We audit a lot of small business websites. The same problems come up over and over, and almost none of them are exotic. They are basic things that nobody ever checked because the site was built once and never looked at again.
Work through this list on your own site. Be honest. Most sites fail six to ten of these.
Getting found
1. Every page has its own title and description
Not the same title repeated sitewide. Each page needs a title describing that page. This is the blue line people click in search results, so it is doing more work than almost anything else on the page.
2. One H1 per page
One main heading that says what the page is about. Not three, not zero. Subheadings below it use H2 and H3 in order.
3. A page for each service
Separate pages, each with real detail. A single "Services" page listing everything ranks for nothing.
4. Your town appears in actual sentences
Not a list of ninety towns in the footer, which reads as spam. Real copy that mentions where you work and what you do there.
5. A sitemap that Google can read
And it should carry real dates. A sitemap claiming every page changed today, every day, teaches Google to ignore the signal.
6. Structured data
The markup that tells search engines your hours, address, and rating. It powers the extra detail you see under some results.
Not losing the visitor
7. It loads in under two seconds on a phone
Test on cell data, not office wifi. This is where most small business sites lose the most people.
8. Your phone number is tappable
On a phone, the number must be a link that dials. Typed as plain text, a real share of callers give up.
9. The phone number is visible without scrolling
Top of every page. Someone who has decided to call should never have to hunt.
10. It works on a five-year-old Android
Not just the newest iPhone. Test on something old and slow, because plenty of your customers are using exactly that.
11. Nothing important hides behind a hover
Hover does not exist on touchscreens. If a menu only opens on hover, phone users cannot reach it.
12. Text is readable without zooming
16px minimum for body copy. Long stretches of all-caps text are harder to read than sentence case, and small all-caps is worse still.
Turning visitors into calls
13. It says what you do in the first sentence
Someone landing on your homepage should know your trade and your area within about three seconds. "Delivering excellence since 1998" does not qualify.
14. There is one obvious next step
Call, book, or fill in a form. Pick one per page and make it visually dominant. Five equally weighted buttons produce fewer actions than one clear button.
15. Your form asks for as little as possible
Name, phone, and a short description covers it. Every additional required field costs you submissions.
16. Form submissions reach you within a minute
A form nobody sees until tomorrow is worse than no form, because the customer believes they have contacted you. We covered the numbers in why service businesses lose leads before they call back.
17. Real photos of real work
Your trucks, your crew, your finished jobs. Stock photography of a smiling model in a hard hat is recognisable to everyone and it costs you trust.
18. Reviews are visible on the site
Real ones, with real names, ideally pulled from your Google profile. Never invent them. Fabricated testimonials violate FTC endorsement rules and can cost you your Google listing.
Not embarrassing yourself
19. HTTPS with a valid certificate
Browsers label anything else "Not secure" in the address bar, which is the first thing a visitor sees.
20. No broken links or missing images
Click every link in your navigation and footer. Broken links signal an abandoned business.
21. The copyright year is current
A footer reading 2021 tells every visitor nobody has touched the site in years. It should be generated automatically, not typed.
Scoring yourself
- 18 to 21: In good shape. Focus on content and reviews.
- 13 to 17: Losing business to fixable problems. Start with speed and the call-to-action.
- Under 13: The site is working against you. A rebuild is usually cheaper than patching.
If you want a second opinion, send us your address and we will run through this list on your site and tell you what we find. No charge and no pitch attached.
Related: what a website actually costs and CMS versus custom build.
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