You have a website, but hardly anyone gets in touch? Here are the 10 most common mistakes I see when reviewing small business websites, each with a fix you can make today. A 10-minute self-check that shows you where to start.
Most small business websites aren’t bad. They just don’t work.
They are there, they look fine, but visitors read them, close the tab and ask someone else for a quote. When I review websites I see the same mistakes again and again. Here are the ten most common ones, each with something you can fix today.
Open your website alongside this article and count how many signs apply to you. At the end I’ll tell you what your score means.
1. Nobody can tell in five seconds what you offer and to whom
Visitors don’t read, they scan. If your headline is generic (“Quality and reliability for 20 years”), they can’t tell whether they are in the right place, so they move on.
What to do: show your homepage for five seconds to someone who doesn’t know your business. If they can’t then say what you do and for whom, rewrite the headline as: service + for whom + with what result.
2. Your headline is about you, not your client’s problem
“Our team is committed to excellence.” That matters to you, not to your client. They care about their own problem and whether you can solve it.
What to do: write down the sentence your clients most often use when they contact you (for example, “I’m drowning in paperwork”), and answer it in your headline.
3. There is no clear next step, or the button does something other than it promises
Five buttons pointing in five directions, or a “Book a call” button that only scrolls down the page. Both lead to the same result: the visitor doesn’t know what to do, so they do nothing.
What to do: one main button and at most one secondary one. Click through each of them on your phone too, and check that each goes where it says.
4. No price, no timeframe, not even a “from” price
Without a price, a decision-maker can’t tell whether you fit their budget. Most of them won’t ask. They’ll move on to a provider who shows a number.
What to do: if you can’t give a fixed price, give a range or a “from” price and explain what the final amount depends on. Answer “how long will it take?” as well.
5. No proof: no reviews, no case studies, no real faces
Smiling stock-photo business people don’t build trust. Visitors know those aren’t the people who will do the work.
What to do: ask three happy clients for a short review with their name (and written consent), write one case study with numbers, and add a real photo of yourself or your team.
6. It’s awkward on mobile: small text, slow loading, content jumping around
A large share of visitors arrive on a phone. If the content jumps while loading, they tap the wrong thing, get annoyed and leave.
What to do: run the free Google PageSpeed Insights test on your homepage. Watch two numbers: CLS (how much the layout shifts) is good below 0.1, and LCP (when the main content appears) is good below 2.5 seconds.
7. The contact form is long and every field is required
Every extra required field means fewer people fill it in. Nobody wants to enter their company’s tax number just to say hello.
What to do: for a first message, name, email and a text box are enough. You can ask everything else in your reply.
8. Google doesn’t show you for the searches that matter
If your competitors appear on page one for “[your service] + [your city]” and you don’t, clients go to them. Often the problem is visible in the page titles alone: “Home | Company name” or “Services | English”.
What to do: set up the free Google Search Console. It shows which searches you appear for and in what position. Make every page title about your main service, and if you have an office or shop, create your Google Business Profile.
9. You don’t measure where your enquiries come from
If you don’t know which enquiry came from Google, which from an ad and which from a referral, you can’t know where your money is best spent.
What to do: set up conversions in Google Analytics for form submissions and clicks on your phone number. Within a month you’ll see which channel brings in clients.
10. Neglected details: demo content, “test” posts, typos
A forgotten “Lorem ipsum”, “latest news” from three years ago, a typo in the headline. Visitors instinctively conclude that if you work like this on your own site, you’ll work like this for them too.
What to do: open your website in a private window and click through every menu item. Hide anything unfinished until it is ready.
Bonus: what does ChatGPT say about you?
Ask it: “What do you know about [company name], and who would you recommend it to?” AI assistants work from public content. If the answer is vague or wrong, your website isn’t clear about what you offer either. More and more buyers start their search there, not on Google.
How many signs did you count?
0–2 signs
You’re on the right track. Fine-tuning (tracking, keywords, trust signals) can still bring more.
3–5 signs
Your website works, but you’re leaving clients on the table. Start with points 1, 3 and 4. They bring the fastest improvement.
6 or more
Right now your website is more of a business card than a salesperson. Look at it as a whole before you spend more on ads.
If you’d rather not go through it alone
In the Website Business & IT Audit I check these ten points, and many more, across your whole website. Within 1–2 business days you receive three documents: a summary to decide from, a detailed review with ready-to-use copy, and a task list you can hand straight to your developer.
Find out exactly which signs apply to your website, and what to fix first.
Whole website, 1–2 business days, fixed price, no phone tag.