Cathleen Voss Consulting

I audit small business websites almost every week, and I see the same mistakes over and over. These aren’t small oversights—they’re revenue killers. We’re talking about businesses losing thousands of dollars in potential sales every month because they’re making easily fixable SEO mistakes.

The frustrating part? Most of these business owners have no idea they’re losing money. They think their website is fine. They assume if they’re not getting traffic, it’s just because SEO “takes time” or their industry is “too competitive.”

Sometimes that’s true. But more often, they’re shooting themselves in the foot with mistakes that are completely preventable.

Let me walk you through the most expensive SEO mistakes I see small businesses make—and how to fix them.

Mistake #1: Treating Google Business Profile Like an Afterthought

This is the big one. If you’re a local business—and by that I mean you serve customers in a specific geographic area—your Google Business Profile (GBP) is probably more important than your website.

Here’s why: when someone searches “plumber near me” or “coffee shop downtown,” Google shows a Local Pack—those three businesses at the top with a map. If you’re in that pack, you get clicks and calls. If you’re not, you’re invisible.

The mistakes I see:

• Unclaimed or incomplete profiles
• No photos (or just one logo)
• No posts or updates in months
• Ignoring or not responding to reviews
• Wrong business hours or contact info

The cost: A local business that’s not optimized for GBP is losing 50-70% of potential local search traffic. For a service business that gets even one client per week from Google, that’s easily $20,000-$50,000+ in lost revenue per year.

How to fix it:

• Claim and verify your Google Business Profile
• Fill out every single field completely
• Upload at least 10 high-quality photos (exterior, interior, team, products/services)
• Post weekly updates (offers, events, news)
• Ask every happy customer for a review and respond to all reviews within 48 hours

This takes maybe 2-3 hours to set up properly and 15 minutes per week to maintain. The ROI is absurd.

Mistake #2: Ignoring Local Keywords

I can’t tell you how many small business websites I see that are optimized for generic national keywords they’ll never rank for—instead of the local keywords that would actually drive customers.

Example: A boutique fitness studio in Austin trying to rank for “personal training” (nearly impossible) instead of “personal training in East Austin” or “small group fitness classes near UT campus” (totally achievable).

The cost: You’re wasting time and money competing for keywords you can’t win, while leaving easy wins on the table. Local intent searches convert at a much higher rate, too—someone searching “accountant near me” is ready to hire, whereas someone searching “accounting tips” is just browsing.

How to fix it:

• Identify your actual service area (the neighborhoods, towns, or regions you serve)
• Create location-specific pages or optimize existing pages with local keywords
• Include your city/region name in title tags, headers, and naturally throughout your content
• Mention local landmarks, neighborhoods, or areas you serve
• List your business on local directories with consistent NAP (name, address, phone number)

Think local first, national never (unless you actually serve customers nationally).

Mistake #3: Having a Website That Loads Like It’s 2005

Page speed matters. Google has said it explicitly. But more importantly, slow websites kill conversions.

If your website takes 8 seconds to load because it’s stuffed with unoptimized images, autoplay videos, and seventeen different tracking scripts, people are leaving before they even see what you offer.

The cost: Research shows that a 1-second delay in page load time can reduce conversions by 7%. For a small business doing $200,000/year in revenue from their website, that’s $14,000 lost annually. Every. Single. Second.

How to fix it:

• Run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights and fix the issues it identifies
• Compress images before uploading (use tools like TinyPNG)
• Remove unnecessary plugins, scripts, and widgets
• Use a quality hosting provider (don’t cheap out on $3/month hosting if your website drives revenue)
• Enable browser caching and use a CDN if you’re running an e-commerce site

Aim for under 3 seconds on mobile. Under 2 seconds is even better.

Mistake #4: Letting Their Site Become a Ghost Town

Here’s what tells Google (and customers) that your business is dead: a blog that hasn’t been updated since 2019, an events page listing last year’s workshops, or a homepage that says “Coming Soon” for a service you launched six months ago.

Fresh content signals that your business is active and relevant. Stale content signals that you’ve probably gone out of business.

The cost: Google deprioritizes stale websites. If you’re not adding new content or updating existing pages, your rankings will slowly decline. Customers also lose trust when they see outdated information.

How to fix it:

• Update your homepage at least quarterly
• Add new blog posts monthly (or remove the blog section entirely if you’re not going to maintain it)
• Keep your events, services, and team pages current
• Add customer testimonials and success stories as you get them
• Update product/service pages when you make changes

You don’t need to blog every day. But your website should look like a living, active business.

Mistake #5: Writing for Themselves, Not Their Customers

I see this constantly: websites that talk about “innovative solutions” and “paradigm-shifting approaches” and “best-in-class services”—but never actually say what the business does or why someone should care.

Example of bad copy: “At [Business Name], we leverage cutting-edge methodologies to deliver unparalleled value to our stakeholders through synergistic partnerships.”

What that should say: “We’re a digital marketing agency that helps local businesses get more customers through Google ads and SEO.”

The cost: If people land on your website and can’t figure out in 5 seconds what you do and why it matters to them, they’re gone. High bounce rates hurt your SEO and cost you conversions.

How to fix it:

• Lead with what you do and who you help (not your mission statement)
• Use the words your customers use (not industry jargon)
• Focus on benefits and outcomes, not features and processes
• Include clear calls-to-action on every page
• Make it scannable with headers, bullet points, and short paragraphs

Clarity beats cleverness every time.

Mistake #6: Not Tracking Anything (Or Tracking the Wrong Things)

You know what I hear all the time? “We have a website, but we don’t really get anything from it.”

When I ask how they know that, they say, “Well, we don’t get many calls from it.”

When I dig deeper, I usually find they have no idea where their calls actually come from, no analytics installed, no tracking on their contact forms, and no clue how many people visit their site.

The cost: If you’re not measuring, you can’t improve. You might be one small tweak away from doubling your conversions, but you’d never know because you’re not tracking anything.

How to fix it:

• Install Google Analytics 4 (it’s free) and actually look at it monthly
• Set up conversion tracking for form submissions, calls, and purchases
• Use Google Search Console to see what people search to find you
• Track which pages get traffic and which ones convert
• A/B test changes and measure results

You can’t optimize what you don’t measure.

Mistake #7: Building a Website and Calling It Done

This is the biggest mindset mistake. Small business owners think of their website like a business card—something you design once and forget about.

But your website is a marketing engine. It needs maintenance, updates, optimization, and strategy.

The cost: Businesses that treat their website as “set it and forget it” get left behind as competitors improve, Google’s algorithms change, and customer expectations evolve.

How to fix it:

• Schedule quarterly website reviews (or hire someone to do it)
• Monitor your Google Search Console for errors or warnings
• Update content when your business changes
• Test and optimize your conversion paths
• Keep your website platform and plugins updated for security and performance

Your website should evolve with your business.

Mistake #8: Ignoring Mobile (It’s Not 2012 Anymore)

Over 60% of searches happen on mobile devices. If your website looks terrible on a phone, you’re losing more than half your potential traffic.

What I see:

• Tiny text you need to zoom to read
• Buttons too small to tap accurately
• Forms that are impossible to fill out on mobile
• Pop-ups that cover the whole screen with no way to close them
• Horizontal scrolling (a cardinal sin)

The cost: Google’s mobile-first indexing means your mobile site determines your rankings. Plus, mobile users who have a bad experience won’t come back. You’re losing traffic and conversions.

How to fix it:

• Test your site on your actual phone (not just the desktop preview)
• Use readable font sizes (at least 16px)
• Make buttons and links easy to tap
• Simplify forms for mobile users
• Avoid intrusive pop-ups

If you have to pinch and zoom to use your own website on your phone, your customers are already gone.

The Bottom Line

Most small businesses don’t need a massive SEO overhaul. They just need to stop making these expensive mistakes.

Fix your Google Business Profile. Optimize for local keywords. Speed up your website. Keep your content fresh. Write for humans, not robots. Track what matters. Treat your website like a living part of your business, not a static brochure.

Every one of these mistakes is costing you money right now. The good news? They’re all fixable.

And the businesses that fix them? They’re the ones getting found, getting clicked, and getting customers—while their competitors wonder why SEO “doesn’t work.”

Want me to audit your website and show you exactly where you’re losing revenue? Contact me for a comprehensive SEO audit that identifies your biggest opportunities and prioritizes what to fix first.