Visitors rarely tell you why they leave your website, but slow pages, confusing menus and poor mobile design offer some clues.
It’s easy to assume your website is doing its job simply because it’s online and everything appears to be working. You’ve got your services listed, your contact details are there somewhere and perhaps you’ve even had a few enquiries come through recently.
But what about the people who visit your website and leave without getting in touch?
You never really hear about those people. They don’t send you a message explaining that your website was difficult to navigate or that they gave up waiting for a page to load. They just leave, and there’s a reasonable chance they’ll end up contacting one of your competitors instead.
The frustrating thing is that you could be providing an excellent service, but your website might not be giving potential customers the impression you want it to.
We’ve put together ten signs worth looking out for if you’re concerned about your website losing customers. Some are fairly obvious, while others are small usability issues that can easily go unnoticed when you’re familiar with your own site.
1. Your Website Takes Forever to Load
There’s not much more frustrating than clicking on a website and watching a blank screen while you wait for something to happen.
You might give it a few seconds, but if nothing appears, you’re probably going to press the back button and try somewhere else. Your customers aren’t likely to behave any differently.
A slow website can be a real problem, particularly for people browsing on mobile devices where internet connections aren’t always reliable.
Website speed can be affected by all sorts of things, including large images, unsuitable hosting, unnecessary scripts and poorly optimised pages. Sometimes the problem is a combination of several smaller issues rather than one obvious fault.
If you’re not sure how your website performs, Google has a free tool called PageSpeed Insights that can give you a useful starting point. To run a speed test, enter your website address and let the tool analyse the page.
You’ll see information about website performance, including potential issues affecting load time and opportunities to improve site speed. Some reports also include real user metrics, which can give you a better understanding of how people experience your website under everyday conditions.
We wouldn’t recommend becoming obsessed with getting a perfect score. A website that scores slightly lower but works smoothly for real visitors may be perfectly fine.
What matters is that your pages load quickly enough that people aren’t getting frustrated before they’ve even started reading.
2. Your Website Is Difficult to Use on a Phone
If you haven’t looked at your website on your mobile recently, it’s worth doing.
Open it on your phone and try using it as though you’ve never seen it before. Can you read the text comfortably? Are the buttons easy to press? Does everything fit properly on the screen, or are you having to zoom in and move things around?
Poor mobile responsiveness is one of those problems that’s particularly easy to miss if you spend most of your time looking at your website on a computer.
A layout might look fantastic on a large desktop screen but become awkward when squeezed onto a phone. Images might disappear off the side, tiny fonts can make content difficult to read and buttons can end up so close together that you keep pressing the wrong one.
People use all sorts of mobile devices with different screen sizes, so your website needs to adjust properly rather than expecting everyone to browse in exactly the same way.
Good mobile responsiveness isn’t about making everything smaller. It’s about arranging the content so people can actually use it.
If visitors are struggling to find your services or complete an enquiry form because the mobile layout doesn’t work properly, that’s a problem worth fixing.
3. Nobody Can Work Out Where Anything Is
Have you ever visited a website where the menu seems to have been designed to make finding information as difficult as possible?
You click one page, then another, only to realise the information you wanted was buried somewhere completely different.
It’s annoying enough when you’re casually browsing. If you’re trying to find a business to carry out some work, you probably won’t spend long trying to figure it out.
Poor navigation is one of the clearest signs that a website’s usability needs attention.
Sometimes it’s because the menu contains too many options. Other times, the page names are vague, important links are hidden or the overall layout doesn’t follow any obvious structure.
A confusing layout can make even a relatively small website feel unnecessarily complicated.
We think intuitive navigation should be fairly straightforward. If someone wants to know what services you offer, they should be able to find them without guessing. If they need to contact you, that shouldn’t involve clicking through half the website.
There’s nothing wrong with getting creative with web design, but we’d be careful about sacrificing usability just to make something look different.
If your design is making navigation challenging rather than helping people find their way around, it might be time to rethink it.
4. Your Website Looks Like It Hasn’t Been Updated in Ten Years
There’s a difference between a website that’s a few years old and one that genuinely looks outdated.
A well designed website can still look perfectly good after five years, particularly if it’s been maintained and updated along the way. But some websites start to show their age much sooner.
You probably know the sort we’re talking about. Everything is squeezed together, there are too many different colours, the text is difficult to read and the overall design feels like something from the early days of the internet.
An outdated design doesn’t automatically mean a business provides a poor service, but it can affect the impression people form when they first visit.
Imagine you’re looking for a company to carry out an expensive home renovation. You find two businesses offering similar services. One has a clear, modern website with photographs of completed work and useful information. The other looks like an old school Yellow Pages advert that’s been transferred onto a web page.
Which one would you feel more comfortable contacting?
You might still choose the second company if they have a great reputation, but their website isn’t doing them any favours.
We don’t think every website needs to follow the latest design trends, and there’s nothing wrong with keeping things simple. But if your site looks noticeably dated compared with your competitors, it might be worth considering a refresh.
5. There’s Too Much Going On
Sometimes a website can have the opposite problem. Rather than looking old, it tries so hard to appear modern and impressive that it becomes exhausting to use.
Large animations, moving backgrounds, pop ups, flashing banners and endless sections competing for attention can turn what should be a straightforward experience into something quite frustrating.
There’s a temptation to keep adding things to a website because each new feature seems useful on its own. But when you put everything together, the result can be a cluttered layout that makes it difficult to focus on anything.
A cluttered design can also make important information harder to notice.
For example, if someone visits your website looking for a quote, they probably don’t need to see five different promotional messages before they can find your contact details.
We like engaging visuals when they serve a purpose. Good photography, sensible spacing and thoughtful design elements can make a website more enjoyable to use.
But visual appeal shouldn’t come at the expense of clarity.
Sometimes removing unnecessary content or simplifying a page can make a bigger difference than adding another feature.
You don’t need to fill every available space. Giving the content room to breathe often makes a website feel more professional and easier to understand.
6. People Can’t Find the Information They Need
One of the most important jobs of a business website is answering questions.
Someone visiting your site probably wants to know what you do, where you work, whether you can help with their particular problem and how they can contact you.
If that relevant information is missing or difficult to find, you’re giving them a reason to leave.
Think about a local electrician’s website. You’d expect to find information about the services they provide, the areas they cover and how to request a quote.
If the website is full of generic statements about quality and professionalism but never actually explains what electrical work the company carries out, it’s not particularly helpful.
We’ve always thought website content should sound like a real business explaining its services, rather than a collection of marketing phrases.
You don’t need to write an essay on every page, but it’s worth making sure you’ve answered the questions potential customers are likely to have.
And if your services change, remember to update the website. Old information can be just as frustrating as missing information, especially when someone contacts you about something you no longer offer.
A website should make life easier for visitors, not leave them wondering whether they’ve found the right company.
7. It’s Not Obvious How to Contact You
This one really shouldn’t happen, but it does.
Someone finds your website, likes what they see and decides they’d like to make an enquiry. Then they spend the next couple of minutes trying to work out how to get in touch.
Perhaps the phone number is hidden in the footer, the contact page is buried in the menu or the enquiry form asks far too many questions.
Every unnecessary step gives someone another opportunity to give up.
A clear call to action can help, but it doesn’t need to be anything clever. A button saying “Request a Quote” or “Contact Us” is perfectly understandable.
We’d also recommend making contact details available in sensible places throughout the website, particularly on service pages where visitors might decide they’re ready to get in touch.
If you’re using a contact form, keep it simple. Ask for the details you actually need to respond rather than requesting every piece of information about the customer’s project before you’ve even spoken to them.
And make sure the form works.
It’s surprisingly easy for a website form to stop sending messages after a software update or technical problem. If you haven’t tested yours recently, send yourself an enquiry and check that it arrives.
There’s not much point putting effort into attracting visitors if they can’t actually contact your business.
8. Your Website Doesn’t Give People Much Confidence
Imagine you’re looking for someone to replace your roof. It’s a significant expense, and you’ll probably want some reassurance that the company knows what it’s doing.
You visit a website and find a few vague paragraphs, no photographs of completed work, no customer reviews and very little information about the people behind the business.
You might wonder whether the company is established, whether they’re experienced and whether they’re still actively trading.
A website doesn’t need to be packed with testimonials to build trust, but it should give people some reason to feel comfortable contacting you.
For a tradesperson, photographs of previous projects can be particularly useful. If you’re offering professional services, explaining your experience and approach can help visitors understand what to expect.
Real customer reviews can also make a difference, especially when they mention something specific about the service provided.
There’s a technical side to trust as well. Your website should use HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate so information travelling between the visitor’s browser and your website is encrypted.
Modern browsers can warn users when a connection isn’t secure, and that’s hardly the first impression you want to make.
None of these things guarantees someone will choose your business, but together they help create a more professional and reassuring experience.
9. You Haven’t Looked at How Visitors Actually Use Your Website
One problem with owning a website is that you already know how everything works.
You know where the services are listed, where the contact button is and which page contains the information customers need. That’s useful when you’re managing the site, but it can make it difficult to spot usability issues.
Someone visiting for the first time doesn’t have that knowledge.
This is why it’s worth occasionally asking another person to use your website without giving them instructions.
Ask them to find a particular service, locate your phone number or complete an enquiry form. See whether they can do it easily or whether they get stuck somewhere unexpected.
You might discover that something you thought was obvious isn’t obvious at all.
Analytics and performance monitoring tools can also help you understand visitor behaviour. You can look at which web pages attract the most visitors, how people move through the site and whether important pages are generating enquiries.
You might notice a high bounce rate on a particular page, although that doesn’t automatically mean there’s a problem. Someone could visit, find the information they need and leave perfectly satisfied.
The useful question is whether your website is helping visitors do what they came to do.
If people are regularly struggling with the same part of the site, that’s a much better reason to make changes than simply redesigning something because you’ve grown bored of looking at it.
10. Your Website Is Getting Visitors but Hardly Any Enquiries
This is probably the clearest warning sign of all.
If people are finding your website but very few are contacting you, something might not be working as well as it should.
That doesn’t necessarily mean your website has bad design. You might be attracting the wrong visitors, targeting searches that aren’t relevant to your services or operating in an industry where people take longer to make decisions.
But it’s worth investigating.
For example, a builder could have a website that attracts plenty of visitors through articles about home improvement, but very few of those people might live in the areas the company serves.
Alternatively, the right people could be visiting the site but leaving because the service pages don’t provide enough information or there’s no obvious way to request a quote.
This is where website performance becomes about more than speed and technical details. You want to understand whether the site is actually helping your business.
Look at which pages attract visitors and whether those pages encourage people to take the next step.
If a service page gets regular traffic but never produces an enquiry, read through it from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about your company.
Does it explain what you offer? Does it answer likely questions? Are there examples of your work? Is there a clear way to get in touch?
Sometimes a few thoughtful changes can make a noticeable difference without requiring an entirely new website.
How Many of These Problems Does Your Website Have?
Most websites have something that could be improved. Even a well designed site can develop problems over time as new content is added, software changes and the business grows.
The important thing is recognising when those problems start affecting the people using it.
You don’t necessarily need a complete redesign because your website is a little slow or a particular page looks dated. Sometimes optimising images, improving navigation or rewriting confusing content is enough.
But if you’ve noticed several of the red flags we’ve mentioned, it might be worth taking a closer look at the overall design.
Poor usability, slow loading times, confusing navigation and an outdated appearance can all affect how visitors experience your business online. And if those problems make people leave before contacting you, your website could be costing you customers without you realising it.
We think the best way to approach improvements is to start with the visitor. Try to understand what they’re looking for, what might frustrate them and what would make the website easier to use.
Better design isn’t necessarily about adding more features or making everything look fashionable. It’s about removing unnecessary obstacles and making sure the website does what it’s supposed to do.
Is Your Website Letting Your Business Down?
At Website Designer Reading, we build and redesign WordPress websites for small businesses in Reading and the surrounding areas.
We know that a website needs to do more than look attractive. It should load properly, work on mobile devices, make your services easy to understand and give potential customers a straightforward way to get in touch.
If your existing website is looking tired, difficult to use or simply isn’t generating the enquiries you’d hoped for, we’d be happy to discuss what could be improved.
Sometimes a few changes are all that’s needed. Other times, starting again with a clearer design makes more sense.
Get in touch and tell us a little about your website. We can talk through what’s working, what isn’t and what might be worth changing.