A customer looking for a business near them opens several websites at once, on their phone, while walking or in the car. They do not read, they scan. If your website does not answer a few simple questions straight away, they go back to Google and click the next result.

The order in which a customer reads your website

Business owners often think their website should tell the story of their trade, their background, their passion. A customer in a hurry pays little attention to that at first glance. They check six things first, always in the same order: that you are open, where to find you, how to reach you, what you offer, roughly how much it costs, and whether you can be trusted. Everything else comes after, if it comes at all.

1. Is it open now

This is the first question, even before the name of your business. A customer on the move wants to know if they have a chance of finding you open, now, not in two days' time. Show your opening hours at the top of the page, with a simple indicator: open or closed. Special hours (a public holiday, closure for leave, a one-off change) should be visible in the same place, not buried on a separate page. Here is how to manage your special hours on Google and on your website.

With SiteServi, these hours come from your Google Business Profile listing. When you update them on Google, they update automatically on your website, without you needing to touch the website itself.

2. Where is it, exactly

The street name is not always enough. Give the full address, a useful landmark (opposite the pharmacy, next to the car park) and, if you travel to customers, the area you cover. A direct link to Google Maps saves the visitor from typing the address out by hand.

3. How to reach you without searching

The phone number should be clickable, visible without scrolling, and identical everywhere: on the website, on the Google listing, on your social media. A customer torn between three different numbers ends up calling none of them. If you offer an email address, make clear it is for enquiries, not for placing an order online: SiteServi builds showcase websites, not online shops.

4. What exactly do you offer

This is where many websites stay vague. Do not settle for a job title, describe what you actually do, using the words your customers themselves use.

With the Premium plan, you can spread this information across several pages (up to five), one per service or per area covered, rather than cramming everything onto a single homepage.

5. Roughly how much does it cost

You do not need to display a price to the last cent, especially if your rates vary depending on the job or the service. A range is enough: from so much, or budget between so much and so much for this type of job. The aim is not precision, it is to stop a customer hesitating to contact you for fear of a price they imagine to be too high.

6. Can you be trusted

A customer who does not know you looks for reassuring signals before dialling your number. Google reviews are one, especially if you take the time to reply to them: here is how to get more Google reviews. Photos taken by you, rather than generic stock images, are another. Your business name and its legal notices, which you can find set out on service-public.fr, complete the reassurance for a hesitant visitor.

What you can leave out

Some elements take up design time without answering any of the six questions above. They weigh the page down and distract attention instead of holding it.

A successful showcase website answers these six questions in under ten seconds. Everything else can wait until the customer has already decided to contact you.

Building a website around these six answers does not require any particular technical skill. Mostly, it requires resisting the urge to say more than a customer is looking for at first glance.