7 Website Problems Costing Local Businesses Phone Calls (and How to Check Yours)
Most local business websites lose customers to the same handful of fixable problems: a layout that doesn't fit phones, numbers you can't tap, titles Google cuts off. Here's what they are and how to check your site for free.
When a local business tells us "the website doesn't really do anything," it's rarely because the business is bad or the site is ugly. It's usually a handful of small, fixable problems that quietly turn visitors away before they ever pick up the phone.
We look at a lot of local business websites: plumbers, salons, physical therapists, nonprofits. The same seven problems come up again and again. None of them needs a new website. Most can be fixed in an afternoon inside the platform you already use, whether that's Wix, Squarespace, WordPress or GoDaddy.
Want to skip ahead? Run our free website check and we'll email you the three on this list your site has.
1. The site shows the desktop layout on phones
Most people looking for a local business are on their phone. If your site doesn't tell phones to fit it to the screen, they get your full desktop page shrunk down to postage-stamp size: tiny text, buttons too small to tap, and a page that slides sideways as they scroll.
Many visitors don't bother pinching and zooming. They go back to Google and tap the next result, which is usually your competitor.
The fix: add a mobile viewport setting (one line of code, or a setting in most site builders) and then check every page at phone width. Nothing should be cut off, and nothing should scroll sideways.
2. Your phone number isn't tap-to-call
This is the most common problem we find, and one of the most expensive. Your number is right there in the header, but on a phone it's just text. A customer has to memorize it, leave your site, open their phone app and type it in. Someone with a burst pipe or a locked-out car won't put up with that.
The fix: make every phone number a tap-to-call link. In most site builders that means choosing "phone" as the link type; in code it's a tel: link. Then put one near the top of every page.
3. There's no clear next step on the home page
A visitor who's ready to hire you shouldn't have to hunt for how. If your home page has no "Get a quote," "Book online" or "Call now" button, and the contact form is buried three menus deep, people leave without reaching you.
The fix: one clear button near the top of the page, plus a short form (name, phone, what you need) further down. Keep the form short, because every extra field loses people.
4. Your site isn't secure
If your address starts with http:// instead of https://, browsers label your site "Not secure" right next to your name. That's not a great first impression when you're asking someone to send you their phone number and address. Google also ranks secure sites ahead of insecure ones.
The fix: almost every host offers a free security certificate. Turn it on, then make sure every page redirects to the https:// version.
5. Your page title says "Welcome" (or gets cut off)
Your page title is the blue headline people see in Google. People search for a service and a town, like "electrician Saratoga Springs." A title that says "Welcome to Smith & Sons" or "Home" doesn't match what they typed, so fewer people click.
The opposite problem is common too: a title stuffed with every town and service you offer. Google shows only about the first 60 characters, so the rest gets cut off mid-word.
The fix: lead with your main service and town, then your name, in under 60 characters: "Plumber in Troy, NY | Smith & Sons Plumbing."
6. Google can't read your business details
Google is good at reading websites, but it does much better when you tell it directly: this is a business, here's the name, address, phone number, hours and service area. That's called structured data (specifically, LocalBusiness data), and it helps Google connect your website to your Google Business Profile and show your details in search results.
The fix: add LocalBusiness structured data to your home page, with your name, address and phone written exactly as they appear on your Google Business Profile. Many site builders have a plugin or setting for it.
7. The site looks abandoned
A footer that says "© 2019." A "Spring Special!" banner in October. Holiday hours from two years ago. None of these break anything, but they all make a visitor wonder whether you're still in business, and when people aren't sure, they call someone else.
The fix: update the footer year (or set it to update itself), take down expired promotions, and put a reminder on your calendar to check the site every season.
A few more worth checking
- Images without descriptions (alt text). Screen readers can't describe them to blind visitors, and Google can't tell what they show. Missing alt text is also one of the most common accessibility complaints. We wrote more about why accessibility matters for your business.
- No search description. The short summary under your title in Google. Without one, Google grabs a random sentence from your page.
- A slow server. If your page takes several seconds just to start loading, people on phones give up. The usual causes are cheap hosting and too many page builder plugins.
Check your website in two minutes
You can check most of this yourself: open your site on your phone, try to tap your number, and search Google for your service and town to see what your title looks like.
Or let us do it. Our free website check looks at your home page the way customers and Google see it, and emails you the three problems most likely costing you calls, with how to fix each. There's no account and no sales pitch. If you'd like help fixing what it finds, just reply to the email.