5 Signs Your Website Is Costing You Customers

Your website is often the first impression a potential customer has of your business. If it's not doing its job, you're probably losing people before they even get in touch — and you may not even realise it.

Here are five signs your website is working against you, and what to do about each one.

01
It loads slowly

Studies consistently show that over half of mobile visitors leave a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. If your website takes 5+ seconds, you're turning away a significant chunk of your potential customers before they've even seen your content.

What to do: Test your site at PageSpeed Insights (search "Google PageSpeed Insights"). If your mobile score is below 70, it needs attention. Common fixes include compressing images, removing unnecessary plugins, and switching to faster hosting.

02
It doesn't work properly on mobile

Over 60% of web traffic in the UK now comes from mobile devices. If your site was designed 5+ years ago without mobile in mind — or was built with a desktop-first approach — it's probably a poor experience on phones. Text that's too small to read, buttons that are too close together, or layout that requires horizontal scrolling are all signs of a site that's failing mobile visitors.

What to do: Open your website on your own phone and honestly assess the experience. If it feels clunky, it's time for a redesign.

03
It's unclear what you do and who you do it for

Visitors shouldn't have to hunt for this information. Within 5 seconds of landing on your homepage, someone should be able to understand: what you offer, who you serve, and what they should do next. If your homepage is dominated by a vague tagline, a stock photo, and a wall of text about your company history, you're losing people who would otherwise be perfect customers.

What to do: Rewrite your homepage headline to clearly state what you do and for whom. Add a clear primary call-to-action (book a call, get a quote, contact us). Remove anything that doesn't help a visitor take that next step.

04
It looks outdated

Design trends move fast, and a website that looked fine in 2018 can look embarrassingly dated now. This matters because people judge credibility within milliseconds. If your site looks old, visitors assume your business, your thinking, or your standards are also old.

Common signs of an outdated site: stock photos with watermarks or generic business imagery, overly formal language, a cluttered layout, or a colour scheme that hasn't changed since 2015.

What to do: Look at your competitors' websites and honestly compare. If you wouldn't trust your own site as a customer, it needs refreshing.

05
There's no clear way to get in touch

This one is surprisingly common. Contact forms that don't work, phone numbers hidden in the footer, or no contact information at all until three clicks deep — all of these create friction that costs you enquiries. The easier you make it to get in touch, the more people will.

What to do: Put your phone number and/or a contact link in your main navigation. Have a working contact form on your contact page. Consider adding a simple "Get in touch" CTA at the bottom of every page.