A “good” website isn’t about being beautiful. It’s about doing its job — turning visitors into customers, quickly, on whatever device they’re using, without making them think too hard. Below is the practical checklist we use when reviewing a Medicine Hat business website. Score yours against it. Anything you can’t tick off is a real opportunity.

The basics (non-negotiable)

These are the absolute table stakes. If you’re missing any, fix them this week.

• Phone number visible on every page, ideally in the header. On mobile, it should be tap-to-call.
• Physical address or service area stated clearly, especially if you serve a specific region.
• Hours of operation, including holiday hours.
• Email address or working contact form (test it — most are quietly broken).
• Mobile-friendly layout that doesn’t require pinch-and-zoom.
• Loads in under three seconds on a phone. Test it at PageSpeed Insights.
• HTTPS (the padlock icon). Anything else is now flagged as “not secure” by browsers.
• Real photos. Stock photography of generic happy people is a credibility killer.

The content that earns trust

A nice-looking site with vague content converts no one. Your visitors are silently asking three questions: who are you, what do you do, and why should I trust you?

• A clear, plain-English homepage headline that says what you do and who it’s for. Not “Innovative Solutions for the Modern World.” Something like: “Medicine Hat plumbing for homes and small businesses. Fast, fair, no surprises.”
• About page with real names and real faces. Not just a logo and a “team” stock photo.
• Service pages, one per major service, written in the language your customers actually use.
• Pricing or price ranges wherever possible. Customers who can’t get a price elsewhere will overwhelmingly choose you if you publish even a starting figure.
• Testimonials with full names and locations. “Jane K.” reads like fiction. “Jane Klassen, Medicine Hat” reads like a real person.
• An FAQ answering the questions you actually get on the phone.

The conversion essentials

A good site doesn’t just inform — it asks for the next step on every screen.

• One primary call-to-action per page, repeated logically. Book, call, request a quote, buy.
• Sticky call/contact button on mobile, always visible.
• Forms with the minimum number of fields needed. Five is plenty. Twelve is a quote-killer.
• Thank-you pages and confirmation emails, so customers know their submission went through.

The local SEO foundations

If you serve a local market, these are the things Google needs to find and recommend you.

• City and region in your title tags (“Mobile Mechanic in Medicine Hat, AB”).
• Address and phone number that match your Google Business Profile, exactly.
• Schema markup for LocalBusiness (your developer should handle this).
• Location-specific service pages if you cover multiple towns.
• Internal links to your service pages from your homepage.
• A few inbound links from local sources — chamber of commerce, suppliers, partners.

(Read our local SEO guide for the deeper version.)

The technical hygiene

Boring but important. Most of these your designer should set up by default.

• Compressed, modern image formats (WebP, AVIF). Big JPGs are the most common cause of slow sites.
• Lazy-loaded images below the fold.
• A real favicon that matches your brand.
• A custom 404 page that points lost visitors back home.
• An XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console.
• Automated daily backups.
• Working SSL certificate that auto-renews.
• Privacy policy and terms of service pages — both for legal coverage and to look like a legitimate business.

The trust signals

Small additions that quietly raise your conversion rate.

• Logos of clients, suppliers, or industry associations
• Awards, certifications, or licence numbers (especially in trades and professional services)
• Number of years in business
• “We’ve helped X local businesses since YEAR”
• Verified Google review widget pulling in real recent reviews

The maintenance basics

A site you launched and forgot is already losing ground. Plan for:

• Monthly content updates — even a small one
• A new blog post or news item every 2 – 4 weeks
• Quarterly review of services, prices, and team page
• Annual full audit of broken links, outdated info, and analytics

How to use this checklist

Print it. Open your own website on your phone. Walk through the list ruthlessly. Mark anything missing. Most Medicine Hat small business sites we audit score around 11 or 12 out of the 35-ish items above. Getting to 25 is genuinely transformative.

If you’d like an outside set of eyes to walk through this checklist with you, book a free 30-minute audit. We’ll give you a written summary even if you decide to fix everything yourself.