You are redoing your website, and the homepage is the page that has to do the most work. A stranger lands on it from Google, a map listing or a friend's text, and gives it a few seconds. In that time they are asking what you do, whether you work for someone like them, whether you cover their area, and what to do next. Deciding what to put on a small business homepage feels harder than it should, because every template, agency and competitor seems to want something different. The good news is that the visitor's questions come in a predictable order, and the page can follow that order. Below is the sequence, what to move off the page, and a ten-minute check you can run today with your phone and one other person. You may find the first round of fixes is a few edits, not a rebuild.
Key Takeaways
Open with what you do, who you help and where, plus one clear next step such as Call or Request a Quote.
Services, proof, how it works, About and full contact details come after the opening, in the sequence a buyer decides in.
A slider that holds the only copy of an offer, autoplay video and long company history belong elsewhere or in a static section.
A five-second test and a real phone check show the first three things to fix before you change colors or animation.
Early fixes are often copy and link edits you can make yourself; a rebuild earns its cost when structure, mobile layout, forms and tracking all need work.
Open with what you do, who you help, and where
The top of the page carries the most weight, because it is the part every visitor sees. Nielsen Norman Group's homepage design principles say the tagline should be immediately visible and that visitors need immediate access to content. For a service business, that means one plain sentence that names the work, the kind of customer and the area, with a button or phone number right beside it.
Write it the way you would say it to a neighbor. "Residential roof repair and replacement for homeowners in the greater Springfield area" tells a visitor more than a phrase about quality and trust. Under it, add one primary action. Call, Request a Quote, Book, or Get Directions all work; the right one is whatever your best customers do first. If you offer two actions, make one clearly the main one so the page does not ask the visitor to choose.
Baymard Institute's homepage and category research is built around ecommerce, but its lesson carries over: a visitor has to grasp the scope of the site and find the right path quickly. In a service business, your scope is the list of services and the area you cover, so both belong near the top, not buried in a footer.
Put the sections in the order a buyer decides
After the opening, the rest of the page should answer the next question a visitor would ask. A working order for a local service business follows. It is a practical sequence, not a rule; if your customers always ask about price or licensing first, move that up.
| Order | Section | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What you do and who you help | Is this the right kind of business? |
| 2 | Primary action | What do I do next? |
| 3 | Service area | Do you come to me? |
| 4 | Main services, each linked to its own page | Do you do the specific thing I need? |
| 5 | Proof | Can I trust you with this? |
| 6 | How it works | What happens after I reach out? |
| 7 | About the business | Who am I dealing with? |
| 8 | Contact details and hours | How and when can I reach you? |
| 9 | Short FAQ | What else do I need to know before I call? |
The order follows the customer's decision, which is why the action comes before the services and proof comes after them. A visitor who already knows they want you should never have to scroll to find the phone number, and a visitor who is still deciding gets the reasons in sequence.
Keep each section short and link out for depth. The services section lists your main services in plain words and links each one to its own page, which is where the detail goes. If you are unsure how to build those pages, what to put on a service page covers them section by section. The homepage points the way; it does not need to carry every technical detail.
Show proof that matches the work you do
Proof is the section that lowers the risk of calling a stranger. Good proof is specific to the service: a customer's words about the same kind of job, a license or certification you hold, a photo of finished work, or a short example of what changed for someone. A testimonial with no detail about the job, or one about a service you barely offer, does little.
Real photographs of your own work and team usually carry more weight than polished stock images, and the question is covered in stock photos or real photos on your website. For ways to show your experience without bragging, see how to show experience and trust on your website. Only show reviews, ratings or awards that are real and that you can point to; if you do not have them yet, show your licenses, years in the trade and finished work instead.
Explain how it works and finish with every way to reach you
A short process section answers the worry that follows "should I call?", which is "what happens then?" Three or four plain steps, such as call, get a quote, schedule the work, finish and follow up, are enough. Add who you are in a few lines: the people, the experience, anything that makes a stranger more comfortable. The long version of your history belongs on the About page.
Then close with complete contact details. Google's local business documentation lists business name, address, telephone, URL and opening hours among the details it supports, and Google's Business Profile help explains that information about a business can come from the official website along with other sources. So, the details on your site should match your listing exactly. Show your phone number as a tap-to-call link, your hours, your service area or address, and a form or booking link as a second option for people who would rather not call. If you want to see what a good contact page includes, read what to include on a website contact page.
Move these items off the homepage or into a static section
Some common homepage features hide the very things visitors came for. Baymard's homepage carousel research reports that users often do not see later slides and recommends static content sections as a simpler alternative. It also recommends avoiding auto-rotating carousels on mobile, because a visitor cannot hover to pause one. If a slider is the only place an offer, a service or a contact route appears, a visitor may never see it. Put that content in a section that stays still.
Autoplay video deserves the same caution. Nielsen Norman Group's carousel usability guidance and its homepage principles advise against autoplaying video, especially video that is loud, intrusive or has no way to pause or stop it. If you use video, let the visitor start it.
Several other items usually earn a deeper page instead of homepage space:
- Long company history: A short line of experience helps; the full story fits on the About page.
- Internal awards and press archives: Keep one or two that reduce risk for a buyer, and move the rest.
- Dense technical explanations: Link them from the service page they belong to.
- Secondary announcements: Older news can sit in a blog or news page.
Keep proof, qualifications and relevant experience on the homepage whenever they reduce a buyer's risk. The rule is not "less," it is "what the visitor needs, first."
Run a five-second test and a phone check before you change anything
You can learn a lot in ten minutes without paying anyone. Nielsen Norman Group's guide to testing visual design describes the five-second test as a way to judge first impression, visual clarity, trust and interest; it is too short to judge detailed copy. This ten-minute routine is built from that and from Google's mobile guidance.
A ten-minute homepage check
- 1
Minute 1
Open the homepage on a real phone using cellular data, not your office Wi-Fi.
- 2
Minutes 2 to 3
Show the page to someone for five seconds, then hide it. Ask what the business does, who it serves, where it operates and what they would do next.
- 3
Minutes 4 to 5
Ask them to find the phone number, the contact form, the service list and the service area.
- 4
Minutes 6 to 7
Tap every main action. The phone link should open the dialer, the form should send, and booking and directions links should work.
- 5
Minutes 8 to 9
Check that the first screen has a clear description and a usable action without sideways scrolling.
- 6
Minute 10
Write down the first three misunderstandings or failed taps. Fix those before touching colors, animation or decoration.
The phone matters because Google's mobile-first indexing guidance says it uses the mobile version of a site's content for indexing and ranking, and recommends that mobile and desktop carry equivalent primary content. Buttons need to be easy to hit with a thumb too. The W3C's target size guidance sets a minimum of 24 by 24 CSS pixels for most targets, with exceptions. If your own check turns up trouble, is my website mobile friendly goes deeper, and why a site is slow to load covers a common cause of a poor phone experience.
A five-second test only checks first impressions and basic clarity. It does not prove the whole site works, which is why the phone check and the tap test come with it.
Fix the common failures in this order
Once you have your list, work from the problems that stop a call first. Treat this order as an inspection priority for your own page, not a ranking by how often each failure happens.
| Failure | Fix | Typical scope |
|---|---|---|
| Visitors cannot tell what you do | Rewrite the headline and one supporting sentence around service, audience and outcome | Small copy change |
| Service area is unclear | Add the area near the opening and near the contact details | Small copy and layout change |
| Phone or form is hard to find or broken | Add a visible action and test it on a phone | Small to medium |
| Poor phone layout | Rework spacing, text size, menus and tap targets | Medium |
| Services listed vaguely | Name each core service and link to its page | Small to medium |
| Weak or unrelated proof | Add relevant reviews, licenses or finished work | Small content project |
| Offer hidden in a slider | Replace with static sections | Small to medium |
| Slow page | Compress media, trim scripts, retest | Medium, sometimes technical |
If your site gets visits and few calls, the cause may be on this list or elsewhere, and website traffic but no sales or leads walks through the other places to look.
Decide whether to edit it yourself or hire help
You can likely make the first round of improvements on your own. You can rewrite the opening, add your service area, make the phone number tap-to-call, remove a slider that hides an offer, repair broken links and retest on a phone. Do that first, and see how the page reads after.
Help earns its place when the failures connect. That can look like several audiences competing on one page, a layout that breaks on phones, forms that do not deliver messages, missing service pages, business details that disagree across the web, or a need to measure which calls come from the site. In that case a focused homepage audit, a copy and structure revision, a homepage rebuild or a full redesign may fit, depending on what the evidence shows. A good provider should be able to point to the specific problem, explain the scope of the fix and separate a focused homepage improvement from a full redesign.
Moving Forward
A small business homepage works when a stranger can tell what you do, who you help and where you work within a few seconds, and can see the next step. After that opening comes the order a buyer decides in: services, proof, how it works, About and full contact details. Sliders that hold the only copy of an offer, autoplay video and long histories move to places where they do not get in the way.
Start with the ten-minute check. Its results will show whether you are looking at a few edits or a bigger structural problem, and you can fix the first three failures before spending anything. That keeps a redesign focused on what is actually costing you calls, not on trends.
If you want a second set of eyes, Web Leveling can look at your homepage with you and tell you whether a few edits will do or a rebuild makes sense. Our web design work covers focused homepage fixes and full builds that you own outright, and you can contact us about your homepage to get started. We work with small and medium businesses across the country and overseas.
Is your homepage ready for a stranger?
Pick an answer to begin.
1. What should the top of a small business homepage say?
2. Why is a slider risky as the only home of an important offer?
3. What does a five-second test check?
Frequently Asked Questions About what to put on a small business homepage
What should a small business homepage include?
Explain what you do, who you serve, where you operate, what services you offer, why a visitor can trust you, and how to contact or book you. Put the main action near the top.
What should appear first on the homepage?
A plain-language description of the business and a visible next action, such as Call, Request a Quote, Book or Get Directions.
Should I list all my services on the homepage?
List the main services and link each one to its own page. Technical detail belongs on the service pages.
Should a homepage have a slider?
A slider is optional. Important information should also appear in static sections, and Baymard recommends avoiding auto-rotation on mobile.
Does a homepage need an About section?
A short section with the people, experience or qualifications behind the business can reduce risk for a buyer. Put the detailed history on an About page.
Does homepage content affect Google Search?
Google recommends helpful, people-first content and uses the mobile version of a page for indexing and ranking. Clear headings and accurate business details help visitors and search systems alike.
Terms
Homepage words in this post
Tap a term to see what it means.
Homepage. The main page of a website, the one a visitor is likely to see first.
Call to action. A button or link that asks the visitor to take a next step, such as Call or Book.
Carousel. A set of rotating slides, often called a slider, shown in one area of a page.
Five-second test. A quick usability check where someone views a page for five seconds and says what they remember.
Tap target. A button or link a visitor presses with a finger on a touch screen.
Service area. The cities or regions where a business works.
