What should a small business website include? A checklist for freelancers in Spain

What should a small business website include? Four core pages (home, services, about and contact), proof that people can trust you, an easy way to call or message you, a mobile-friendly design, basic SEO and the legal texts required in Spain. This guide covers each element with tips for freelancers and small businesses in Valencia, Alicante and Elche, and ends with a checklist.

Which pages does your website need?

Many small businesses start with four pages, plus the legal texts, and add more later as they grow. A freelancer can sometimes fit everything on a single page, while businesses with several different activities should give each one its own page.

• Homepage: what you do, where, and how to reach you.
• Services page: what each service includes and how to request it.
• About page: the people behind the company and their background.
• Contact page: all the ways to get hold of you.
• Legal pages: legal notice, data protection and cookie policies.
• Blog (optional): useful articles, if you have the time.

Still not sure you need one? Read why your business needs a website.

What should your homepage include?

Your homepage should let visitors know in a few seconds what you do, where you work and how to reach you, without making them scroll.

A clear headline with your service and town

“Welcome to our website” says nothing; “Painter and decorator in Alicante: interiors, façades and small repairs” tells potential customers looking for a painter exactly what you provide.

A line below can add what makes you different, for example weekend availability. If many of your clients are English speakers living in Spain, consider an English version too.

One call to action and links to your services

Make your main button, usually for a call or a WhatsApp message, the most visible one at the top. Below it, add a summary of each activity with a link to its page, a few photos and your rating.

The homepage is the hub of your digital presence: it doesn't need to say everything.

Services, about, contact and blog pages

Services page: describe each one clearly

For each service, explain what it includes, who it's for, the areas you cover and how to book. Provide a “from” price if you can: it saves time on both sides.

It's best to describe three to five services with care rather than list twenty names, and if you sell products, give each product a photo, a short description and a price.

About page: who you are

People hire people. A photo of you and your team, your experience, the languages you speak and why you started tell new clients who will turn up at their door.

Contact page: every way to reach you

Include everything a customer needs to reach you: your phone number, WhatsApp, email, opening hours and the towns you cover. If customers visit you, provide directions and a map to help them find you.

Blog: only if you can keep it up

A blog isn't essential, but articles that explain the things clients wonder about before hiring you can bring relevant traffic and show your expertise.

A blog whose last post is two years old, though, makes you look closed. For the writing, see how to create web content without being a writer.

Trust signals: reviews, photos and a secure site

Before they call, potential customers check for signs that you're real and still active. Three elements carry much of that weight, and they're where small businesses can stand out.

Customer testimonials

Show your rating and a few testimonials, with a link to your Google Business Profile. Never invent or rewrite what clients wrote, and get permission before you publish a customer's name.

If you display reviews, Spanish consumer rules also expect you to explain whether and how you check that they're genuine; in healthcare, check the rules on health advertising first. Here's how to get more reviews.

Photos of your own work

Photos of jobs you've done, your premises or your team build more trust than stock images. A photo of a kitchen you fitted in Elche supports what you say better than any adjective.

A secure site on your own domain

A domain, for example yourbusiness.es or yourbusiness.com, looks more serious than a free subdomain, and it stays yours if you change provider.

Browsers also warn visitors when a page isn't secure, so HTTPS is essential. Here's how to choose your domain name.

Calls to action that turn visitors into enquiries

A call to action tells visitors what to do next. Three are enough, and every page should show them:

• Phone: a tap-to-call link, so mobile users can ring you straight away.
• Short form: four or five fields at most (name, a way to reply, subject, message); each extra one is a reason to leave. Avoid fields you don't need, never request financial information like credit card details, and let a payment provider handle card payments.
• WhatsApp: a floating button that opens a chat. For small businesses in Spain, it's a natural channel for quick enquiries and customer support; see how to set up WhatsApp Business for free.

Use simple labels such as “Call now” or “Ask for a quote”. Once a month, send yourself a test message to check that everything is still working: if something went wrong after an update, you would otherwise only notice when enquiries stop. Answer messages promptly too: a reply within the same working day is a reasonable target, as an enquiry left for days may go to a competitor.

Mobile-friendly web design and fast loading

Many of your customers will look you up on their mobile, so your design needs to work on a small screen first:

• Text you can read without zooming.
• Buttons big enough to tap with a thumb.
• A simple menu with your main pages.
• No pop-ups hiding the content.

Google's indexing is mobile-first: it mainly crawls and ranks the mobile version of what you publish. That version shouldn't show different content from the desktop one: it should carry the same headings, image alt text and structured data, not a cut-down copy.

Good web design is about a consistent brand, not features: your logo, two or three brand colours and photos of your work are enough.

Speed is just as important for the user experience: visitors in a hurry leave a slow site before the page appears, and slow loading can hold back your rankings. Compress your photos and test your pages with no-cost tools: PageSpeed Insights, for example, gives a report for mobile and desktop with suggestions for improvement. Here's why speed affects your ranking.

Basic SEO: help search engines understand what you do

You don't need a deep understanding of the subject. Basic SEO, or search engine optimisation, means making it clear on every page what you do and where, so that anyone living nearby who searches for what you offer can find you.

Titles and headings with your service and town

Give each page a unique title and main heading that combine what you do and the place, for example “Electrician in Elche”, and write content in the words your customers would type.

Useful, original content

Google's guidance on helpful content explains that its ranking systems are designed to favour reliable information created to benefit readers, not text written only to rank. For a freelancer, that means writing from first-hand knowledge: the work involved in each job, what affects the price and the doubts that come up before a booking.

A few checks adapted from that guidance are useful when you review each section:

• Does it provide original, relevant information, such as photos and examples from your own jobs?
• Is the answer complete enough that a visitor doesn't need to go elsewhere?
• Does it show who you are and why your advice can be trusted?
• Was it written for readers first, and only then for rankings?

Before you publish, get feedback from a client or a friend: can they tell within a few seconds what you do and how to reach you?

Consistent details everywhere

Use exactly the same name, address and phone number on your website as on your Google Business Profile and in directories. Structured data such as schema LocalBusiness can also present this information in a format machines read easily.

An FAQ section

You probably answer the same questions every week, such as prices, areas covered and how long a job takes: put them in an FAQ. Don't expect it to win extra space on the results page, though: Google now shows FAQ rich results only for a few well-known government and health sites.

A clear FAQ is still worth having, and it can help search engines and AI assistants understand the page.

Google's Search Console, which costs nothing, can help: it reveals the searches that lead people to you, and its indexing report lists any URL that hasn't been indexed, with the reason. To go further, read our local SEO guide.

Accessibility: make your website easy for all users

An accessible design works for people with disabilities, older users and anyone reading in bright sunlight. The basics:

• Alt text on each image that carries information, so screen reader users know what it shows.
• Enough contrast, and links that don't rely on colour alone.
• Headings in order, and link text that says where it leads, not “click here”.
• A visible label on every field, and support for keyboard users.
• Captions or a text summary for videos.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the usual reference. If you sell online, check with an adviser whether the European Accessibility Act applies to your shop.

Legal texts for a website in Spain

If you're established in Spain, you must follow Spanish rules, whatever language you write in. Under Spain's e-commerce law (LSSI), the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, called RGPD in Spain) and Spain's Data Protection Act (LOPDGDD), a company or freelancer's website usually needs three legal texts:

• Legal notice (aviso legal): who runs the site, so anyone can identify you: your name or company name, NIF, address (the registered office, for an SL) and email, plus your Registro Mercantil or colegio data where they apply. It should be available one click away, for example through a link in the footer.
• Privacy policy: how you process the personal data you collect, with a link next to every send button.
• Cookie policy: which cookies you use and what they do. Analytics or advertising cookies need consent first, and the Spanish data protection agency (AEPD) expects a banner where rejecting them is as simple as accepting.

How to create a privacy notice

Write it in plain terms that are easy to understand. It explains:

• who you are and how to reach you;
• the types of personal information you collect (names, emails, mobile numbers…) and why;
• the legal basis, for example a request for a quote or the visitor's consent;
• who receives the data, such as your web host, and whether any of it goes outside the European Union;
• how long you keep it;
• their rights (access, rectification, erasure, objection and others) and how to use them, including how to complain to the AEPD.

You don't need to show all of that where you collect the data: a brief note saying who you are, why you collect the data and how to exercise those rights is enough, with a link to the full policy. If you add a newsletter sign-up, use a separate box, unticked by default, because Spanish law only allows commercial emails that the recipient has requested or given explicit permission for, except to existing customers about offers similar to what they've already bought.

Cookie consent and distance selling

The AEPD's guidance on cookies sets out a few practical rules to follow:

• no analytics or advertising cookies until the visitor accepts them; cookies strictly necessary for the service the visitor has requested, such as one that remembers the chosen language, are exempt;
• a Reject button at the same level and with the same visibility as Accept, and no pre-ticked options;
• carrying on browsing doesn't count as consent;
• a permanent link to change the setting later, because withdrawing consent must be no harder than giving it;
• embedded videos, maps and tracking pixels need consent too when they set cookies.

If you sell online or take paid bookings from consumers, Spanish and EU consumer regulations also require certain information before the order: who you are and how to reach you, the main characteristics of what you sell, the total price including taxes and any delivery costs, payment and delivery terms, and whether the buyer can cancel and how (in Spain, the derecho de desistimiento). After the purchase, confirm the order in writing, for example with a message they can keep.

If you show prices to consumers, they must include VAT. Take care with templates copied from another site: they may not comply with the law for your way of working, so for obligations specific to your industry, consider asking an adviser. Our detailed article on the aviso legal and cookie rules in Spain covers each obligation.

Your small business website checklist

Open the site on your mobile and run through this list, step by step:

• The first screen says what you do and where within a few seconds.
• A call or WhatsApp button is visible on every page, and messages reach you.
• Each service has its own section or page.
• The about page shows who you are, with a real photo.
• Testimonials and photos are genuine and up to date.
• Your name, address and hours are identical everywhere.
• The design works on a small screen, and photos have alt text.
• Forms ask only for the data you need and show basic data protection information.
• The cookie banner puts Reject and Accept at the same level.
• The three legal texts are in place.
• A client or a friend has tried it out and given you feedback.

A website isn't a project you finish and forget: every few months, add new photos, update your prices and descriptions, and check that the buttons still work. A few basic metrics show whether it brings in enquiries.

With WebAutonomos, we prepare your website's design, texts and photos from your Google Business Profile and the photos you send. It includes an enquiry form that sends requests to your email, a WhatsApp button, links to your social profiles, the legal texts and basic SEO, for €15/month with no setup fee and no commitment, or €349 as a one-off payment. You see a free demo of your website, ready in less than 24 hours, before paying anything. To compare prices, see our guide to website costs for freelancers.