Five things to check on your own website tonight

A website can look completely fine and still not bring in any work. Most of the reasons are boring and fixable, and you can find them yourself in about ten minutes. Open your site on your phone and go through this list.

1. Can a stranger tell what you do in three seconds?

Not your industry. The actual thing. "Ottawa plumber, same-day service" beats "Excellence in residential solutions" every time.

Read your homepage headline out loud. If it could belong to any company in your industry, it isn't doing anything. The first line should say what you do, where you do it, and why someone should pick you.

2. Is your phone number visible without scrolling?

On a phone, right at the top, and tappable. A surprising number of small business sites hide the one piece of information most visitors came for.

Count the taps it takes to start a call. One is the goal. Three is how you lose the customer who was standing in a flooded basement.

3. How long does it take to load on mobile data?

Turn Wi-Fi off and load your site. If you're still waiting after a few seconds, you're losing people who will never know they were about to be your customer.

Google's free PageSpeed Insights tool will tell you what's slowing it down. Oversized photos are the most common culprit and the easiest to fix.

4. Is there any evidence you're real?

A photo of you or your van, the town you're in, a couple of reviews, a licence number. People are checking whether you're a real business before they call. Give them the answer.

Real photos taken on your phone do more than polished stock images. Visitors can tell the difference instantly.

5. Does anything on it give away how old it is?

A copyright date from three years ago, a promotion that ended, a team member who left, holiday hours from last December. Small things, but they make a visitor wonder what else is out of date, including whether you're still in business.

Fix these before you spend money on anything else

None of this needs a designer. If you fix these five yourself and the phone rings more, that's a good outcome and you've spent nothing.

Want the longer version? Our free 10-point website checklist has a quick test for each point and gives you a score out of 10.