What a small business website needs to bring in enquiries

A website brings in work when the right visitor can tell, quickly, that you do what they need, where they need it, and how to ask. Everything else comes second. This is the checklist we work through with every business we build a site for.

Say what you do, and where, in the first line

The top of your home page should answer three questions before anyone scrolls: what you do, where you do it, and how to get in touch. "Family-run plumbers covering north County Dublin" works. "Welcome to our website" does not.

Use the words your customers use. If people search for "boiler service", say boiler service, even if your invoices say "heating system maintenance".

Make the next step obvious

Decide the one thing you most want a visitor to do: ring, ask for a quote, book, buy or call in. Then put it where they can see it:

• A button near the top of every page, and again at the bottom

• Your phone number as a link, so it rings when tapped on a phone

• A short form for people who would rather write, especially outside your hours

Give each service its own page

Someone who searched for "wedding cakes Galway" and lands on a page about wedding cakes in Galway is far more likely to get in touch than someone who lands on a home page that lists everything you do. A page for each main service, and for each area you cover if you travel, lets each one answer its own questions.

On each service page, cover:

• What the service is and who it is for

• What it involves, and roughly how long it takes

• What affects the price, even if you quote each job

• Real photos of the work

• One clear way to ask about it

Ask only for what you need

Every extra question on a form is a reason not to send it. For most enquiries a name, an email or phone number, and a box for the message are enough. A quote form can ask for the one or two details you really need to price the job, such as the Eircode or the size of the room.

Then say what happens next. "We reply within one working day" is better than silence, as long as it is true.

Show why people choose you

Give two or three plain reasons a customer would pick you: how long you have been doing it, who you are registered with where your trade has a register, what you do that others do not. Real reviews, used with the customer's permission, do more than any claim you make about yourself. Never invent one.

Keep the practical details right

Opening hours, your address with its Eircode, the areas you cover and how to get in touch are what people look for most, often in a hurry and usually on a phone. Wrong hours cost more trust than no hours at all.

Make sure it works on a phone

Most visitors will meet your site on a phone. Check yours on one: the text should be readable without zooming, the buttons big enough to tap, and the page quick to open on mobile data.

Answer every enquiry

A website can only bring the enquiry in. Make sure each one reaches someone who will answer it, and that nothing sits in an inbox nobody checks.

How a Webseer site does this

Every Webseer site we build starts from what the site needs to bring in. Forms send each enquiry to the right person by email and keep it in the Studio for the team, with spam kept out quietly. Your team changes prices, hours and pages themselves, the same day. See how forms work, or book a call and we will look at your current site with you.