Copywriting for UK Small Businesses: A Checklist for Your First Website

Most first websites are written in a rush. You know what you do, so you assume everyone else will work it out from a logo and a list of services. They won't. Visitors arrive with a question, skim for a few seconds, and decide whether to keep reading or head back to the search results. Your copy is what tips that decision. Here's a checklist for getting it right the first time.

Start With the Reader, Not Your Business

A homepage is not a plaque on the wall. It is a conversation with someone who has a problem: a leaking tap, a tax return, a wedding in six weeks. Before you write a word, note the three things a stranger needs to know.

• What you do, in plain words a neighbour would use
• Who you do it for, including the area you cover or the type of client you work with
• What happens next if they get in touch, and roughly how quickly

Keep those answers beside you while you write. If a paragraph does not serve one of them, it is probably telling the reader about your company history instead of their afternoon.

One habit worth forming: count how often you write "we" and how often you write "you". Most first drafts run about three to one in favour of "we". Turn it round.

Write Headlines That Do One Job

A headline has a single task: convince a skimmer that the next thirty seconds are worth spending here. "Welcome to Hartley Plumbing" fails, because it could belong to any plumber in the country. "Emergency plumber in south Manchester, out within the hour" tells the reader they have landed in the right place.

Be specific, and be honest. If you cannot promise an hour, don't. "Same-day call-outs across south Manchester" is still a strong headline, and it won't leave you explaining yourself on the phone.

Subheadings earn the scroll

Almost nobody reads a web page from top to bottom. They scan the headings, dip into a paragraph, look for a price or a phone number, then decide. Subheadings every two or three paragraphs let a skimmer build the whole story in fifteen seconds. Write them as short statements rather than labels: "We fit the wardrobe, then tidy up" beats "Our Process".

Work Through the Pages in a Fixed Order

Writing page by page sounds obvious, but most people start with the About page because it is the easiest to write. Start where your customers start.

1. Homepage. What you do, who for, where, and one clear next step.
2. Service or product pages. One page per thing you sell. Describe the job, what is included, how long it takes, and what you need from the customer.
3. About. Two or three short paragraphs. Who you are, how long you have been doing this, and one detail that makes you memorable.
4. Contact. Phone, email, address, opening hours and a form that asks for no more than you actually need.
5. Answers to awkward questions. Do you charge for a quote? Do you work weekends? Can I cancel? Answering these on the page saves you phone calls.

If a sentence could sit on any competitor's website without anyone noticing, it isn't doing any work for yours.

Be Straight About Price and Process

You do not have to publish your prices. Plenty of businesses cannot, because every job differs. But you do have to explain how pricing works, or people will assume the worst. Say whether the first visit is free, whether you charge for a survey, what a typical job involves, and what pushes a quote up or down.

If your work is regulated, say so clearly and name the body you are registered with. If you are writing about money, legal or health matters, have the wording checked by someone qualified before it goes live. A paragraph can read beautifully and still be misleading, and correcting that later costs far more than getting it edited now.

Cut the Words Doing No Work

Weak copy is rarely badly written. It is usually padded. These swaps tighten a draft in minutes.

• Solutions — say what the thing actually is
• Reach out — call, email, get in touch
• Utilise — use
• Passionate about — show it with a specific detail instead
• World-class, leading, cutting-edge — give one piece of evidence, or delete it
• Bespoke — only if it genuinely is

Then hunt for hedging: "we aim to", "we try to", "quite", "very", "highly". Most can go, and the sentence gets stronger without them. The same applies to exclamation marks. One, across the whole site, is plenty.

Write for a British Reader

Small details build trust quickly, and small slips break it.

• Pick one spelling convention and stick to it — organise, colour, centre — and set your word processor to UK English so it stops suggesting American forms
• Put the pound sign before the number: £250, not 250£
• Write phone numbers the way people dial them, with spaces: 0161 496 0000
• Use the full postcode, not just the town
• Avoid imports such as "sidewalk", "gotten" and "touch base"
• Dates read cleanly as 3 March 2026, avoiding confusion with American formats

Tone matters too. Warm and direct works well here; hard-sell copy tends to feel pushy. "We'll give you a straight answer, even if it isn't the job for us" lands better than "Book now, limited slots remaining".

If you collect email addresses or run a newsletter, make sure your privacy notice covers what you are doing and how people agree to it. That is a job for a professional if you are unsure.

The Last Pass Before You Publish

Read the whole site aloud, slowly. Your ear catches clumsy sentences that your eye skips over. Then work through this, in order.

1. Check every phone number, email address and link by clicking or dialling it
2. Send yourself a test message through each form and confirm it arrives
3. Read the site on a phone, where most visitors will see it first
4. Ask someone outside the business to read the homepage and tell you what you sell
5. Run a UK spellcheck, then read once more for meaning rather than typos

Good website copy is not clever. It is clear, specific and easy to act on. Write the first draft quickly, cut it hard, then check the details above. A page that answers the reader's question in ten seconds will outperform a prettier page that makes them hunt for it.

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