How to use this list: open your website on your phone, not your computer. That's how most of your customers see it. Go through each point and tick it off. Most fixes take less than an hour.
1. Template leftovers on the live site
We found a placeholder "Photo by John Doe" credit on one homepage and a template email address still sitting on another business's contact page. Leftovers like these come from website templates where the demo content never got replaced.
Why it matters: customers are looking for signs that you pay attention to detail. A placeholder on your website is a small, loud "we don't".
Fix: read every page, including the footer and contact page, and click every link. Search the site for words like "example", "lorem", "John Doe" and "yourname@".
2. Typos on the buttons that matter
One trade website had a spelling mistake on its main call-to-action button, the single most-read piece of text on the page.
Fix: check headings, buttons and your phone number letter by letter. Better yet, ask someone who didn't write it.
3. A security warning when the site loads
One construction business's website threw a certificate error, so browsers showed a full-screen warning that the site may not be safe. Most people close the tab immediately.
Fix: make sure your site loads on https:// with a padlock and no warning. Most hosts provide a free SSL certificate. If yours has expired, your host or web person can usually renew it in minutes.
4. A lapsed or forgotten domain
We found a trade business whose domain had lapsed. The business was still operating, but its website address wasn't. Every old business card, van sign and Google link now leads nowhere.
Fix: look up who your domain is registered to and when it expires. Make sure it's in your name or your business's name, turn on auto-renew and keep the login somewhere safe. If a former web designer registered it for you, get it transferred.
5. The wrong town in Google's description
One local builder's homepage was showing a description in Google search results that talked about the wrong region entirely. That text usually comes from the page's meta description, often copied from a template or another client's site.
Why it matters: it's often the first thing a customer reads about you, and it tells both them and Google that you work somewhere else.
Fix: search Google for your business name and read your listing. Update the page title and meta description on your homepage and key service pages to mention your services and your actual towns.
6. No quote form, or one that's hard to find
Many sites only offered a phone number. Plenty of people browse after dinner, when they won't ring a tradie, but they will fill in a short form.
Fix: put a short quote-request form, or a button to one, near the top of every page. Ask for name, phone, suburb and what the job is. Then make sure you get an instant notification, and the customer gets an instant "thanks, we'll call you by..." reply.
7. A phone number you can't tap
On a phone, a number should start a call with one tap. If it's an image, or plain text that won't dial, you're making people copy and paste it.
Fix: tap your number on your own phone. If it doesn't open the dialler, ask your web person to make it a "tel:" link, and put it in the header so it's always visible.
8. Stock photos instead of your real work
Customers can spot a stock photo of a smiling model in a spotless hard hat from a mile away. Your real jobs, your ute, your team and local homes build far more trust.
Fix: take before-and-after photos on your phone at every job for a month. Landscape orientation, good light, no mess in the foreground. Replace the stock images.
9. No list of the areas you service
If your website never mentions Southside, Tin Can Bay or Maryborough, it's harder for customers and search engines to know you work there.
Fix: add a "Areas we service" section listing your main towns and suburbs. If you do a lot of work in a particular area, consider a dedicated page for it with local job photos.
10. Reviews missing, hidden or duplicated
One site displayed the same block of reviews twice on the same page, a sign of a template glitch that makes the reviews look less genuine. Many others had great Google reviews that never appeared on the website at all.
Fix: show a few real, recent reviews near your quote form and link to your Google Business Profile. Then set up a simple habit of asking every happy customer for a review.
11. Slow on a phone
Regional mobile coverage isn't always great. A site full of huge images and sliders can take a long time to load on patchy signal, and people won't wait.
Fix: test your homepage with Google's free PageSpeed Insights tool. Compress large images, remove auto-playing sliders and anything you don't need.
12. A website you rent but don't own
A large share of the Gympie trade websites we looked at were near-identical templates rented from directory and advertising companies. They're convenient, but when the contract ends the site often goes with it, and the content and design may not be yours to take.
Fix: find your contract and check three things: when the term ends, who owns the domain and whether you can take your content. If you're happy with the results, fine. If not, plan your exit before the renewal date.
Bonus: what happens after someone enquires?
The best website in the world can't help if the enquiry sits in an inbox until Friday. Submit your own quote form today and time how long it takes for anyone to respond. If it's more than an hour during business hours, that's the first thing to fix, and it usually costs nothing.
Want us to check your site for you? Get a free audit and we'll send a short video walking through your website on a phone, plus the first fix to make.