Website checklist for small businesses

A website that looks good but is hard to use, slow on a phone or missing the basics will still cost you customers. Use this checklist before launch, or to review the site you already have. It is written for small businesses in any country; where the rules differ by country, we say so.

1. Your languages

Choose languages by your customers, not by habit. Add one only if you can answer enquiries in it. Give each language its own address (such as /es/), connect the versions with hreflang, and translate the whole journey: buttons, form errors, confirmation emails. Our guide to multilingual websites goes into the detail.

2. Accessibility

Check that text has enough contrast against its background, every meaningful image has a short description (alt text), forms have visible labels, headings follow a logical order and the whole site works with a keyboard alone. Try it yourself: press Tab through your home page and see whether you always know where you are. Many countries set accessibility rules for some businesses; either way, an accessible site is easier for everyone to use.

3. Speed and mobile

Open your site on a real phone on mobile data. Google’s Core Web Vitals give clear targets: the main content should appear within 2.5 seconds, the page should react to a tap in under 200 milliseconds, and nothing should jump around while loading. Free tools such as PageSpeed Insights show where you stand. The usual fixes are resized and compressed images, fewer heavy sliders and autoplay videos, and fewer third-party scripts.

4. Who you are, and the legal basics

Many countries expect a business website to show who runs it: company name, address, contact details and, where required, a tax or registration number. In the EU, for example, the e-Commerce Directive asks for this, and Spain applies it through the LSSI-CE law, usually on a “legal notice” page (aviso legal). Other places have their own rules, and online shops often have extra duties towards consumers, such as showing prices with tax, delivery terms and the right to withdraw.

Rules differ by country, and this is a general overview, not legal advice. Ask a lawyer or accountant in the countries where you sell.

5. Privacy and cookies

• A privacy policy that says what personal data you collect (contact forms, bookings, newsletters), why, for how long, who processes it and how people can exercise their rights.
• Consent for non-essential cookies where the law requires it. The EU’s GDPR and ePrivacy rules, the UK’s GDPR and PECR, Brazil’s LGPD and California’s CCPA/CPRA are well-known examples, and they differ in what they ask for. Some regulators, such as Spain’s AEPD, expect rejecting to be as easy as accepting.
• Forms: a short notice or tick box linking to the privacy policy.

On our own site, for example, analytics that set cookies only load after a visitor accepts.

6. Analytics you can explain

Know where visitors come from and what they do. Privacy-friendly analytics that don’t set cookies are often enough for a small business, but check each tool, because its rules depend on how it works. Look at the numbers once a month and change one thing at a time.

7. Easy ways to contact you

Put a tap-to-call number, the messaging app your customers actually use (WhatsApp, for example) and a short form where a visitor on a phone finds them without scrolling far. If you serve a local area, add your address and opening hours. Say which languages you answer in and which time zone your hours are in, and be honest about how fast you reply.

8. The basics under the hood

• HTTPS on every page.
• A sitemap, and a title and description for every page that name your service (and your place, if you serve one).
• Forms tested end to end, so enquiries really reach you.
• Backups and updates, a domain registered in your name and email at your own domain.
• If you serve customers locally, a claimed and verified Google Business Profile whose name, address and phone match your website.

Where to go next

If you’d like us to review your site against this list, get in touch. Our website design service page explains what we build and look after, and our article on what a small-business website costs will help you compare quotes.