Open your website on your phone, right now. That's how most of your potential customers will see it — on a small screen, in a hurry, deciding in about five seconds whether you're worth their time. This checklist is the honest version of that test. If you spot more than two or three of these on your site, it's quietly costing you business.
The 12 red flags
Work through the list. Each one is a real, common problem we see on small-business websites every week.
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It's slow — and you've just accepted that
Roughly half your visitors will leave if a page takes more than a few seconds to load, and Google ranks slow sites lower. If you've ever caught yourself thinking “it's just a bit slow,” that's a problem you're normalising, not a feature. Test it at PageSpeed Insights — if the mobile score is in the red, you're losing people before they've read a word.
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There's no clear answer to “what do you do?”
A visitor should understand what you offer, who you help, and roughly what it costs within a few seconds of landing. If your homepage opens with a vague mission statement about “passion” and “excellence,” you've lost them. Clarity beats cleverness every time.
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The phone number and contact details are hard to find
Many of your best customers — especially older ones, or anyone in a rush — just want to call you. If the number isn't tap-to-call, isn't in the header, or is buried on a separate page, you've added friction at the exact moment someone was ready to buy.
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It looks broken or cramped on a phone
Text too small, buttons too close together, sideways scrolling, images that overlap. More than 60% of UK web traffic is mobile. A site that only looks right on a laptop is a site that's broken for most of your visitors.
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It's “Not Secure” in the address bar
If your URL still starts with
http://rather thanhttps://, browsers show a “Not Secure” warning. That single word is enough to send a cautious customer elsewhere. SSL is free and standard — there's no excuse not to have it. -
The copyright says 2019 (or older)
It's a tiny detail that screams “this business has given up.” If the footer is years out of date, visitors assume the rest of the business is too. Stale dates are the website equivalent of weeds in the window.
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Blurry, tiny, or stock-photo-only images
Generic stock photos of smiling strangers in suits make you look like everyone else — and like no one in particular. A few real photos of your work, your team or your premises build more trust in five seconds than any amount of polished stock imagery.
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There's nothing to prove you're real
No reviews, no testimonials, no examples of past work, no mention of where you are. A stranger has no reason to trust you. Social proof — even a handful of genuine reviews — is the difference between “might be a scam” and “looks legit.”
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Broken links and dead pages
Click around your own site. Any link that goes nowhere, any image that won't load, any “page not found” — each one is a small signal of neglect. Visitors notice, and so does Google.
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No way to contact you without picking up the phone
Plenty of potential customers want to enquire out of hours, or prefer not to call. A simple contact form, an email address, a link to your socials — give people options. Every barrier you remove is an enquiry you capture.
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It reads like it was written for a robot
Keyword-stuffed nonsense, the same phrase repeated ten times, paragraphs that say nothing. Google got wise to that years ago, and human visitors can smell it instantly. Write for people first — clearly, in your own voice.
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You haven't touched it since it launched
A website isn't a one-off project; it's the shopfront you never lock up. Prices change, services move on, staff come and go. A site that hasn't been updated in years is one Google has quietly stopped trusting — and it shows.
Your website isn't judged against the perfect version of itself. It's judged against the competitor one click away.
How to actually check, in 10 minutes
You don't need to be technical. Do this now:
- Open your site on your phone, over a normal mobile connection (not Wi-Fi). Does it load fast? Does it look right?
- Try to find your phone number and email in under five seconds.
- Click every link in the main menu. Any broken?
- Read the homepage out loud. Does it clearly say what you do and who for?
- Check the address bar. Is it
https://? - Run the URL through PageSpeed Insights and read the mobile score.
Which of these actually matter most?
If you only fix a few, prioritise the ones that stop people contacting you: a fast mobile experience, obvious contact details, SSL, and clear proof you're a real, reputable business. Those four account for the vast majority of lost enquiries. The rest are about long-term trust and search ranking — worth fixing, but less urgent.
For the broader picture of what a good site should do, our guide to what makes a good website covers the fundamentals. And if you're worried a supplier set up lock-in, the ownership section of our choosing a designer guide is worth reading.
The honest part
If you went through the list and winced a few times, you're not alone — most small-business websites have at least three or four of these. The good news is they're all fixable, and fixing them is one of the highest-return things you can do for your business. A website that loads fast, looks credible, and makes it easy to get in touch quietly wins enquiries you never even knew you were losing.
Not sure where yours stands? Send us the link and we'll tell you, honestly and for free, exactly what's costing you customers — plus show you what a better version could look like. Get a free review →