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A local service business website that gets the call
A local service business website has one job. Tonight, open it on your phone and pretend you are the customer. You have a leak, a full tank, or a fence on the ground. You have ten seconds. Write down whether you can see the name, the town, and a number you can tap.
What a local service business website must show
If any of those three are missing, the page failed before the design matters. The person will tap the next result. They will not read the company story.
- The business name, spelled the way the truck spells it.
- The towns you actually drive. A state you do not serve creates a wasted call.
- A phone number on the first screen. Tap it. The dialer must open with your digits.
- Photos of jobs you finished. If the photo could be any company, delete it.
- A license or the year you started, if you have one.
- Hours, and one line about work you do not do.
Read the first screen out loud. You should hear who you are, where you work, and how to call. If you hear a slogan instead, move the number up and cut the slogan.
Fix the first screen before you add pages
Do not add a gallery, a blog, or a financing page until the first screen passes that test. Extra pages do not help a person who never found the number.
If you must pinch to read, the phone is showing a tiny desktop. Ask whoever has the login to turn on the phone layout, or to make the type large enough to read at arm's length. Then test again on your phone, not from a screenshot they send you.
If the number is only in the footer, move it up. If it is a picture, replace the picture with a link. If the hours are wrong, change them today. Those are edits. They are not a new brand.
Check the page the way a stranger would
Ask someone who does not work for you to find the number without help. Watch their thumb. If they scroll, the number is too low. If they pinch, the type is too small. If they give up, that is the visit you are losing.
Then search your business name on your phone. If a directory or a Facebook page appears above your site, your site may be online and still losing the click. That is a separate problem from the look of the page. Do not buy a new domain to fix it. Make the page say the name and the town in the title and on the first screen.
Heritage Roofing in Stephenville has been in business since 1986. The live page and the old page are both on the Vortex home page if you want to see a before and after. On one lab check the live site scored 98 Performance and 100 SEO. The old page scored 82 SEO and failed the phone font size. Use your own phone test first. Those scores are one roofing site, not a forecast for your town.
If you want this done from the site you already have, Vortex Personal is $59 a month for one live site. Pro is $449 a month for up to 10. Business is $2,499 a month for up to 150. Hosting is included. A year is ten times the month price. The old site stays up until you switch.
If you cannot log in to fix the first screen, start a rebuild from the URL you already have.
The bill for that choice is on what a small business website costs.