Six mistakes we see on almost
every small business website

1. The homepage says nothing

'Welcome to our website' and a stock photo tells a visitor nothing. Your homepage has about three seconds to answer: what do you do, who for, and why you. Say it in the first headline, plainly. 'Blocked drains fixed today across Canberra' beats 'Excellence in plumbing solutions' every time.

2. No clear next step

Every page should have one obvious action — call, book, get a quote. Not three competing buttons, and definitely not buried at the bottom. If a visitor has to hunt for how to contact you, a good chunk of them won't bother.

3. Stock-photo people

Visitors can smell stock photography. The grinning call-centre lady with a headset doesn't work for you — she's on forty other sites. One real photo of your team, your workshop or your work does more for trust than a gallery of strangers. Phone photos are fine; authenticity beats polish here.

4. Ignored mobile experience

Most of your visitors are on phones, yet business owners only ever look at their site on the office desktop. Open yours on a phone: can you read the menu? Tap the phone number? Use the form? If not, that's the majority of your audience hitting friction.

5 & 6. Dead content and no proof

A blog last touched in 2022 and a copyright year from 2021 quietly say 'nobody's home'. Either keep it current or remove the dates. And the biggest miss: no proof. Reviews, photos of actual work, named clients — anything that shows real people chose you and it went well. The good news: every one of these is fixable, most in an afternoon.