7 Signs Your Business Website Is Costing You Customers

Websites fail quietly

Nobody phones a business to say they nearly enquired but the website put them off. They just leave and contact someone else. That is why an outdated website is so expensive: the cost is invisible.

If you are not sure whether yours is helping or hurting, go through these seven signs. If two or more sound familiar, your website is very likely costing you customers right now.

1. It is awkward to use on a phone

Most people looking for a local business are on their phone. Open your own site on yours and try to do what a customer would: find a price, find your number, send an enquiry. If you have to pinch, zoom or hunt for the menu, so does every customer, and many of them give up.

2. You are embarrassed to send people the link

This is the most honest test there is. If you hesitate before sharing your own website, or add "ignore the website, it's old" when you do, your customers are picking up on the same thing. People judge how good your work is by how your website looks, fairly or not.

3. It does not say clearly what you do and where

A visitor should know within five seconds what you offer, which area you serve, and how to get in touch. Many older sites open with a slogan, a slideshow or a welcome message and make people scroll to find out whether they are in the right place.

4. The information is out of date

Old prices, a phone number that has changed, staff who left years ago, a "latest news" post from 2021. Each one makes a visitor wonder whether you are still trading. The more out of date the site looks, the less a stranger trusts it.

5. You cannot change anything yourself

If updating your opening hours means emailing a developer who takes two weeks to reply, the site will always fall behind. A good website lets you make simple changes yourself, or comes with someone who will do them quickly.

6. You do not show up on Google

Search for your service and your town, the way a customer would. If competitors appear and you do not, your website is not doing its most important job. Often the cause is a site that was never set up for search in the first place: no proper page titles, no mention of the areas you serve, and slow loading.

7. People visit, but nobody enquires

If you can see visitors in your analytics but enquiries are rare, the site is losing people somewhere between landing and contacting you. Usually the next step is unclear, the contact form is long, or there is no proof that you are good at what you do.

Fix it or start again?

Not every one of these needs a new website. Out of date information and a missing Google Business Profile can be fixed in an afternoon. But if your site fails on phones, cannot be updated, and was never built with search in mind, patching it usually costs more in the long run than rebuilding it properly.

A modern rebuild does not have to be a drawn-out project either. A focused business website can be designed, written and launched in about a week, and from day one it will be fast, work properly on phones and be set up to be found on Google.

The next step

If you recognised your website in this list, it is worth finding out what a fix would actually involve. Tell us a little about your business and we will come back with a clear, fixed-price quote, usually within 24 hours. There is no obligation, and if a small fix is all you need, we will say so.