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February 3, 2026 · 6 min read
10 things every local business website needs
Most local business websites fail for the same handful of reasons. Fix these ten things and your site starts producing enquiries.
The checklist
Work through these in order. Each one removes a reason for a visitor to leave.
- A headline that says what you do and where. 'Family dentist in North Vancouver' beats 'Welcome to our website' every time.
- One-tap calling and a WhatsApp button on mobile. Most local visits are from a phone with intent to contact.
- Real prices, or at least a starting price. Hidden pricing is the number one reason people bounce.
- Opening hours and an embedded map, kept in sync with your Google Business Profile.
- Ten or more real photos of your work, your space and your team. Stock photos reduce trust.
- Reviews on the homepage, pulled from Google, with names attached.
- A short enquiry form — name, contact, one message field. Every extra field cuts submissions.
- A page per service, so each one can rank for its own search.
- Page load under two seconds on a phone. Compress images and skip heavy sliders.
- Correct local SEO basics: a self-referencing canonical, a unique title and description per page, and LocalBusiness structured data.
How to check yours in five minutes
Open your site on your phone using mobile data, not Wi-Fi. Time how long it takes to load. Then try to find your price, your hours and your phone number without pinching to zoom.
If any of those takes more than a few seconds, that's what your customers are experiencing too — and it's usually why an otherwise good business gets fewer calls than the competitor down the road.