What to Put on Your Home Page So Visitors Actually Call You
When an owner sends me their site to look at, I do the same thing every time: I open the homepage on my phone, give it five seconds, and ask what a stranger would know by now. Usually the answer is "this business exists and is proud of itself". Not what they do, not where they work, not what I'm supposed to do next. The homepage was written from the inside looking out. But your visitor isn't inside. They're standing on the footpath mid-search with one question: can this business fix my problem, near me, soon? Your homepage has one job, and that's to answer yes and hand them the phone.
The five-second test
Before a visitor scrolls, four things need to be obvious: who you are, what you do, where you work, and what to do next. That's it. Not your founding story, not your values, not an animation. If you're a tiler in Adelaide's western suburbs, a stranger glancing at your homepage from across a table should be able to say "tiler, western Adelaide, call this number". Most homepages fail this not because the information is missing but because it's buried under things the owner finds more interesting. Run the test on your own site tonight. Hand your phone to someone who doesn't know your business, count to five, take it back and ask them what you sell and where. You'll learn more from that than from any audit report.
Say the thing
The headline is where most homepages go wrong first. Somewhere along the way, small businesses picked up the habit of opening with slogans: "Quality you can trust." "Excellence in every detail." "Your vision, our passion." I'll be blunt about these because someone should be: a headline any business in any industry could use is a headline that does nothing. Your first line should say what you do and where, in the words a customer would actually type into Google. "Emergency plumber across Adelaide's southern suburbs" orients a visitor instantly, and it tells Google what the page is about at the same time, which is half of basic on-page SEO done in one sentence. Slogans can live further down, once the visitor knows they're in the right place. Orientation first, personality second.
One action, made unmissable
Decide what you want a visitor to do, then build the page around that single action. For most local businesses it's a phone call, for some it's a quote form or a booking. Whatever it is, it should appear in the top corner of every screen, again after your proof, and again at the bottom, worded as the thing the customer gets rather than the thing they do. "Get a free quote" beats "Submit". On mobile, the number must be tap-to-call, because a visitor who has to memorise your number to dial it mostly won't. I've pulled apart what makes a call-to-action actually work in a separate post, but the short version is: one primary action, repeated, obvious, and low-commitment. Three competing buttons is the same as none.
Proof that doesn't smell like marketing
Everything above the fold makes a claim. Everything below it should back that claim up, and this is where real material beats polish every time. A photo of your actual ute, your actual team, your actual finished job in a real backyard in Morphett Vale will out-persuade any stock photo ever taken, because visitors have seen the stock photos a thousand times and their eyes slide straight off them. If your work is visual, before-and-after pairs are the strongest proof a trades site can carry. Pull two or three real Google reviews onto the page with names and suburbs, and keep them fresh; your Google Business Profile is doing this job in the search results already, and the homepage should agree with it. And name your suburbs in text, not just on a map. "Servicing Salisbury, Elizabeth and Gawler" is proof of locality that a logo strip can't fake.
What to cut without a second thought
Half of homepage design is deletion. The image slider goes first: it splits your message across slides almost nobody sees, and it's dead weight on load time. The mission statement paragraph goes next, because no customer has ever rung a tradesperson on the strength of a mission statement. Stock photos of handshakes and headsets, gone. The wall of twelve service icons, cut to the four services that pay your bills, with a proper section for each if they earn it. Auto-playing video, gone, and your phone loading speed will thank you; heavy homepages are one of the four culprits I walk through in the slow-website guide. Each of these feels like it's adding something. Each is really making the one thing that matters harder to find.
The prices question
Owners ask me constantly whether to show prices on the homepage, and my answer is more definite than most designers will give you: if you can, do. Hiding prices doesn't create intrigue, it creates a click to the next result. We publish ours on every page that matters: $399 for a one-page site, $899 for multi-page, $1,499 for a larger business website, hosting $30 a month with no lock-in contract. Full details sit on the pricing page and the packages page. That transparency filters enquiries before they reach us, so the ones that arrive are from people who already know the ballpark and want to go ahead. If your jobs genuinely vary too much for a flat price, publish a starting point and say what moves the number. "From $180 plus parts" answers the question honestly without boxing you in.
Where your homepage actually gets read
One more reality check: your homepage will mostly be read on a phone, standing up, on mobile data, often with one bar. Well over half the small-business traffic I see is mobile, and for trades it's higher again. So the five-second test happens on a 6-inch screen, the tap-to-call button matters more than the desktop layout, and every decorative flourish costs seconds you don't have. I've written a full guide to getting the mobile experience right, but the discipline is simple: design for the phone first and let the desktop version be the bonus. It's how we build every site, and it's why they're live in 5 to 10 days without a page builder in sight.
What to fix this week
- Hand your phone to someone outside the business. Five seconds on your homepage, then ask what you do and where. Rewrite the headline if they can't answer.
- Replace your slogan headline with service plus area, in words a customer would search.
- Put your phone number top-right on every screen and make it tap-to-call.
- Choose one primary action and remove the buttons competing with it.
- Swap one stock photo for a real photo of you, your team or your work.
- Add two recent Google reviews, with names and suburbs.
- Name your service suburbs in text somewhere on the page.
- Delete the slider. Whatever it was doing, one strong image does better.
Frequently asked questions
Should I put my prices on my homepage?
If your pricing is fixed or close to it, yes, because hiding it just sends people to a competitor who answers the question. If every job is genuinely different, publish a starting point or a typical range instead, and say plainly what moves the number. We publish ours everywhere: $399 for a one-page site, $899 multi-page, $1,499 for a larger business website, hosting $30/month with no lock-in. The enquiries we get are better for it, because nobody arrives expecting something we don't offer.
How long should a small business homepage be?
Long enough to answer who you are, what you do, where you work, why you're credible, and what to do next. For most local businesses that's four to six short sections, not a single screen and not an endless scroll. Length isn't the real question though. Order is. The answer to the visitor's question belongs at the top, and everything below it exists to back that answer up.
Do I need a video or an image slider on my homepage?
A slider, almost certainly not. Rotating banners split your message into slides most visitors never see, they hurt loading speed, and they push your real content down the page. Video can work if it's genuinely yours and loads fast, but a heavy autoplay video is one of the most common reasons homepages feel slow on a phone. One strong photo of your actual work with a clear headline beats both, and it costs you nothing in speed.
What should the very first thing on my homepage say?
What you do and where you do it, in plain words a stranger would search. 'Emergency plumber across Adelaide's southern suburbs' tells a visitor in one line whether they're in the right place. 'Quality solutions, exceptional service' tells them nothing, because any business in any industry could say it. Save the personality for the sections below. The first line is for orientation, and it's also what Google reads first.