Site of the Month: The Teardown Series Begins
Welcome to a standing appointment: every month, one real Chicagoland business website gets a public teardown. Not to embarrass anyone (names get blurred unless the owner opts in) but because the fastest way to learn what works online is to watch someone fix what doesn't.
How every teardown works
Each edition follows the same five checks I run in a paid audit. One: the three-second test. Can a stranger tell what you do, where you do it, and what to click within three seconds? Two: speed on a phone, because that's where your customers are and where most local sites fall apart. Three: the call path, or how many taps from landing to actually contacting you (the answer should be one). Four: proof, meaning reviews, photos of real work, real faces; templated stock imagery reads as invisible. Five: what Google sees, starting with titles, schema, and whether the site answers the searches customers actually make.
Why I'm doing this in public
Because the pattern is always the same: local businesses don't lose customers to better competitors; they lose them to better websites. The gap is rarely budget; it's knowing which five things matter. Twelve teardowns a year builds a free education that most agencies would charge for, and it keeps me honest, because every recommendation is published where anyone can check whether it works.
Nominate a site, including yours
Want your own site torn down (privately or publicly, your call)? Want a competitor's category examined? Text (847) 387-0244 with the URL. Owners who volunteer their own site get the fix list free, and first crack at having me implement it.
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