Insights — How We Work
The 2026 Small-Business Website Checklist
Ten things to check before you call your website done — from clear prices to a booking flow that works on a phone. A 2026 checklist from 5AM Web.
A website is done when it does its job — not when it looks finished. Run through these ten checks on your own site, on your phone, the way a visitor would. If an item fails, that is the next thing to fix.
1. It says what you do, in one line
A visitor should know what your business does without scrolling. One line, plain words: what you do, and for whom. "Cleaning for homes and offices in Raleigh" beats a paragraph about passion. If a stranger cannot say what you do after five seconds on your home page, the first line needs rewriting.
2. Services and prices are easy to find
List what you do, and put a starting price next to it. Visitors who cannot find a price do not call to ask — they move on to the next business. Our own prices are published on our services page: a website starts at $1,800 for design, $2,880 for design and build, and $3,960 with branding included. Your services deserve the same honesty.
3. Booking or a quote takes one tap
The path from "I want this" to "I asked for it" should be one tap from the home page. A quote form that asks for the essentials — business name and city, the service needed, a budget range — and takes about five minutes is enough. If it takes three pages and a phone call, the website is getting in the way of the work.
4. It works on a phone
Most of your visitors are on their phones. Open your site on yours. Can you read every line without zooming? Can you tap every button with a thumb? Does anything run off the screen? If the answer to any of those is no, the site is not done — no matter how good it looks on a computer. Every site we build is mobile-first for exactly this reason.
5. It loads fast enough to keep a visitor
A visitor who waits leaves. Check your site on a slow connection, not only on office wifi. Big uncompressed photos are the usual cause — fewer, smaller images beat a gallery nobody waits for. If a page takes long enough to notice, it takes too long.
6. It shows real proof, honestly
Photos of finished work, a list of services, a service area named town by town — these are proof. Stock photos of strangers, a testimonial with no name, a badge with no source — these are decoration, and visitors can tell the difference. If you have no finished-work photos yet, say what you do clearly instead of borrowing somebody else's pictures. Our own demos are labelled plainly as fictional examples for exactly this reason — proof has to be honest, or it is not proof.
7. The service area names real towns
"Serving the area" means nothing. Name the towns you serve. A visitor in Cary wants to know whether you come to Cary. If your site names the towns, that visitor calls you. If it does not, they call the business whose site does.
8. Contact is easy, and the next step is obvious
A phone number, an email address, or a form — visible on every page, not buried on a contact page nobody reaches. And every page should end with one clear next step: request a quote, or book a free consultation. One step, not five. Ours is a quote form and a free 30-minute consultation booking — request a quote or book a free consultation.
9. You own the website and the domain
This one is easy to check and easy to get wrong. The domain, the website, and the content should be your property. Ask whoever built your site, in writing: do I own it? If the answer is unclear, or if leaving would mean losing the site, it was never really yours. With us, you own all three — we build and maintain them; we do not hold them hostage.
10. You got a written proposal before you paid
A website should come with a written proposal: an exact price, a list of what is included, and what happens after launch — before anything is paid. That is how we work: you see the proposal first, then decide. No payment upfront. If your site was built without one, ask for the next piece of work in writing. It is the simplest protection a business owner has.
The short version
One line that says what you do. Prices you can find. A quote in one tap. A phone that reads it cleanly. Real proof, real towns, easy contact, ownership in writing, and a proposal before payment. Ten checks, and a website that passes all ten is a website doing its job.
If yours fails a few, that is normal — most do. The fix is one item at a time, starting with the one your visitors hit first. And if you would rather have it built properly from the start, request a quote: tell us about your business, and the proposal will tell you exactly what it costs.
Next steps
The proposal tells you exactly what your website would cost and what it would include — before anything is paid.
Next step — Get a quote
Know what yours would cost?
Tell us about your business and we reply with a detailed written proposal — before anything is paid.