by /
In the “Let’s Fix Your Website” workshop with the San Francisco SBDC and the San Francisco Public Library, Jeremy DuCheny ran live audits on seven local small businesses — apparel, coffee, dog walking, skincare, art, primary care, and jewelry — and handed each owner the same-day fixes that turn a confusing homepage into booked customers.
7
small businesses audited live in one session
$500
Lynn’s ad spend on Etsy jewelry — with no sale yet
2
civic partners hosting: SF SBDC & SF Public Library
Every business in this small business website audit had the same core problem: the homepage never said, in plain words, what the company does or why a visitor should care. Affirm Your Transformation opened with “Imagine looking in the mirror and seeing this” instead of naming itself as a self-love apparel brand. Tallio’s Coffee & Tea showed imagery with no sign it sells coffee at all.
Name The Business In The First Five Words
A visitor decides in seconds whether they are in the right place. Across all seven sites the fix started with a headline that states the offer plainly — “Transformative Apparel for Self-Love and Healing” for Affirm, an explicit “we roast and serve coffee” line for Tallio’s, and a clear “licensed aesthetician” label for Alroundr instead of the unexplained word “esthetician.”
The second universal fix was the call-to-action. On most sites the button sat too far down or, in Alroundr’s case, every button led to the same page. North Star Direct Primary Care needed two distinct buttons — “Become a Patient” and “Schedule a 15-Minute Consultation” — separated by color and placement so the visitor knows exactly what to click.
RUN THIS YOURSELF
Open any client homepage and read only the first headline and the first button. Cover everything else. If a stranger cannot tell what the business sells and what to do next from those two elements alone, you have found the highest-leverage fix on the site — before you touch design, SEO, or ads.
Move Proof And Faces To The Top
Five of the seven sites buried their testimonials far down the page. Sniff and Go ran community videos but no client stories; Nacim’s art site had a contact form but no happy-customer photos; North Star had patient outcomes but no social proof yet. The fix is the same everywhere — pull reviews, faces, and real photos up near the headline where they build trust on first scroll.
| Business | What it sells | Biggest fix |
|---|---|---|
| Affirm Your Transformation | Self-love apparel | Headline that names the brand; CTA up top |
| Sniff and Go | On-leash dog walking | Slow the scrolling text; explain “R+” jargon |
| Tallio’s Coffee & Tea | Coffee roaster & cafe | Say “coffee” up top; kill the blue dead space |
| Alroundr | Skincare consults | Split product vs. service CTAs; plain language |
| Nacim Artworks | Art & pet portraits | Describe who she is; add customer stories |
| North Star DPC | Direct primary care | Two clear CTAs; show Dr. Ma’s credentials |
| Lynn Vandenberg | Etsy jewelry | Show jewelry on real people; learn Etsy SEO |
Install Tracking Before Spending On Ads
Lynn Vandenberg spent about $500 on advertising for her Etsy jewelry and could not recall her traffic numbers — and still had no sales. That is the trap: paying for traffic you cannot measure. Affirm Your Transformation had no analytics at all, so no one knew how visitors moved through the site.
The order of operations is fixed. Install Google Analytics or Hotjar first, then drive cheap organic traffic with the Dollar-a-Day method, and only scale spend once the page actually converts. For Lynn that meant fixing the Etsy listing and showing jewelry on real people before buying another click.
RUN THIS YOURSELF
Before approving any ad budget, check whether analytics is even installed. View the page source and search for a tracking tag. If there is none, stop — spending on ads without measurement is how owners burn $500 with nothing to show. Tracking first, then traffic, then scale.
Amplify The Winners A Dollar A Day
Once each homepage tells a clear story and tracking is live, the cheapest growth comes from boosting content that already resonates. Sniff and Go was sitting on quality dog-walk photos; Alroundr had video the owner was not repurposing; Nacim had emotional pet-portrait stories perfect for short clips. We pointed every owner to small, authentic videos amplified through the Dollar a Day MAA framework on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
None of these fixes require a redesign or a big budget — they require clarity, proof, measurement, and consistent amplification, in that order. The same live-audit pipeline runs on any local business; see how it starts in the Quick Audit process, or work the changes live in a Power Hour session.
THE DELIVERABLE
Turn A Confusing Homepage Into Booked Customers
Not sure why your site gets visitors but no sales? We’ll audit your homepage live, name the clarity gaps, and hand you the same fix order these seven owners got.
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is the CEO of Local Service Spotlight, a platform that amplifies the reputations of contractors and local service businesses using the Content Factory process. He is a former search engine engineer who has spent a billion dollars on Google and Facebook ads for Nike, Quiznos, Ashley Furniture, Red Bull, State Farm, and other brands.
Dennis has achieved 25% of his goal of creating a million digital marketing jobs by partnering with universities, professional organizations, and agencies. Through Local Service Spotlight, he teaches the Dollar a Day strategy and Content Factory training to help local service businesses enhance their existing local reputation and make the phone ring.
Dennis coaches young adult agency owners serving plumbers, AC technicians, landscapers, roofers, electricians, and believes there should be a standard in measuring local marketing efforts, much like doctors and plumbers must be certified.