Small Business Website Checklist (UK)

A good small business website does a few plain jobs well: it tells people who you are, it loads quickly on a phone, it is easy to use for everyone, it handles personal data lawfully, and it shows up when local customers search. Most of those jobs have a clear standard behind them.

This checklist covers what to put in place before launch. It is general information, not legal advice. Where a rule comes from law or an official body, we link to the source so you can check it yourself.

1. Legal and company details

If you trade as a limited company, the law says what your website must show. According to GOV.UK’s guidance for limited companies, the website must show:

• Your registered company number.
• Your registered office address.
• Where the company is registered: England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland.
• That it is a limited company, usually by giving the full name ending in “Limited” or “Ltd”.

Most businesses put these in the footer and on the contact or about page. If you trade under a name other than your company name, show both so customers can see who they are dealing with.

Other pages most small business sites need:

• A contact page with a working email address, a phone number if you take calls, and your address if customers visit.
• Terms of business, especially if you sell online or take bookings.
• A privacy notice (see the next section).

2. Privacy and UK GDPR

The GOV.UK data protection page explains that the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 govern how you use personal data, and that people have the right to be informed about how their data is used. A website contact form, a newsletter sign-up or a booking system all collect personal data.

• Publish a privacy notice that says who you are, what you collect, why, the lawful basis, who you share it with, how long you keep it, and how people exercise their rights. Article 13 of the UK GDPR lists what must be included.
• Only ask for the form fields you actually need.
• Make sure forms submit over HTTPS and that submissions go somewhere secure.
• Check whether you need to pay the data protection fee to the ICO. The government’s 2025 fee review set tier 1, for micro organisations with a maximum turnover of £632,000 or no more than 10 staff, at £52 a year.
• Have a written contract with anyone who processes personal data for you, such as your web developer or hosting provider. Article 28 requires it.

3. Cookies and tracking

Cookie rules sit in PECR, not the UK GDPR. Since 5 February 2026 the rules are in regulation 6 and Schedule A1 of PECR, as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

• List every cookie and tracking script the site sets, including ones added by plugins, chat widgets, maps and video embeds.
• Strictly necessary storage (security, a shopping basket, remembering form input) needs no consent.
• Analytics used only to improve your own site, and preference cookies, can be used without consent if you give clear information and a simple, free way to object.
• Advertising, remarketing and most third-party tracking still need consent before they load.

Our UK GDPR and cookie checklist explains the exemptions in detail.

4. Accessibility basics

The international standard is the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The current version is WCAG 2.2, published in October 2023 and updated in December 2024, with three levels: A, AA and AAA. AA is the usual target.

• Every image that carries meaning has alternative text.
• Text has enough contrast against its background.
• The whole site works with a keyboard, with a visible focus outline.
• Form fields have visible labels, and error messages say what went wrong.
• Headings are in a logical order and link text makes sense on its own (“View our prices”, not “Click here”).
• Videos have captions.
• Text can be enlarged without the layout breaking.

Automated checkers catch some of these. A short test with a keyboard and a screen reader catches more.

5. Speed and mobile

Google publishes clear targets for page experience. The Core Web Vitals are:

Google measures these at the 75th percentile of page loads, split by mobile and desktop, so a site that is fast on your office broadband can still fail on a customer’s phone.

• Images are compressed, correctly sized and lazy-loaded below the fold.
• Only the scripts you need load on each page.
• Hosting is on a plan that suits your traffic, with HTTPS.
• You have tested the main pages on a real phone over mobile data.

6. Google Business Profile and local search

If you serve a local area, your Google Business Profile matters as much as your website. Google’s local ranking help page says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that there is no way to pay for a better local ranking.

• Claim and verify your profile.
• Use the same business name, address and phone number on the profile and the website.
• Pick the most specific category that fits your main business.
• Keep opening hours current, including holiday hours.
• Add real photos of your premises, team or work.
• Reply to reviews, good and bad.
• Link the profile to your website, and add a location or service-area page to the site.

7. Domain, email and ownership

• The domain is registered in your business’s name, and you have the login. See our domains page and the guide to .co.uk vs .com vs .uk.
• Email uses your own domain, not a free webmail address.
• You have admin access to the website, hosting, analytics and Google Business Profile.
• Your contract says you own the site and its content once paid for.
• Backups run automatically and you know how to restore one.

8. Enquiries and measurement

• Every page has a clear next step: call, email, book or request a quote.
• Contact forms are tested end to end and land in an inbox someone reads.
• Analytics is set up in a way that matches your cookie approach.
• Search Console is connected so you can see which searches bring visitors.

How Hostlyx can help

Hostlyx is a Zorixo Services company with a delivery team in Bengaluru, India. UK customers are invoiced in GBP by Zorixo Ventures Ltd, a UK company, through Stripe. We build small business websites, handle domains and cPanel hosting, and run local SEO and Google Ads. We work through the items above as part of every build.

If you would like this checklist applied to your own site, tell us about your business and we will send a fixed written quote in GBP that lists which items are included.