Originally published December 2017 ยท Updated October 2026 · By SM Web Development
When people start planning a website, they usually start with how it looks. Which photo goes at the top. What colour the buttons are. Whether to add a blog. Pretty soon there’s a long list of pages and nobody remembers why the site was needed in the first place.
You don’t need to be good with computers to plan a website well. You need an hour or two and some honest answers. Work through these 11 things before anyone designs anything.
1. Your goals
Start with what the website should do for your business. Not “look professional”, but something you’d notice.
- More quote requests for the work you actually want
- Fewer tire kickers and price shoppers
- Fewer phone calls asking the same three questions
- Showing up when someone nearby searches for what you do
- Making it easy to hire staff or subcontractors
Pick the ones that matter. You’ll use them in step 8.
2. What your customers want to find
This gets skipped more than anything else. When someone looks you up, what are they hoping to see?
The easiest way to find out is to ask. Call a few recent customers, tell them you’re redoing your website, and ask what they looked for before they hired you. Then stop talking and let them answer. Don’t hand them a list, or you’ll hear your own ideas back.
Then search Google for your service and your town, the way a customer would. Look at the top few businesses. If they all show prices, service areas or photos of finished jobs, that’s probably because customers want those things. Use the ideas, never the wording or photos.
3. One clear next step on every page
Every page should ask the visitor to do one thing: call, book, or request a quote. Pick the main one and use it everywhere, with the same wording. We wrote more about this in why you need a call to action.
4. Proof that you do good work
People hire who they trust. Show them why they should.
- Photos of real jobs, before and after where you can
- Reviews from your Google Business Profile
- How long you’ve been in business, licences and warranties
Real photos from your own jobs beat stock photos every time.
5. Easy ways to reach you
A contact page isn’t enough on its own. Someone with a leaking water heater wants to tap your phone number and talk to a person. Someone planning a bathroom renovation would rather send a short form with a few photos.
Give them both. Put a tap-to-call number at the top of every page. Keep the form short: name, phone or email, what they need, and an option to add photos. Say which areas you serve and when you’ll get back to them.
6. Pages that answer real questions
Give each main service its own page. “Furnace repair” and “furnace replacement” are different jobs with different customers, and each deserves a page that explains what you do, where you do it, and what happens next.
Once those are in place, short posts answering common questions can help too. How often should a furnace be serviced? What’s included in a quote? Answering questions people already ask you on the phone helps them, and helps Google understand what you do.
7. A way to stay in touch after the job
Most of your future work comes from past customers and the people they talk to. Plan how you’ll stay in their mind. That could be a fall reminder about furnace tune-ups, a follow-up asking for a Google review, or an occasional email with seasonal tips. Keep it useful and don’t send sales emails every week.
8. Plan around your top three goals
Go back to your goals and your customers’ answers. Pick the three that matter most and make sure the site does each of them well. If customers want to know your service area, put it on the home page. If you want fewer price-shopper calls, say roughly what jobs start at. You don’t have to do everything at once.
9. Phones first
Most of your visitors will see your site on a phone, often in a truck, a basement or a parking lot. Plan the phone version first. Can someone find your number, see what you do and send a request without zooming or hunting? More on that in making sure your website looks great across devices.
10. Don’t ask too much too soon
Not everyone is ready to book a site visit. Some just want to know if you’re in their price range. Give them a smaller first step, like “send us a few photos and we’ll give you a rough price”. It’s easy to say yes to, and it starts a conversation you can follow up on.
11. A privacy policy
If your site has a contact form, you’re collecting personal information. Canadian privacy law expects businesses to say what they collect, why, and how they look after it. A clear, plain privacy policy covers that, and it’s worth having a professional check it. Add terms of use if you sell anything online.
Bonus: your time and skill
Last, be honest about whether you’ll build the site yourself. Website builders make the technical part easier, but you still have to plan the pages, write the words and keep it all up to date after launch. If you’d rather stay on the tools, read 5 reasons to consult a web design expert first.
The most important part
Know what you need the site to do, and what your customers need from it. Skip that, and you can spend a lot of time and money on something that ends up as a digital business card.
Already have a website?
If you’re planning a rebuild, start with a free website review. We’ll look at your site on a phone, the way your customers do, and tell you the three things we’d fix first. If you run a trades business, you can also see our fixed-price Trades Launch package.