in Google's Rich Results Test (opens in a new tab).

The alt text rules are in the W3C's Images Tutorial (opens in a new tab).

Speed and phones

Google ranks the phone version of your site. Its mobile first indexing page says it uses the mobile version of a site's content for indexing and ranking. It recommends responsive design, meaning one page that adapts to any screen.

1. Core Web Vitals pass. What it is: Google's three scores for load speed, responsiveness and stability. Its Web Vitals article sets three bars, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads. Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less. Check: paste your address into PageSpeed Insights and read the mobile tab. Good: all three green.
2. The same content on phone and desktop. What it is: nothing hidden or trimmed on mobile. Google's mobile indexing page says the mobile site should contain the same content as the desktop site, including headings and structured data. Check: open a service page on your phone and laptop. Good: same text, sections and links.
3. Images sized for a phone. What it is: photos that load fast and look sharp. Google's mobile page says to provide high quality images and avoid ones that are too small or low resolution on mobile. Check: in PageSpeed Insights, look for "Properly size images" in the suggestions. Good: no warning, and photos look crisp.
4. Nothing covering the page. What it is: a newsletter box or chat bubble that blocks the content on a phone. Google's page experience doc asks whether your pages avoid intrusive interstitials. Check: open your homepage fresh on your phone and count what you close to read. Good: zero.

The three thresholds are in Google's Web Vitals article (opens in a new tab).

Run the test at PageSpeed Insights (opens in a new tab).

The mobile rules are in Google's mobile site and mobile first indexing best practices (opens in a new tab).

The questions are from Google's Understanding page experience (opens in a new tab).

Contact and follow up

Every item above exists to get someone here. Then the site has to hand off to you.

1. A way to reach you on every page. What it is: a phone number, a form or an email visible without hunting. Check: open any inside page and find it without scrolling up. Good: in the header or a sticky button, one tap away.
2. A form that confirms. What it is: when someone sends a form, the screen says it went through and an email to them says the same. The GOV.UK Design System's confirmation page pattern says to show what happens next and when, plus contact details, right after a submission. Check: send yourself a test from your phone. Good: a thank you screen, a copy to the sender, and the message in your inbox in a minute.
3. A reply time, stated and kept. What it is: a line by the form that says when they'll hear back. Check: read your contact page. Good: a specific window you can keep. We say within one business day, and we hold to it.

The confirmation pattern is the GOV.UK Design System's confirmation pages (opens in a new tab).

Upkeep

A site that passed every check last year can fail two today. These are the ones that drift.

1. Hours, prices and services are current. What it is: the site says what's true this month. Check: read your hours and services against what you'd tell a caller. Good: nothing to correct.
2. Domain and hosting renew without you. What it is: the domain and hosting are paid up, on auto renew, with a working email on file for the notice. Check: find the renewal date for each. Good: you know who holds them and when they renew.

If the score says rebuild, start with what a small business website costs.