10 Signs Your Business Website Is Losing You Customers (And What to Do About It)
Is Your Website Quietly Killing Your Business?
Most business owners know their website isn’t perfect. But very few realise just how much a poorly performing website is actively costing them — in lost enquiries, lost sales, and lost credibility. The brutal truth is this: in 2026, a bad website isn’t neutral. It’s actively driving potential customers away and sending them straight to your competitors.
The good news is that the warning signs are usually obvious once you know what to look for. Here are the 10 most common indicators that your business website is losing you customers — and exactly what you should do about each one.
Sign 1: Your Website Takes More Than 3 Seconds to Load
Research from Google shows that 53% of mobile visitors abandon a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. That’s more than half your visitors gone before they’ve even seen your content. And it gets worse: every additional second of load time reduces conversion rates by approximately 7%. A website that takes 6 seconds to load could be losing you nearly half your potential enquiries.
The fix: Test your website speed using Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool (pagespeed.web.dev). If your score is below 70 on mobile, you need action. Common causes include unoptimised images, poor hosting, too many plugins, and no caching. A properly built website on quality hosting — like the sites SinceCode delivers — should load in under 2 seconds.
Sign 2: It Doesn’t Look Right on a Mobile Phone
Grab your smartphone and visit your own website right now. Is it easy to read? Are the buttons big enough to tap? Does the text overflow off the screen? Is the navigation clear and accessible? If the answer to any of these is no, you’re losing the majority of your visitors — because over 60% of web traffic in the UK now comes from mobile devices.
The fix: A modern, mobile-first responsive website is non-negotiable. This isn’t an optional extra — it’s the baseline. If your website was built more than 5 years ago, there’s a very high chance it’s not properly mobile-responsive. A new website from SinceCode is built mobile-first from day one.
Sign 3: Visitors Can’t Find Your Phone Number Immediately
For service businesses especially, a phone call is often the most valuable conversion. If a visitor has to scroll through your homepage to find your number, click to a separate contact page, or — even worse — can’t find it at all, you’re losing enquiries. Most visitors won’t hunt for contact information; they’ll simply go somewhere else.
The fix: Your phone number should appear in the header of every page, visible without scrolling. On mobile, it should be a click-to-call link so customers can ring with one tap. This single change has been shown to increase enquiry rates by 20–30% for service businesses.
Sign 4: The Design Looks Outdated
Website design trends evolve quickly, and a site that looked modern in 2016 can look embarrassingly dated in 2026. Visitors make snap judgements about a business’s credibility within 50 milliseconds of landing on a website — largely based on visual design. A site that looks old signals to potential customers that your business might be behind the times, less professional, or even no longer active.
The fix: A redesign doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. SinceCode’s redesign service modernises your website — improving performance, user experience, and conversion rates — for a transparent monthly fee with no upfront cost.
Sign 5: You’re Not Appearing in Google Searches
Open an incognito browser window and search for your business type in your town — for example, “electrician Redditch” or “coffee shop Worcester”. If your website doesn’t appear on the first page, you’re essentially invisible to the vast majority of potential customers. Over 90% of clicks go to results on the first page of Google.
The fix: Poor Google rankings are almost always a symptom of fundamental website problems: slow loading, poor mobile experience, no location-specific content, missing metadata, and weak technical SEO. Building a new website with proper SEO foundations — or significantly improving your existing one — is the most sustainable path to better rankings.
Sign 6: Your Bounce Rate Is Very High
Bounce rate measures the percentage of visitors who land on your website and immediately leave without clicking anywhere. A high bounce rate (above 70–80%) is a strong signal that visitors aren’t finding what they expected, or that the experience is poor enough to drive them away. You can check your bounce rate using Google Analytics or Microsoft Clarity (both free).
The fix: Common causes of high bounce rate include: slow loading speed, content that doesn’t match what the visitor searched for, confusing layout, and a site that looks untrustworthy. Each of these is fixable with a properly designed and optimised website.
Sign 7: There’s No Clear Next Step on Any Page
Every page on your website should have one primary action you want visitors to take. If a visitor reads your services page and then doesn’t know what to do next — whether that’s calling you, requesting a quote, or booking online — they’ll simply leave. A website without clear calls to action (CTAs) is leaving money on the table every single day.
The fix: Every page should have a prominent, clear CTA — ideally just one primary CTA per page to avoid confusion. “Get a Free Quote”, “Call Us Today”, or “Book Your Consultation” should be visible without scrolling on every page.
Sign 8: Your Website Isn’t Secure (No HTTPS)
If your website address starts with “http://” rather than “https://”, Google will actively mark it as “Not Secure” in the browser bar — a massive red flag for any potential customer. Even worse, Google penalises non-HTTPS sites in search rankings. An SSL certificate is no longer optional.
The fix: Every SinceCode website comes with a free SSL certificate included. If your current site doesn’t have SSL, this needs to be fixed immediately — either by your current hosting provider or by moving to a new, properly configured hosting solution.
Sign 9: The Content Is Thin, Generic, or Outdated
Content that was written in 2015, filled with vague marketing fluff, or simply absent does nothing for your website. Google rewards websites with helpful, substantive, regularly updated content — and so do visitors. If your website’s content doesn’t clearly and specifically answer what your customers are looking for, Google won’t rank it, and visitors who do arrive won’t stay.
The fix: Audit your content. Is it specific about what you do and who you serve? Does it address the questions your customers actually have? Is it regularly updated? If not, content refreshing — or a completely new set of service pages — is a high-ROI investment. SinceCode’s Content & Customisation service can help with this.
Sign 10: You Haven’t Updated It in More Than a Year
A website that hasn’t been updated in over a year is sending multiple negative signals: to Google (which favours fresh, regularly updated sites), to potential customers (who wonder if the business is still operating), and to the security community (outdated WordPress installations and plugins are prime targets for hackers). Regular updates aren’t just nice to have — they’re essential.
The fix: Establish a routine of regular content updates — even adding a blog post monthly makes a significant difference. For the technical side (WordPress core, themes, plugin updates), SinceCode’s maintenance service handles this as part of every plan, so you never have to worry about it.
The Solution: A Professional Website That Works Hard for Your Business
If you recognised your website in three or more of the signs above, the most cost-effective solution isn’t to patch individual problems — it’s to start fresh with a properly built website that’s designed to perform from day one.
SinceCode builds professional, fast, mobile-responsive, SEO-optimised websites for UK businesses from just £19.99 per month. Zero upfront cost. Live in 7 days. Every plan includes hosting, SSL, maintenance, and UK-based support.
Stop losing customers to a website that’s working against you. Let SinceCode build something that works for you.
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