Five Website Fixes That Cost Less Than a Day of Work

When a website isn't bringing in enough calls, the first thought is often "we need a new one." Sometimes that's true. But many small business sites aren't failing because of the design. They're failing because of a handful of small problems that stop a visitor from taking the next step.

The five fixes below each take less than a day of work, many of them an hour or two. None of them needs a redesign. If you manage your own site you can do most of them yourself. If someone else manages it, this is a reasonable list to hand them.

Work through them in order. The first ones tend to make the most difference.

1. Make your phone number tap-to-call on every page

Many customers want to call, especially when something has gone wrong. On a phone, they expect to tap your number and have it dial. If the number is an image, is buried on the contact page or has to be copied and pasted, a lot of people won't bother.

The fix: Put your phone number in the header of every page, as a clickable phone link. On most website builders this is a setting or a "phone" button type. On a custom site, it's a small change to the header.

How long: Usually under an hour.

How to check it: Open your site on your phone, on three or four different pages, and tap the number. It should open your phone's dialer with the number filled in.

2. Test your contact form, and add a thank-you message

Contact forms break quietly. A change to an email setting, a full inbox or a plugin update can mean messages stop arriving, and nobody notices until a customer mentions they never heard back.

The fix: Fill in your own form and confirm the message arrives where it should, in the right inbox, not in spam. While you're there, remove any fields you don't truly need. Name, contact details and a short message are often enough. Finally, make sure the person sees a clear confirmation after submitting, telling them what happens next and when.

How long: An hour or two, longer if the form turns out to be broken.

How to check it: Submit a test inquiry from your phone once a month. Put it on your calendar.

3. Rewrite your homepage headline

Visitors decide very quickly whether they're in the right place. If the first thing they see is a slogan like "Excellence in Every Detail," they still don't know what you do or where you do it.

The fix: Replace the main headline with a plain statement of what you do and where. "Roof repair and replacement in Kent County" or "House cleaning in Dover and Smyrna" is more useful than any slogan. Put one clear button underneath, such as "Request a free estimate" or "Call now."

How long: An hour to write, minutes to change.

How to check it: Show your homepage to someone who doesn't know your business for five seconds. Then ask them what you do and where. If they can't say both, try again.

4. Shrink the photos that slow your site down

Large photos uploaded straight from a camera or phone are one of the most common reasons small business sites load slowly. On a phone with a weak signal, a slow page often means a visitor gives up before it finishes loading.

The fix: Run your homepage through PageSpeed Insights, which is free, and look at the mobile results. If it flags images, resize and compress the biggest ones, then upload them again. Many website builders and free tools can do this. Start with the homepage and your main service pages.

How long: A few hours for a typical small site.

How to check it: Run PageSpeed Insights again after the change and compare the mobile results. Then open the page on your own phone, away from your office Wi-Fi.

5. Make your details match everywhere

Your business name, address or service area, phone number and hours should be the same on your website, your Google Business Profile and any other listings you control. When they don't match, customers get confused, and search engines are less sure which details are right.

The fix: Make a list of the places your business appears online, starting with your website and your Google Business Profile. Check each one against the same set of details and correct anything out of date: old phone numbers, former addresses, last year's hours. While you're on your website, look for anything else that's no longer true, such as old staff, past events or an out-of-date copyright year in the footer.

How long: Half a day at most for most businesses.

How to check it: Search for your business name on your phone and compare what Google shows with what your website says.

What these fixes have in common

None of these changes makes your website look different at first glance. What they change is how easy it is for an interested visitor to become a customer. That's usually where small business sites lose the most.

If you work through all five and your site still isn't bringing in inquiries, that's useful information too. It points to bigger questions, such as whether you show up in local searches at all, or how your site compares with the competitors customers are also looking at.

Want help finding what to fix first?

That's what our free website and competitor analysis is for. Our research team reviews your site and the local competitors showing up alongside you. Then we walk through what we found, and what we'd fix first, on a free Zoom consultation scheduled within one week. There's no cost and no obligation, and you keep the findings either way.

Signing up also gives you two free guides: The 25-Point Small Business Website Checklist, a longer version of this list, and Know Your Competition: A Small Business Guide to Digital Marketing & Competitor Analysis.

Richard runs Pulsar Strategies, a digital marketing and web design agency for small businesses based in Smyrna, Delaware.