What Your Business Website Needs to Do, Sector by Sector

A local business website exists to answer the three to five questions customers arrive with, and those questions change a lot from one sector to another. For a restaurant they're the menu, the hours and the booking; for a clinic, the specialities, who you'll see and how to book; for a plumber, the area covered, whether they do emergencies and what it costs. The table below sums up what matters in each sector, and the sections that follow explain what to put on the site and the typical mistake to avoid.

What every sector has in common

Before the differences, the basics are the same for any business:

• Name, what you do and where, right at the top.
• Phone and WhatsApp that work with one tap on a phone.
• Address with a map link, or the area you cover.
• Opening hours that are current and match your Google Business Profile.
• Real photos of the place, the team and the work.
• One clear main action: call, book, reserve or request a quote.

Everything below is what you add on top of that.

Summary by sector

Sector	What visitors come for	Main action	Typical mistake
Restaurants and cafés	Menu with prices, kitchen hours, location, bookings, atmosphere	Book or call	Menu only as a PDF or a photo
Clinics and dentists	Specialities, who you'll see, insurance accepted, how to book, access	Book an appointment	No practitioner named anywhere
Hair and beauty salons	Services with price and duration, past work, booking	Book	Portfolio only on Instagram
Plumbers, electricians, garages, builders	Area covered, emergencies, types of job, guide price, past work	Call or request a quote	Not saying where they work
Guesthouses and holiday lets	Photos of every room, location, availability, house rules, how to get there	Check availability or book	Few photos, all the useful info only on booking platforms
Accountants, lawyers, consultants	Areas of work, who they work with, what the first meeting is like, fees	Request a meeting	Generic copy that fits any firm

Restaurants and cafés

What visitors come for: what's on and what it costs, whether you're open today and until when the kitchen serves, where you are and whether there's parking, how to book and what the place looks like.

• The menu as text on the site, with prices. It reads well on a phone, Google can read it, and you can change it in minutes. A PDF forces people to zoom, and a photo of the chalkboard is out of date the next day.
• Kitchen hours, not just opening hours, and your closing days.
• Allergens: list them on the menu or say how customers can check. It's a common question, and in the EU the information has to be available to customers.
• Bookings: phone, a form or a reservation platform, but one main route.
• Groups and events: if you take group dinners or do set menus, say so, with the maximum party size.
• Takeaway and delivery: direct links to the platforms you use, if any.

Typical mistake: a beautiful site with no menu, or last year's menu. More ideas for this sector on our page about websites for restaurants.

Clinics, dentists and other health services

What visitors come for: whether you treat their problem, who they'll see, whether their insurance is accepted, what the first appointment costs and how to book.

• The team with names, photos and specialities, plus their professional registration number. In healthcare, knowing who you'll see weighs heavily.
• One page per speciality or treatment, in plain language: what it's for, what happens, how long it takes.
• Insurers and schemes accepted, in a clear list. It's one of the first things people ask on the phone.
• First appointment: what to bring, how long it lasts, price or price range.
• Access: parking, public transport, lift or wheelchair access.
• Booking: a form with name, contact, speciality and preferred time. Don't ask for symptoms or medical history in the form: health data is a special category under the GDPR and belongs in the appointment.

Typical mistake: a site that talks about "excellence and cutting-edge technology" but never says who the doctors are. See what to include on our page about websites for clinics.

Hair salons, barbers and beauty

What visitors come for: whether you do the service they want, what it costs, how long it takes, whether the results are good and when there's a free slot.

• A service list with price and duration ("Cut and blow-dry, 45 min, from [amount]"). Without prices, people message to ask or give up.
• A gallery of your own work, organised by type (cuts, colour, nails, brows). If your portfolio lives on Instagram, bring the best photos onto the site and link to the rest.
• Who does what: if team members specialise, show it.
• Booking with service and preferred time, or a WhatsApp button with a pre-written message.
• Policies: lateness, cancellation notice, deposits for long services, if they apply.

Typical mistake: sending everyone to Instagram, where prices and hours aren't. More on our page about websites for hair salons.

Plumbers, electricians, garages and builders

What visitors come for: whether you work in their area, whether you can come today, whether you do that kind of job, roughly what it costs and whether you're trustworthy. These searches are often made in a hurry, on a phone, with a leak at home or a car that won't start.

• The area you cover, spelled out: towns or districts. "Nationwide" doesn't convince; "Braga, Guimarães and Barcelos" does.
• Emergencies: whether you do them, at what hours, and whether there's a call-out charge.
• A list of specific jobs (unblocking drains, replacing water heaters, fuse boxes, servicing, brakes), not just "general plumbing".
• How to get a quote: for example, send a photo of the problem on WhatsApp. Say whether quotes are free.
• Photos of finished jobs and, where it makes sense, before and after.
• Credentials: any trade licence or registration you hold (in Portugal, builders show their IMPIC licence number), and the guarantees you give.

Typical mistake: not saying where you work, so customers have to call just to find out whether it's worth calling. See the example on our page about websites for plumbers.

Guesthouses and holiday lets

What visitors come for: what the rooms look like, exactly where you are, whether you have their dates, what's included and how check-in works.

• Photos of every room and the shared areas, including the bathroom and the real view.
• Location with context: walking distance to the centre, beach or station, and parking.
• Direct booking or an availability request, alongside links to the platforms you're listed on. People who find your site after seeing a listing often want to deal with you directly.
• Practical information: check-in and check-out times, house rules, pets, how to arrive without a car.
• Your registration number: in Portugal, short-term rentals (Alojamento Local) must show their registration number in any advertising; many other places have a similar licence requirement.
• Other languages, since many guests come from abroad.

Typical mistake: a site with three photos and all the useful information only on the booking platforms. More on our page about websites for guesthouses.

Accountants, lawyers and other professional services

What visitors come for: whether you handle cases like theirs, who'll be responsible, how the first contact works and a sense of cost.

• Specific areas ("bookkeeping for restaurants and holiday lets", "tenancy and inheritance"), not a list of twenty specialities.
• Who you work with: individuals, freelancers, small companies, particular sectors.
• What the first meeting is like: in person or online, how long, whether it's paid, which documents to bring.
• Fees: a monthly retainer from a given amount, a price per service or at least how fees are worked out.
• Credentials: your registration with the relevant professional body. Those bodies have their own rules on advertising; check them before publishing.

Typical mistake: copy about "rigour, trust and a personal touch" that could sit on any firm's site in the country.

How to apply this to your site in 20 minutes

1. Write down the five questions you've been asked most by phone or message in the last two weeks.
2. Open your site on your phone and look for the answer to each. Count how many taps it takes.
3. Any answer that's missing, or more than two taps from the top, goes to the top of the home page or into an FAQ section.
4. Compare with your sector's row in the table above and add whatever's missing.

Imagine, for example, a small garage that is asked every day whether it does vehicle inspections. If the answer is no, saying so on the site saves calls; if it's yes, it's a service to feature. Either way, the answer belongs on the site.

Next step

If your site doesn't answer your sector's questions, or you don't have a site yet, WebGenPro builds one from your Google Business Profile, with sections and a form suited to your type of business. You can see a free preview in about 5 minutes, with no card, and decide afterwards.