Is your website costing you clients? A 10-minute checklist for local businesses

Many business owners rarely look at their own website. It went up a few years ago, it seemed fine, and the phone still rings. Meanwhile, the people who do look at it every day are strangers deciding whether to call you or a competitor.

You don’t need a consultant to find out whether your site is helping or hurting. You need your phone, about 10 minutes, and a free Google tool. Here are the six checks we run first on any local business site, and what a passing grade looks like.

Before you start

Use your own phone, not a desktop computer. Turn off Wi-Fi so you see what a customer on a cell connection sees. Open your site the way a stranger would: search your business name on Google and tap the result, rather than typing the address from memory.

1. The phone test (2 minutes). Can you read the homepage without pinching to zoom? Is your phone number on the first screen? Tap it. Does your phone offer to dial? Now try the menu: does it open, and can you close it again? Buttons should be big enough to tap without hitting the one next to them.
2. The speed test (2 minutes). Paste your address into PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile results.
3. The contact path (2 minutes). From the homepage, count the taps it takes to call, email or send a request. Then send yourself a test through your own form.
4. Your Google listing (2 minutes). Search your business name and check what Google shows next to the results.
5. HTTPS (30 seconds). Look at the address bar on your phone and on a computer.
6. Current information (90 seconds). Read the homepage, the about page and the footer as if you had never heard of the business.

Here is what to look for in each one.

1. The phone test

Google says it uses “the mobile version of a site’s content” for indexing and ranking, in its mobile-first indexing guide. In other words, the phone version of your site is the one that counts.

Passing: text you can read at arm’s length, a phone number that dials when tapped, and a menu that works with a thumb. Failing: a desktop page shrunk down to fit, a number shown as an image, or a pop-up that covers the screen and is hard to close.

2. The speed test

PageSpeed Insights reports a measure called Largest Contentful Paint, which is how long the main content takes to appear. Google’s web.dev guidance says sites should aim for 2.5 seconds or less for a good experience.

Passing: the main content appears in about that time or less on the mobile test. Failing: a long wait with a blank or half-built screen. The usual causes are oversized photos, autoplay video, and plugins or widgets nobody uses anymore. These are often quick fixes.

3. The contact path

Every extra tap between a visitor and your phone number is a chance to lose them. The best local sites keep the call button and the main request (a quote, an appointment, a consultation) one tap away on every page.

Passing: one tap to call from any page, a short form, and a test message that arrives in your inbox within minutes. Failing: a contact page buried in a menu, a form with a dozen required fields, or a test message that never shows up. That last one is more common than you would think; forms break quietly when an email account or plugin changes.

4. Your Google listing

For many customers, your Google Business Profile is the first thing they see, before they ever tap through to your website. Google’s tips to improve your local ranking say that “businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results.”

Check these against reality:

• Hours, including special hours for holidays
• Phone number, which should match the one on your website
• The website link, which should open the right page and not an old address
• Your business category and the services listed
• Photos, which should be recent and your own

Google’s guidelines for representing your business ask you to use your real-world business name, the way it appears on your signs and storefront. Keep the same name, number and address everywhere customers see them: your site, your profile, your signs and your trucks.

Passing: a claimed profile with correct hours, the right number and a working link. Failing: no profile, an unclaimed one, or one with old hours or a number that no longer rings.

5. HTTPS

Tap the address bar to see the full address. It should start with “https”, with a lock or settings icon beside it. If Chrome shows “Not secure” instead, visitors see it too. Google’s Chrome help page tells people that a site marked this way doesn’t use a private connection, and suggests they not enter private or personal information on it. That is the opposite of what you want next to your contact form.

Passing: HTTPS on every page, with no warnings. Failing: “Not secure” anywhere, or a security warning page before your site loads. Most hosts offer free certificates, so this is usually a short fix.

6. Current information

Old information quietly tells visitors that nobody is minding the store. Look for:

• A copyright year from several years ago in the footer
• Staff who have moved on, or new team members who are missing
• Services you no longer offer, or new ones you don’t mention
• Expired promotions or a holiday notice from last season
• Links that lead to error pages

Passing: everything on the site is true today. Failing: anything a customer could call about and be told “we don’t do that anymore.”

What to fix first

If you found problems, start with the ones that stop people from reaching you: a broken form, a number that doesn’t dial, wrong hours on Google. Those cost you calls today. Speed and HTTPS come next. Then clean up the old information.

Some of this you can fix in an afternoon. If the list is long, or the site was built years ago and no longer fits how you work, a rebuild may be simpler than patching it page by page.

That is the work we do. We have pages for dental practices, builders, contractors and roofers, law firms and financial advisors. And if you would like to see what your site could be, ask for a free homepage mockup. Send us your current site, and we will design a new homepage on your real content and email it to you, with no obligation.