A 30-Day Plan to Fix Your Website Without a Redesign

You don't need a new website to get more out of the one you have. You need a plan and about a month.

Here's the week-by-week plan we'd follow on most small business sites. You can do each step yourself or hand it off. Do them in this order: start by making sure leads reach you and counting them, so you can see what each later fix does.

Week 1: Make sure every lead reaches you, and start counting

A good website is useless if the inquiries go nowhere, and you can't improve what you don't measure.

• Send a test through every form and check where it lands and how fast.
• Add spam protection, so real messages don't drown in junk.
• Send notifications to an inbox someone checks every day.
• Set up Google Analytics to count form submissions and taps on your phone number.

Week 2: Fix the words on your first screen

Visitors decide quickly whether to stay. Rewrite the top of your homepage so it answers three questions: what you do, where you do it and how to book.

• Replace slogans with a plain statement, like "Family dentist in Hollywood, FL. New patients welcome."
• Put one clear button at the top: Call, Book or Get a quote.
• Make your phone number tap-to-call.
• Cut anything that repeats itself or talks about you instead of the customer.

Week 3: Make it work on phones, and make it faster

Open every important page on your own phone. Check that text is readable without zooming, buttons are easy to tap and nothing covers the page. Then test your homepage in PageSpeed Insights.

• Before you change anything, run the test three times and write down the middle score. Do the same after.
• Compress and resize large photos. It's often the quickest speed win.
• Remove plugins, pop-ups and widgets you don't use.

Week 4: Fix what people see on Google

Many customers decide from your Google listing before they ever open your site.

• Check your Google Business Profile: categories, hours, services, photos and a link to the right page.
• Make sure your name, address and phone number match everywhere: your site, Google, Yelp, Apple Maps and Facebook. If you hide your home address on Google, keep it off your site and other listings too.
• Ask every recent customer for a Google review, not just the happy ones, and reply to every review you already have. Don't ask for Yelp reviews: Yelp's rules don't allow it.

Day 30: Check what changed

Compare today's numbers with your first week: phone taps, form leads and where visitors came from. One month is short, so look for direction, not miracles. The point is that you now know what your site brings in and what to fix next.

If you'd rather hand it off

Weeks 1 to 3 are close to what our Website Refresh covers, done for you in one to five weeks, depending on how many pages need work. Week 4, your Google profile and reviews, is what our Growth Plan looks after every month. Not sure where your site stands? Start with a Website & Marketing Audit, or send us your website and we'll reply with the three things we'd fix first, free.