Look, I probably shouldn't be sharing this publicly...
But after spending the last 6 months auditing cleaning company websites across the UK, I've discovered something that's honestly pissing me off.
Most of you are getting absolutely SHAFTED by your web designers.
And the worst part? You don't even know it's happening.
The Discovery That Made Me Furious
Last Tuesday, I was reviewing a cleaning company website in Bristol. Nice family business, been running for 8 years, solid reputation locally.
But their website? Complete disaster.
No phone number above the fold. Contact form buried on a separate page. Zero social proof. And get this - their "About Us" page was literally just one paragraph of generic nonsense that could apply to ANY cleaning company.
I called the owner, Sarah. She'd paid £3,500 for this website 18 months ago. Her leads had dropped by 60% since launch, but her web designer kept telling her "it takes time for SEO to work."
Plot twist: Her old website (the one that was "outdated") was converting 3x better.
That's when I decided to dig deeper. I started analyzing every cleaning company website I could find across the UK.
Website #1: Manchester. Same problems.
Website #5: Leeds. Same bloody problems.
Website #10: Birmingham. You guessed it.
By website #50, I was genuinely angry. These businesses were being set up to fail by the very people they'd paid to help them succeed.
Here's What I Found
Out of 143 cleaning company websites I analyzed:
- 112 had no phone number visible without scrolling (78%)
- 89 had contact forms only - no instant contact options (62%)
- 127 had zero customer reviews displayed on their homepage (89%)
- 134 had generic, meaningless copy that could apply to any cleaning business (94%)
- 98 took longer than 4 seconds to load on mobile (69%)
The Worst Part?
These weren't £500 budget websites. Most of these businesses had paid £2,000-£5,000 for websites that were actively losing them money every single day.
But here's what really got me...
The 22% that were "crushing it"? Their websites looked completely different. Not fancy - just fundamentally different in a few key ways that make all the difference.
And that's when I realized: This isn't about web design. It's about understanding how your customers actually behave when they need a cleaner.
UPDATE: My Inbox Is Going Mental
Since I started sharing this privately with a few cleaning business owners, my inbox has been absolutely mental.
"Dave, Portsmouth"
"Holy shit mate, we were doing ALL of these wrong. Fixed the phone number thing yesterday and got 3 calls by lunch."
"Lisa M."
"Been saying for months something was wrong with our website. Wish I'd seen this 2 years ago... would've saved me £8k in Google ads that went nowhere."
"Anonymous (requested)"
"Don't publish this but... our web design company charged us £4,500 and they made EVERY mistake you mentioned. We're switching."
EDIT: Adding the full breakdown below because people keep asking for specifics...
Alright, here's what I'm going to do...
I've put everything into a proper report (all 143 sites, all the fixes). Normally I charge £500 for this kind of audit, but I'm giving it away free before I change my mind.
This offer won't be available forever. Already helped 200+ cleaning businesses in the last month.