A good audit is uncomfortable. It shows you what you’ve been ignoring and puts a number on what it’s costing you. We recently walked through a pressure washing company’s website and Google Business Profile in Traverse City and found seven problems, all fixable, most common across local businesses everywhere.
Mistake 1: No H1 Tag on the Homepage
The H1 is the single most important on-page SEO element on any webpage. It tells Google, in plain language, what the page is about. This site’s homepage had none.
Every page on your website needs an H1. It should include your primary service and your location. For a pressure washing company in Traverse City, something like “Professional Pressure Washing in Traverse City, MI” is a better signal than no tag at all. Go through every page and confirm this before anything else.
Mistake 2: Phone Numbers That Don’t Click to Call
Most of your customers are on their phones. If they have to manually copy and dial your number, a meaningful percentage of them won’t. They’ll just leave.
Every phone number on your website should be a tap-to-call link. This is a one-line code change and it directly affects how many leads you capture from mobile visitors.
Mistake 3: A Hero Image That Fails on Mobile
The desktop version of the hero image looked fine. On mobile, it collapsed into a cropped graphic with no text, no context, and no relevance to the business. It took up half the screen and told the visitor nothing.
Your hero section needs to communicate your core offer on every screen size. Test your site on your actual phone before it goes live, and keep testing it whenever you make changes.
Mistake 4: Content Getting Cut Off on Mobile
Beyond the hero image, elements across the page were getting clipped on smaller screens. Text cut off. Sections breaking. This isn’t just a design problem. It signals to Google that your site isn’t properly optimized for mobile, which is now the primary way Google evaluates your site.
Mobile experience is not optional. It’s the baseline.
Mistake 5: Location Only Mentioned Three Times
This site mentioned Traverse City three times across the homepage. For a local service business trying to rank for “pressure washing Traverse City,” that’s not enough.
Your city, service area, and surrounding neighborhoods should appear naturally and repeatedly throughout your content. Google is looking for geographic signals to confirm you operate where you say you do. Three mentions isn’t a signal. It’s a whisper. Aim for 20 to 40 natural mentions across a full homepage.
Mistake 6: GBP Services and Products With No Links
The Google Business Profile had services and products listed, which is good. Most businesses skip this entirely. But none of the listings linked back to the corresponding pages on the website.
GBP lets you attach a URL to each service and product. Use it. Link the house washing service directly to the house washing page. Every one of those links is a path back to your site and a relevance signal to Google.
Mistake 7: A Stale Review Section With a Bad Review on Top
The most recent review was seven months old. It was edited five months ago. And it was negative. That means anyone who clicks on the reviews tab sees a bad review first.
Review recency matters for rankings. Google wants to see that your business is active and that customers are engaging with it regularly. Aim for at least one new review per week. Consistent incoming reviews also push older negative ones down the list over time.
One more thing. One of the review responses on this profile had an AI prompt accidentally left in the reply. The actual response was never written. Someone used a template or AI tool, forgot to replace the placeholder, and published it. Go through every review response you’ve posted and make sure they’re real, personalized replies.
The Throughline
Most of these issues come down to the same thing: the site was built and then left alone. No one went back to check the mobile experience, count the location mentions, follow up on reviews, or audit the GBP links.
Local SEO isn’t a one-time setup. It’s ongoing maintenance. The businesses that rank consistently are the ones treating it that way.
If you want us to run through your site and GBP the same way, we offer free local SEO audits for businesses in the Orlando and Central Florida area. Drop your business name and location and we’ll get started.
DropShadow Agency is a marketing agency based in Orlando, FL helping local businesses get found online.
