Your Website is Leaking Money (And You Might Not Know It)
If you’re running a business in Brisbane, whether you’re a plumber in Chermside or a lawyer in the CBD, your website is your digital shopfront. Imagine if a customer walked into your physical shop, and the door was stuck, the lights were flickering, and every time they tried to look at a product, a staff member jumped in front of them and moved the shelf.
You’d be out of business in a week.
Yet, this is exactly what happens on thousands of Brisbane business websites every single day. In the marketing world, people use fancy terms like "Core Web Vitals," but let’s call it what it actually is: Customer Experience.
Google has a very simple goal: they want to send people to websites that work well. If your site is slow, clunky, or moves around while people are trying to read it, Google will stop showing your business to people searching for your services. They’ll send them to your competitor instead.
In this guide, I’m going to break down the most common mistakes I see local business owners making. These aren't just technical glitches; they are profit killers. If you want to get found by customers who are ready to spend money right now, your website needs to be fast and easy to use.
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Mistake #1: The "Pretty But Useless" Video Header
I see this all the time. A business owner pays a designer thousands of dollars for a website that looks like a movie trailer. It’s got a massive, high-definition video playing in the background the moment you land on the page.
The Reality: Most of your customers are looking for you on their phones while they’re on a lunch break or sitting in traffic. They don’t have the patience (or the data) to wait 10 seconds for your "cinematic" video to load.
When a website takes too long to show the first bit of useful information, people hit the "back" button. Google tracks this. If people leave your site immediately, Google assumes your site is rubbish and drops your ranking.
The Fix: Use a high-quality, compressed image instead. If you must have a video, make sure it’s small and doesn't stop the rest of the page from loading. Your customers care about your phone number and your services, not your amateur film production.
Mistake #2: The "Moving Target" Problem
Have you ever been on a website, went to click a button, and suddenly the whole page shifted down because an ad or an image finally loaded? You end up clicking the wrong thing, or worse, an ad you didn't want.
This is incredibly frustrating for customers. In technical terms, it’s called Layout Shift, but for you, it’s a trust killer. If your website feels unstable, people won’t trust you with their credit card details or their home address.
Common causes for this in Brisbane businesses: Slow-loading banners at the top of the page. Images that don't have a "reserved" space on the screen. Third-party reviews or maps that pop in late.
The Result: You lose the lead. If a customer can't easily tap "Call Now" because the button keeps jumping around, they’ll call the next person on the list.
Mistake #3: Ignoring the "Mobile First" Reality
I’ve sat down with business owners in Morningside who show me their website on a $3,000 iMac. It looks great. But then I pull out my phone and show them that the text is tiny, the buttons are too close together, and it takes forever to load on a 4G connection.
Google doesn't care how your site looks on your office computer. They rank your site based on how it works on a mobile phone. If your site isn't optimised for someone with a cracked screen and a weak signal, you are invisible to a huge portion of the market.
This is a fundamental part of any SEO guide for businesses in Australia. If you aren't winning on mobile, you aren't winning at all.
Mistake #4: Using Huge, Unoptimised Images
I worked with a local landscaper recently who couldn't understand why his site was so slow. It turns out, every photo in his gallery was a 10MB file straight from his iPhone. He had 50 of them on one page.
Loading that page was like trying to push a grand piano through a letterbox.
The Cost: Every second of delay in your website loading reduces the chance of someone becoming a customer by about 7%. If your site takes 5 seconds to load instead of 2, you’ve already lost a third of your potential business.
The Solution: You don't need professional software. There are free tools that can shrink your image file sizes without losing quality. It’s the easiest way to make your site feel "snappy."
Mistake #5: Cheap, Shared Hosting
I understand wanting to save money. But paying $5 a month for web hosting is like renting a shopfront in a building where the power goes out every two hours and the roof leaks.
Cheap hosting providers cram thousands of websites onto one server. If one of those other sites gets a lot of traffic, your site slows down.
If you are serious about making money, you need to spend a bit more on "quality real estate" for your website. A fast server in Australia (not the US or Europe) will make your site load significantly faster for Brisbane locals.
How Much Does This Actually Matter for Your Bottom Line?
Let’s look at the numbers.
Say you get 500 people to your website a month. If your site is slow and frustrating, maybe only 5 people call you (1%).
- If your site is fast, easy to use, and works on phones, that might jump to 25 people (5%).
When people ask about whether they should use Google Ads or SEO, I always tell them: don't spend a dollar on ads until your website is fast enough to actually keep the customers you're paying for.
What Should You Do First?
1. Test your site on your phone: Use your own phone, turn off the Wi-Fi, and see how long it takes to load. Can you find your phone number in under 3 seconds? 2. Check your images: If you have a gallery, make sure the images aren't massive files. 3. Ask your web person about "speed": Don't let them talk to you about "metrics." Ask them: "How can we make this site load in under 2 seconds for someone on a mobile phone?"
Summary: Stop Making it Hard for People to Hire You
Marketing isn't just about getting people to see your name. It's about making it as easy as possible for them to give you money. A slow, shifting, or broken website is a barrier between you and your profit.
At Local Marketing Group, we don't care about making things look "pretty" if they don't actually work. We focus on results: phone calls, bookings, and sales. We’ve seen dozens of Brisbane businesses double their enquiries just by fixing these simple mistakes.
If you’re worried your website is driving customers to your competitors, let’s have a chat. We’ll look at the data, find the leaks, and help you turn your website into a tool that actually grows your business.
Ready to get more calls? Contact Local Marketing Group today.