Before you spend a cent on advertising, make sure the thing you are sending people to is actually ready to receive them. Ten checks, most of them free, most of them an afternoon's work.

1. Open your own site on your phone, on mobile data

Not on the office WiFi. Turn WiFi off and load it the way a customer would, standing in a shop with two bars of signal. If you get bored waiting, so do they.

2. Check that your phone number is tappable

A number typed as plain text is useless on a phone. It should be a link that opens the dialler. Same for WhatsApp. This single fix has produced more calls for my clients than any redesign.

3. Read your home page out loud

Within five seconds a stranger should know what you sell and where you work. If your first line is "Welcome to our website" you are wasting the most valuable sentence you own.

4. Confirm your trading hours everywhere

Website footer, Google Business Profile, Facebook page. They drift apart quietly, and a customer who drives to a closed shop leaves a one-star review.

5. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console

Free, takes ten minutes, and it is the difference between Google finding your pages this week or in three months. Search Console also tells you exactly what people typed before they clicked.

6. Ask for reviews from your last ten customers

Recent reviews are the strongest local ranking signal you control. Save your review link as a WhatsApp shortcut and send it the day a job finishes.

7. Give every service its own page

One page listing eight services will rank for none of them. Eight pages, each written around one service and one area, gives Google eight reasons to show you.

8. Check your SSL certificate

If the browser says "Not secure", fix it today. Customers will not type their details into a page that warns them, and Google notices too.

9. Back the site up, and test the backup

A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a backup. Ask your host to prove they can bring the site back.

10. Write down who owns what

Domain, hosting, Google account, social logins. If a previous developer holds any of it, get it transferred into your name now rather than during an emergency.

None of this is glamorous and none of it requires a new website. Work through the list and you will be ahead of most businesses in your suburb.