You can't see the customers you're losing. They visit your site, something puts them off, and they leave. No missed call. No notification. They're gone.
These are the five issues we find most when we audit business websites.
1. It takes more than three seconds to load
53% of mobile visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load. Your site might look good on your desktop with fast broadband. Open it on a phone using 4G. Time it. If it's slow, you're losing people before they see a single word.
Common causes: uncompressed images, too many scripts, cheap hosting, WordPress plugins stacked on top of each other.
2. It doesn't work on phones
Open your website on your phone right now. Can you read the text without zooming? Can you tap the menu without hitting the wrong link? Can you find the phone number?
Over 60% of your visitors are on mobile. If the experience is poor, they leave. Google also ranks your site based on its mobile performance. A broken mobile experience hurts you twice.
3. There's no obvious way to get in touch
We've audited business websites where the phone number is buried in the footer. Others where the only contact option is a form with eight required fields. Some with no contact page at all.
Your phone number should be visible on every page. A tap-to-call link on mobile. A simple form with three or four fields at most. Make it effortless.
4. There's no SSL certificate
If your website starts with "http" instead of "https," browsers show a "Not Secure" warning. Visitors see that warning and leave. Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014.
An SSL certificate is free through most hosting providers. There's no reason not to have one.
5. There's nothing for Google to read
Some websites have a homepage with a logo, a background image, and a phone number. No text. No descriptions. No service pages.
Google reads text. If there's nothing to read, Google doesn't know what your business does. It can't rank you for searches you should appear in. Every service you offer needs its own page with a clear description.
The quick test
Run your website through Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev). Enter your URL. Google will score your site out of 100 and list every issue it finds. It takes 30 seconds.
If your score is below 50, your website is actively hurting your business.