The difficult thing about a website that isn't working is that it often looks fine to you. You built it, you know what everything means, and you know it's a legitimate business. But visitors don't have that context. They're making split-second judgements based on what they see — and small details can send them straight to a competitor.
The 10 Mistakes
1. No phone number visible without scrolling
If someone has to hunt for your contact details, they'll leave. Your phone number should be in the header, visible on every page, and clickable on mobile. This is the single highest-impact fix for most local service websites.
2. Slow loading speed
A page that takes more than 3 seconds to load on mobile loses a significant percentage of visitors before they even see it. Oversized images are almost always the cause. Compress your photos using a free tool like squoosh.app and your load time will drop dramatically.
3. No real photos — only stock images
Stock images of generic tradspeople, smiling office workers, or perfect-looking kitchens that bear no relation to your actual work signal to visitors that you're not confident enough to show what you really do. Real photos — even taken on a phone — build far more trust.
4. Vague headline that doesn't say what you do
"Welcome to our website" or "Quality service you can trust" tells visitors nothing. Your homepage headline should answer: what do you do, who for, and where? Something like "Emergency plumbing in Sheffield — available 7 days a week" is infinitely more useful than a generic welcome message.
5. No Google reviews visible on the homepage
Your Google review score is independent third-party evidence that you do good work. Most visitors would trust 40 Google reviews more than anything you write about yourself. Display your rating and the number of reviews above the fold — it directly improves conversion rates.
6. A contact form with too many fields
Every extra field you add to a contact form reduces the number of people who complete it. Three fields is the sweet spot for most service businesses: name, phone number or email, and a brief description of what they need. Remove date of birth, company name (if irrelevant), address, and anything else that isn't genuinely necessary at this stage.
7. No mention of location or service area
A website with no geographical reference could be serving anyone, anywhere. Customers looking for a local business want immediate confirmation that you'll actually come to them. Mention your town, county, or service area on your homepage — not just buried in the contact page.
8. An outdated copyright year in the footer
A footer showing "© 2021" in 2026 suggests the website hasn't been touched in five years. For some visitors this raises a genuine question: is this business still operating? The fix is a single line of JavaScript that updates the year automatically.
9. No call to action at the end of pages
People who reach the bottom of a page have read what you had to say — they're interested. If there's no prompt to do anything next, they leave. Every page should end with a clear next step: call us, get a quote, fill in the contact form.
10. A site that doesn't work properly on mobile
The majority of people searching for local services are on their phones. If your site has text that requires zooming, buttons too small to tap, or elements that overlap on a small screen, you're losing a large portion of your potential enquiries before they've even read your content.
Quick self-audit — score yourself on these five: (1) Is your phone number visible in the header on mobile? (2) Does your homepage load in under 3 seconds on a phone? (3) Is there a real photo of you or your team? (4) Is your Google review score visible without scrolling? (5) Does your homepage say what you do and where within the first two lines? If you score 3 or below, you have quick wins available right now.
Which Mistakes Matter Most?
Not all of these carry equal weight. If forced to prioritise, fix them in this order:
- Clickable phone number in the header (mobile and desktop)
- Page load speed — compress large images immediately
- A clear headline that says what you do and where
- Your Google review score visible above the fold
- Real photos replacing stock images
The rest matter, but these five will have the biggest direct impact on how many enquiries your site generates.
Free speed test: Go to pagespeed.web.dev, enter your website URL, and run the test on mobile. Google will tell you exactly what's slowing your site down and give you a score out of 100. Anything below 50 on mobile is a problem worth fixing. The most common cause is large, uncompressed images.
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