Website red flags that make customers leave

We look at a lot of small business websites, usually because the owner has a feeling something is wrong but cannot say what. The problems are nearly always the same dozen. None of them is exotic, and every one of them is quietly sending customers to a competitor.

The twelve red flags

1. It takes more than three seconds to load

The most expensive problem, because it happens before anything else can. People on a phone give a page a few seconds and then go back to Google. Big uncompressed images, a heavy page builder, and a pile of plugins are the usual causes. The fix is a lean build and properly sized images. A hand-coded site typically loads in under a second; a template site stuffed with add-ons can take five.

2. It does not work on a phone

Most of your visitors are on a phone, and many small business sites are still a desktop site shrunk down: tiny text, buttons too close together, a menu that does not open. If someone has to pinch and zoom to read your prices, they will not. Build mobile first, then let it grow for the desktop.

3. The browser says "Not Secure"

If your site runs on http rather than https, Chrome puts "Not Secure" next to your address. Customers read that as "do not type your details here", and Google ranks it lower. An SSL certificate is free with any decent hosting, and ours includes it. There is no reason for this one in 2026.

4. No price anywhere

The question every visitor has, left unanswered. "Contact us for a quote" on every service sends people to the competitor with a number on the page. You do not need a full price list. A starting price or a typical range does it, and we explain how in Should I put prices on my website?

5. The phone number and address are hidden

If someone has to hunt through a menu for "Contact" to find out where you are or how to call you, a slice of them give up. The phone number belongs in the header on every page, tappable on a phone. The address, or the suburbs you serve, belongs in the first screen.

6. Stock photos instead of real ones

The smiling woman in a headset. The handshake. The row of identical tradies in clean hi-vis. Customers recognise stock photography instantly, and it tells them you have nothing real to show. A slightly imperfect photo of your actual shop, van or team beats a perfect fake one. The same photos belong on your Google Business Profile.

7. It looks like it was built in 2014

Gradients, drop shadows, a slideshow banner, a three-column "Why choose us" with clip-art icons. A dated design makes people assume the business is dated too, or closed. You do not need a flashy site. You need one that looks like it was made this decade, by someone who cared.

8. Walls of text that do not say what you do

"Welcome to our website. We are committed to providing quality service and customer satisfaction." Three paragraphs in and the reader still does not know what you sell or where. The first sentence on the page should say what you do, who it is for, and where. Everything else comes after.

9. No reviews, no names, no proof

A site that makes claims with nothing to back them. Real reviews with first names, logos of clients you have worked with, a before and after, a number that means something. People trust what other people say about you more than anything you say about yourself. A site with no proof reads as new, whether it is or not.

10. A pop-up before anyone has read a word

Newsletter sign-ups, cookie banners the size of the screen, a chat window that bounces. Each one is a reason to close the tab. If you must have one, let it wait until the person has scrolled, and keep it small.

11. Broken things

A link that goes nowhere. A contact form that does not send. A copyright line that says 2021. A "Coming soon" page that has been coming soon for two years. A Christmas trading-hours notice in April. Each one says nobody is looking after this, and by extension, the business. Click every link and send yourself a form once a month.

12. No obvious next step

The visitor is convinced and cannot find what to do. The button is grey, says "Submit", and sits at the bottom of a long page. Every page should make the next step plain: call, book, get a quote. One button, one colour, visible without scrolling. It is the single cheapest fix on this list.

How to check your own site in five minutes

Open your site on your phone, on mobile data rather than wifi, and pretend you have never seen it.

1. Count how long it takes to appear.
2. Read only the first screen. Can you say what the business does and where?
3. Find the phone number and the price without scrolling or opening a menu.
4. Look at the address bar for "Not Secure".
5. Scroll to the bottom. Check the year, and tap three links.
6. Send yourself a message through the contact form.

Then ask someone who has never seen the site to find your opening hours while you watch. Where they hesitate is where customers leave.

The bottom line

A website loses customers in the first few seconds for reasons the owner never sees: speed, phone layout, security, a missing price, a hidden phone number, stock photos and a dated look. Each has a plain fix, and most of them come free with a site that was built properly in the first place. If you count more than three of the twelve on your own site, it is usually cheaper to rebuild than to patch. That is what our Essentials site is for, and it comes with every one of these already handled.