Common mistakes on small business websites

“Welcome to our website” or “Quality you can trust” tells the visitor nothing about what you do. Fix: say the service and the place in plain words, and keep the feeling for the second line.

A phone number in the footer only, a form behind a menu, an email written as an image. Fix: one visible action in the first screen and again at the end, and a way to reach you that you actually answer.

The visitor assumes the worst. Fix: packages with a starting number, or one sentence on how you quote. It filters out the wrong leads and brings in the right ones.

Tiny text on a phone, buttons that need a mouse, a menu that covers the content. Fix: design the phone version first; most people meet your business there.

Smiling strangers in a generic office say “template”. Fix: three honest photos of your work, your place or you beat thirty stock images. If you have none yet, a clean page with good words and no photo is better than fake ones.

“We offer A, B, C, D, E” makes the visitor do the matching. Fix: name the two or three situations that bring customers in, and lead each one to the right service.

The visitor does not know whether writing means a sales call, a quote or silence. Fix: a short process, four steps are enough, and a reply-time promise you keep.

Every mistake above makes the visitor work: to understand, to find, to trust, to decide. A website converts when it does that work for them. That is the only measure I use when I look at a site, mine included.