Eight things your website needs before it can sell
A website can look excellent and still do nothing. These are the eight things that decide which one you have, and most of them take an afternoon to fix.
Looking good is not the same as working
We audit a lot of small business websites in the GTA, and the pattern is consistent. The design is rarely the problem. The problem is that the site was built to describe the business rather than to get someone to contact it.
Here are the eight things that make the difference. Go through them with your own site open.
1. A contact button visible without scrolling
Someone lands on your page. Before they scroll, before they read anything, can they see how to reach you?
In Toronto, and especially among Spanish-speaking customers, WhatsApp beats a form. People want to ask one question — do you do this, how much, are you open Saturday — before they commit to filling anything in.
If your contact option is at the bottom of the page, it doesn't exist for most visitors.
2. Your city and neighbourhood written in text
This is the one that costs businesses the most and gets noticed the least.
Google reads text. It does not read words inside images. If your address only appears in a graphic in the footer, or your service area is written across a banner, Google has no idea where you operate.
Write it in plain text: the city, the neighbourhoods you serve, the areas you cover. Toronto, Scarborough, North York, Mississauga — whichever apply.
3. Reviews on the page, near the top
Nobody buys from a stranger without evidence. Your Google reviews are that evidence, and they should be on the page, not just on your Google profile.
Put two or three near the top, with names. Not at the bottom under the footer, where nobody reaches.
4. It loads in under three seconds
Test it properly: phone, mobile data, not WiFi.
A large share of visitors leave before a slow page finishes loading, and Google factors speed into rankings. It's one of the few things that costs you twice — visitors and position.
The 12-point website checklist
The same list we run before we launch any site in Toronto. Send it to yourself and check your own site in ten minutes.
Get the checklistThe usual culprits are uncompressed images and too many scripts. Both are fixable in an afternoon.
5. It works on a phone, properly
Not it technically displays. Works. Buttons big enough to tap without zooming, text readable without pinching, forms that don't push the screen sideways.
Most of your visitors are on a phone. Designing for a desktop and checking mobile afterwards is backwards.
6. One clear action per page
If your homepage has five buttons competing — call us, book now, get a quote, download this, follow us — you've asked the visitor to make a decision, and the easiest decision is to leave.
One page, one thing you want them to do. Everything else supports it.
7. A way to pay or book online
Every step between wanting your service and getting it loses people. If the only way to book is to phone during business hours and hope you answer, you're losing the ones who decided at 9pm.
This doesn't require a complicated system. A booking link or a payment link is enough.
8. Real photos, not stock
People recognise stock photography instantly, and when they do, they start doubting everything else on the page.
Your storefront, your team, your actual work. Taken on a phone is fine. Real beats polished.
Count them
Eight is unusual. Six is good. Four or five is where most sites sit, and it's also where the fastest improvements are.
If you scored under six, start with the two that cost nothing: the visible contact button and the city written in text. Those two alone change what happens when someone finds you.
And if nobody is finding you in the first place, the problem is upstream of your website — it's your Google Business Profile, and that one is free to fix.
Frequently asked questions
How do I test my own site properly?
Open it on your phone using mobile data, not your home WiFi, and count the seconds until you can tap something. That's the experience most of your visitors have. Testing on a desktop connected to fibre tells you almost nothing.
Do I need a contact form?
You need a way to be contacted. In this market a WhatsApp button usually converts better than a form, because people want to ask one question before committing to anything. Have both if you can, with WhatsApp higher on the page.
How many of the eight do most sites have?
In our experience, four or five. The ones that get missed most often are the same three every time: no visible WhatsApp button, the city only inside an image, and no reviews anywhere on the page.
