You don't need to hire a web developer to know if your website has problems. Most of the issues we find on small business sites take less than five minutes to spot — and they're costing those businesses leads every single day.
Here are the three things we check first on every site that comes across our desk. You can run through these yourself right now.
1. Mobile Speed
This is the first thing we pull up, every time. Not because it's the most exciting — but because it's where the most money gets left on the table.
Here's the reality: over half your visitors are on their phones. If your site takes more than a few seconds to load, they're gone. They didn't bounce because your services aren't good. They bounced because your site didn't load fast enough for them to find out.
How to check it yourself
Go to Google PageSpeed Insights and paste in your website URL. Make sure you're looking at the mobile results, not desktop.
Here's how to read the score:
- 90–100 (green): You're in great shape. Your site loads fast and Google likes it.
- 50–89 (orange): There's room for improvement. You're probably losing some visitors to slow load times.
- Under 50 (red): This is a problem. Your site is actively driving people away before they even see your homepage.
Pay attention to these specific metrics:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How long it takes for the main content to appear. Under 2.5 seconds is good. Over 4 seconds is bad.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Whether things jump around while the page loads. You've seen this — you try to tap a button and the page shifts, so you tap an ad instead. Anything over 0.1 is a problem.
- First Input Delay / Interaction to Next Paint: How quickly the site responds when you tap something. If there's a noticeable lag, visitors feel it.
Most small business sites we audit score between 30 and 60 on mobile. That's a lot of potential customers walking away.
2. SEO Basics
SEO doesn't have to be complicated. We're not talking about advanced link-building strategies or technical audits with 200-point checklists. We're talking about the fundamentals that tell Google what your business does and where you do it.
Title tags and meta descriptions
Every page on your site has a title tag — it's what shows up in the browser tab and in Google search results. A surprising number of small business sites either have the same generic title on every page, or they say something useless like "Home" or "Welcome."
Your homepage title should include your business name, what you do, and where you do it. Something like Smith Plumbing | Licensed Plumber in Eugene, OR beats Home | Smith Plumbing every time.
Meta descriptions are the short blurb under your title in search results. If you haven't written them, Google will just pull random text from your page. That's usually not a great look.
Google Business Profile
This one's free and it's one of the most impactful things a local business can do. If you haven't claimed your Google Business Profile — or if you claimed it two years ago and never touched it again — you're invisible in local search results.
Make sure your name, address, phone number, hours, and categories are accurate. Add photos. Respond to reviews. Post updates. Google rewards businesses that keep their profiles active.
Heading structure
Your site should have one H1 tag per page (the main heading), followed by H2s and H3s that organize the content logically. This isn't just for SEO — it's how screen readers navigate your site, and it's how Google understands what each page is about.
We regularly see sites where every piece of text is styled to look like a heading but is actually just bold paragraph text. Google can't tell the difference between your main headline and a random sentence if you're not using proper heading tags.
Local keyword targeting
If you're a contractor in Eugene and none of your pages mention "Eugene" or the specific areas you serve, Google has no reason to show your site to people searching in your area.
This doesn't mean stuffing "Eugene Oregon" into every sentence. It means having dedicated service area pages, mentioning your location naturally in your content, and making sure your site makes it obvious where you work.
3. Conversion Paths
This is the one that hurts the most when it's broken — because you might be getting traffic, your site might even rank okay, but visitors aren't turning into leads because you've made it too hard for them to take action.
Clear call-to-action above the fold
When someone lands on your homepage, can they immediately see how to contact you, get a quote, or book a service? Or do they have to scroll, click through menus, and hunt for it?
The first thing a visitor sees should answer two questions: "What does this business do?" and "How do I get in touch?" If your hero section is a pretty photo with no button, you're losing people.
Contact forms that actually work
You'd be surprised how many small business sites have contact forms that are broken, buried on a separate page with no link in the navigation, or asking for way too much information. Nobody wants to fill out 12 fields just to ask a question.
Keep it simple: name, email or phone, and a message. Put it where people can actually find it. And make sure it actually sends — we've audited sites where the contact form hadn't been working for months and the owner had no idea.
Click-to-call on mobile
If your phone number is on your site but it's not a clickable link, mobile users have to memorize it, switch to their phone app, and dial it manually. Most won't bother. Your phone number should be tappable on every page, ideally in the header.
Trust signals
People don't hire businesses they don't trust. If your site has no reviews, no testimonials, no photos of your work, and no mention of licenses or insurance — you're asking visitors to take a leap of faith.
You don't need a fancy testimonial carousel. Even a few genuine quotes from happy customers with their name and the type of work you did goes a long way. Bonus points if you link to your Google reviews.
The Quick Version
Here's your five-minute self-audit:
- Run your site through PageSpeed Insights on mobile. If you're under 50, that's your first priority.
- Check your title tags, Google Business Profile, headings, and local keywords. If your homepage title just says "Home," that's an easy win.
- Visit your site on your phone and try to contact yourself. If it takes more than two taps, you're making it too hard.
Most of these issues are fixable. Some are quick — updating a title tag takes five minutes. Others, like improving mobile speed, might require more significant changes. But knowing where the problems are is the first step.
Pro tip: Save your baseline scores
Want a Deeper Look?
You can run a free instant audit on your site right now using our website audit tool. It'll give you scores for performance, SEO, accessibility, and best practices in about 30 seconds.
If you want a more thorough review — the kind where we actually look at your site, check your conversion paths, review your local SEO, and give you a prioritized list of what to fix first — reach out and we'll do it for free. No pitch, no obligation. Just a clear picture of where your site stands and what would make the biggest difference.