Written by Marco Ruiz on , revised
I look at a lot of local business websites: hair salons, dental clinics, restaurants, workshops, holiday rentals. The same mistakes keep showing up, and most of them are not hard to fix.
Many owners don't know their website has problems: they built it years ago, left it there and assume it's fine. Meanwhile, the people who see those problems are the very customers who searched for them.
1. Not having a website (relying only on social media)
The problem: many local businesses believe an Instagram profile or a Facebook page is enough. "My customers find me through social media," they say. That might be true today, but that profile runs on another company's rules.
Instagram can change its algorithm tomorrow and your reach can drop. Facebook can close your page after a false report. Every time a social network changes the rules, businesses that depend only on it lose visibility overnight.
On top of that, social profiles rarely show up when someone searches "hair salon in Alicante" on Google. Websites and Google Business Profiles do. Without a website, you're missing from that search.
The solution: a website of your own, which doesn't depend on any platform and which Google can index, with social media working alongside it. A website from €349 as a one-off payment (or from €39/month if you'd rather pay monthly) lets people who don't know you yet find you on Google.
If you still have doubts, I work out what not having a website can cost you.
2. Slow website (over 3 seconds to load)
The problem: when a website is slow on mobile, many people leave before they see it. If your site takes 5 or 6 seconds, a good share of visitors will be gone before they read your first line.
Google also takes loading experience into account when ranking pages, measured with the Core Web Vitals.
The usual causes: images uploaded straight from a phone at 5 MB, WordPress templates with 30 plugins, cheap shared hosting with hundreds of other sites and third-party scripts that block the page.
The solution: compressed images in WebP, fast hosting and technology that helps. A site built with Next.js loads fast because it serves pages that are already generated; the ones I build work that way from day one.
3. Not mobile-friendly
The problem: most visits to a local business website come from a phone. If your website looks bad on a phone, most visitors have a poor experience: tiny text, buttons you can't tap, menus that don't open, images that overflow the screen.
Google indexes the mobile version of your site first (mobile-first indexing). If the mobile version is poor, your ranking suffers even if the desktop version looks perfect.
I've seen businesses with a good-looking desktop site that's broken on mobile: the owner always checks it from the office computer and never sees what customers see on their phones.
The solution: design for mobile first and then adapt to bigger screens, with buttons that are easy to tap, text you can read without zooming, a menu that works and short forms.
4. No local SEO (not showing up in local searches)
The problem: a nice website does little if no one finds it. Local SEO is what makes your business appear when someone searches "your service + your town".
The most common local SEO mistakes:
- Google Business Profile not set up, or half filled in
- Generic page titles like "Home" or "Welcome" instead of "Dental clinic in Murcia | Clinic name"
- Meta descriptions that don't mention the town or area
- No LocalBusiness structured data (the code that tells Google what you are and where you are)
- Name, address and phone number written differently on each site
The solution: fill in your Google Business Profile completely. Give every page a title and description that include your location. Add structured data. Keep your name, address and phone identical on your website, Google, social media and directories. I explain it step by step in my local SEO guide.
Every website I build includes basic local SEO from day one: structured data, proper titles, good Core Web Vitals and your Google Business Profile set up. If you also want me to look after the profile every month (posts, replies to every review and a monthly report), that's the Website + Google Pack from €59/month, or standalone management from €39/month if you already have a website.
5. No clear contact information
The problem: a visitor lands on your website, likes what you do and wants to contact you. They look for a phone number and can't find it. The form is buried in a subpage. There's no WhatsApp. They go back and call the next result.
I see it often: the phone number only appears on the contact page, there's no WhatsApp button, and the opening hours and address are nowhere to be seen.
The solution: phone and WhatsApp visible on every page, in the header, the footer and as a floating button. Clear, current opening hours. The address with an embedded Google map. A short contact form (name, phone, message) reachable from any page. On every website I build, the WhatsApp button is always visible and the phone number is in the header and footer of every page.
6. Outdated content
The problem: last year's prices, summer hours in January, services you no longer offer, photos from before the refurbishment, Christmas offers in April. Outdated content looks like neglect. The customer thinks: if they don't update their website, how will they treat me?
If someone calls about a price they saw on your site and you tell them it changed, they lose trust straight away.
The solution: review your website at least once a month. Update prices, hours and services. Add new photos from time to time. If your website was a one-off payment, optional maintenance from €15/month covers domain, hosting, SSL, backups and technical fixes. If you don't have time for the content either, the monthly packs (from €39/month) include one content change a month.
7. No HTTPS (insecure website)
The problem: without HTTPS (the padlock in the address bar), browsers show a "Not secure" warning before the visitor sees your content. Many people leave straight away.
Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014. And if your contact form runs without HTTPS, your customers' data travels unencrypted, which can also be a GDPR problem.
The solution: install an SSL certificate. Modern hosting like Vercel or Netlify includes HTTPS automatically at no cost, and Let's Encrypt offers free certificates for traditional hosting. Every website I build has HTTPS from the start.
How many of these mistakes does your website make?
If your website has 2 or more of these problems, you're very likely losing customers: people who were looking for you and ended up with someone else.
Some fixes you can do yourself today (content, opening hours). Others need technical work (speed, mobile layout, SEO, HTTPS).
If you're thinking about a new website from scratch, here is what a website costs depending on who builds it.