12 mistakes I see on business websites in the Maresme (and how to tell if yours has them)
When I look at business websites in the Maresme, some mistakes come up so often that I now look for them first. Almost none shows in the design: a website can look great and have all of them. But each one costs you calls, bookings or trust without you noticing. I've grouped them into four blocks and, for each one, I explain why it matters, how to check it yourself and how to fix it. All you need is your phone and an afternoon.
The examples are made up. I don't show other businesses' websites: the idea is for you to recognise your own, not to point at anyone.
Block 1. Being found
1. On Google you show up as "Home"
Every page has a title and a description that Google shows in its results. If nobody wrote them, you get things like "Home", "Inici" or the template's name, and a description starting with "Welcome to our website". Among ten results, nobody clicks that one.
How to check: search Google for your business name and for your service plus your town ("physiotherapist Mataró"). How do you appear? Does the title say what you do and where? Does the description make people want to click?
How to fix it: one title per page with your name, service and town, and a two-line description saying what people will find. Google doesn't always use your description, but when it's well written, it often does.
2. The website and Google Maps say different things
Summer hours left up all year. The old phone number. The address from before you moved. Customers look at whatever they find first, often Google, and if it doesn't match the website, they trust neither. Google also compares these details across sites, and inconsistencies don't help you show up on the map.
How to check: put your Google profile, your website and your Instagram side by side. Name, address, phone and hours must be exactly the same.
How to fix it: decide which one is the source of truth, correct the others and, whenever something changes, update all three on the same day. For more, see the Google profile guide.
Block 2. Being understood and easy to read
3. It doesn't say what you do or where
"Welcome to our website", a stock photo and text that could belong to any company. Visitors should know within three seconds what you do, which town you're in and what to do next.
How to check: show your home page on a phone for five seconds to someone who doesn't know you. Then cover the screen and ask what you do, where, and how they could contact you. If they hesitate, so does your website.
How to fix it: a heading that says what you do and where, one line on why you, a real photo and a contact button, all before scrolling.
4. It's slow on mobile
Camera photos uploaded as they are, several megabytes each. A background video. A slider that never quite loads. Fine on home wifi; not on the train with a weak signal. A 2016 Google study found that more than half of mobile visits are abandoned if a page takes longer than three seconds to load. People haven't become more patient since.
How to check: turn off wifi and open the site on mobile data. If you want a number, enter the address in PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile result.
How to fix it: resize photos to the size they're shown at (a cover photo doesn't need to weigh more than 200 or 300 KB), remove videos and sliders that add nothing, and uninstall whatever isn't used.
5. A pop-up covers everything
You arrive from Google looking for opening hours and the first thing you see is "Subscribe!" covering the whole screen, with a tiny cross in a corner. Many people don't look for it: they go back and open the next website. Google also advises against these pop-ups on mobile when they cover the content people came for.
How to check: visit your site from Google on your phone, like a new customer. What do you see first?
How to fix it: if you have an important notice, put it in a small bar at the top, not a window on top of everything. And put subscriptions at the end of the page, for people who are already interested.
6. The text is hard to read
Light grey on white because it "looks elegant". 12-pixel text on mobile. Important text written inside a photo, where Google can't read it and it shrinks on a phone. When reading is tiring, people don't read, and often can't say why they left.
How to check: read your website on your phone, outdoors, in sunlight. If you have to bring the screen closer or zoom, there's a problem.
How to fix it: dark text on a light background (or the reverse) with enough contrast, at least 16-pixel text on mobile and short lines. Text always as text, never inside images.
Block 3. Being contacted
7. You can't tap the phone number
The number is inside an image, or written as plain text, or only appears on the contact page. On a phone, people have to copy it or remember it to call you. Every extra step is a call that never comes. (You can see it in the example in point 3.)
How to check: open your site on your phone and tap the number. It should start the call straight away. Same with WhatsApp (it should open the chat) and the address (it should open the map).
How to fix it: clearly visible call and WhatsApp buttons on the first screen, and the phone number as a link on every page.
8. The contact form reaches nobody (or asks too much)
It sends to an old email, lands in spam, or goes to an inbox nobody checks. The person who filled it in thinks you're ignoring them, and won't try again. It's the most expensive mistake of all, because that person had already decided to contact you. The other version of the problem: ten-field forms to ask for a quote, with company, job title and "how did you hear about us".
How to check: fill in your own form today. See where it arrives, whether it lands in spam and how long it takes you to see it. Count the fields.
How to fix it: send it to an inbox you check daily, and ask only for what you need to reply: name, phone or email, and what they need. You can ask the rest later.
Block 4. Being trusted
9. It looks abandoned
"© 2019" in the footer. A news section whose last post is years old. "Online shop: coming soon" for three summers. An Instagram feed that no longer loads. Links to pages that don't exist. Visitors don't think "this website is out of date": they think "maybe they've closed".
How to check: look at the footer, the news section if you have one, and click every link in the menu and footer.
How to fix it: remove what you won't keep up. A site with no news section is better than one with news from 2018. And put the current year in the footer.
10. Photos that aren't yours
Two versions of the same mistake. The first: stock photos of smiling people who don't work at your business; people recognise them and they erode trust. The second, more serious: photos taken from Google without permission. Some companies specialise in tracking images online and demanding licence fees from the businesses using them.
How to check: ask where every photo on your site comes from. If you don't know, it's a risk.
How to fix it: your own photos: the premises, the team, the work. Taken on a phone in good light, they already beat any stock photo. If you want professional ones, a single morning's shoot lasts for years.
11. The browser says "Not secure"
If the site has no certificate (the address starts with http:// rather than https://), Chrome warns next to the address that the connection isn't secure. Even if your site never asks for any data, visitors only see the warning.
How to check: open your site and look at the address bar.
How to fix it: certificates are free with most hosting today. If you don't have one, it's a matter of requesting and enabling it.
And a legal one
12. Copied legal text, and too many or too few cookies
Spain's information society services law (LSSI, article 10) requires business websites to identify who is behind them: name or company name, tax ID (NIF), address, a contact email and, where applicable, registry or professional association details. It's common to find legal notices without these details, or copied from another company with someone else's details.
With cookies it's the other way round. Some websites show a huge cookie banner without using any cookie that requires it: technical cookies, the ones essential for the site to work, don't need consent according to the Spanish Data Protection Agency's guide. And some websites use Google Analytics or the Meta pixel without asking permission, which is exactly what does require it.
How to check: open your legal notice and look for your NIF and address. If your site has a cookie banner, ask whoever built it which cookies it uses and why.
How to fix it: a legal notice with your real details, a privacy policy explaining what you do with form data and, only if you use analytics or advertising cookies, a banner that makes saying no as easy as saying yes.
Why it happens
It's rarely bad work. The website gets made one day, the business changes and nobody checks it. The phone changes, the hours change, the email changes, the person who built it has moved on. A well-made website isn't finished when it goes live: someone has to look at it now and then.
The one-afternoon check
| What | How |
|---|---|
| How you appear on Google | Search your service and town |
| Same details everywhere | Compare website, Google and Instagram |
| What you do and where | The five-second test |
| Speed | Open it on mobile data |
| Pop-ups | Visit from Google on your phone |
| Readability | Read it in sunlight |
| Phone, WhatsApp and address | Tap them |
| Contact form | Fill it in yourself |
| Does it look alive | Check the footer and click every link |
| Photos | Do you know where each one comes from? |
| Certificate | Look at the address bar |
| Legal text | Is your NIF there? |
If you find one
Most of them can be fixed in an afternoon without rebuilding the site. If you're not sure how, write to me and I'll tell you whether it's a five-minute job or worth replacing. And if you're thinking about a new website, the two-minute quiz tells you which one fits.
Sources: Think with Google, mobile speed study (2016); Google Search Central, intrusive interstitials; Law 34/2002 (LSSI), article 10; AEPD, guide on the use of cookies.