Short answer. Open your home page and check five things: the page title, the meta description, the main heading, how fast it loads on a phone, and whether your images have alt text. Each takes a minute or two, needs no paid tool, and shows up in the problems we found most often on local business home pages.
What we checked, and what we found
While preparing to write to local businesses on the North Shore and around Vancouver, we looked at the home pages of 28 of them (clinics, trades, storage and property companies, engineering and architecture firms). We used an automated check on a single day, so treat the numbers as a snapshot of this group, not of all businesses.
| Check | Pages with the problem |
|---|---|
| No meta description | 6 of 28 |
| No main heading (H1) | 8 of 28 |
| More than one main heading | 5 of 28 |
| Page title that starts with “Home” | 4 of 28 |
| Meta description under 90 or over 170 characters | 7 of 28 |
We also ran a mobile speed test on 12 of the 28, chosen because they looked slowest, so they are not a fair sample. All 12 took more than 3.9 seconds to show their main content on a simulated mid-range phone, and the slowest took about 20 seconds. Four of the 12 had images with no alt text.
1. The page title
The title is the blue line in a search result. It should say what the business is and where, for example the service and the city, and fit in about 55 to 60 characters. A title that only says “Home” or the business name gives search engines, and people, little to go on. To check: look at the browser tab, or search for your business and read the first line of the result.
2. The meta description
This is the short text under the title in a search result. If it is missing, search engines write their own, which may not be what you would say. Aim for roughly 120 to 155 characters that say who you help and what to do next. To check: view the page source and search for “description”, or use a free SEO checker.
3. One main heading
A page should have one main heading (H1) that says what the page is about. Some themes have none, and some have a dozen. To check: right-click the big heading, choose Inspect and look for h1, or ask whoever built the site.
4. Speed on a phone
Most local searches happen on phones. Run your home page through Google’s free PageSpeed Insights, read the mobile result, and look at “Largest Contentful Paint”: how long until the main content appears. Under about 2.5 seconds is good. Heavy images and many scripts are the usual cause.
5. Alt text on images
Alt text is a short description of an image, read aloud by screen readers and used by search engines. Missing alt text hurts people who rely on screen readers first, and search second. To check: PageSpeed Insights and most free SEO checkers list images without it.
What to do with the results
Fix the cheapest things first: the title and the description take minutes. The heading is usually a small change in the editor. Speed and images take longer, so start with the biggest image on the page. Then check again in a week, and note the date, so you can tell what changed.
Your ten-minute check
Tick each one on your own home page:
Checklist
Your ten-minute check
- Title. Says what you do and where, in about 60 characters or fewer.
- Description. Between 120 and 155 characters, ending with what to do next.
- Main heading. Exactly one, saying what the page is about.
- Phone speed. Largest Contentful Paint under about 2.5 seconds in PageSpeed Insights.
- Alt text. Every meaningful image has a short, plain description.
Long Square Studio.
A few common questions
Do I need an SEO tool for this?
No. The browser, the page source and Google’s free PageSpeed Insights cover all five checks.
How often should I check?
After any change to the site, and once a quarter otherwise.
Does fixing these guarantee more customers?
No. They remove avoidable problems so that search engines and visitors can understand the page. Results depend on much more.
Are these numbers typical?
They describe 28 businesses we looked at on one day. They are a snapshot, not a survey.
Who should fix these problems?
Whoever manages your website. If nobody does, that is the first thing to settle.
