Most small business owners think about their website the same way they think about their van: it either works or it doesn’t.
But a website that “works” — loads, shows your contact details, doesn’t throw errors — can still be actively costing you business. The problem is you usually can’t see it happening.
Here are six honest indicators. If two or more apply, it’s worth a proper look.
1. It’s slow
Pull out your phone and load your website. Not on WiFi — on 4G. Time how long it takes before you can actually read anything.
If it’s more than three seconds, a meaningful percentage of visitors are leaving before they see a word you’ve written. Google’s research puts mobile bounce rates at 32% higher for pages that take three seconds versus one second. At five seconds, it’s 90% higher.
Speed matters for another reason: Google uses it as a ranking signal. A slow site ranks lower in search results than a fast site with comparable content, all else being equal.
Get an objective score at PageSpeed Insights — just enter your URL. Under 50 on mobile is a problem. Under 70 is worth addressing.
2. It doesn’t work properly on mobile
More than half of web traffic in New Zealand comes from mobile devices. If the site was designed for desktop — small text, buttons that are hard to tap, content that overflows the screen — those visitors are having a bad experience.
“Bad experience” in practice means: they leave quickly, they don’t call, they don’t fill in the contact form. They find someone else whose site works on their phone.
Load the site on your phone right now. Can you read it easily? Can you tap the navigation? Does it feel designed for mobile, or like a desktop site squashed down?
3. It hasn’t been updated in more than two years
This isn’t just about looking fresh — though that matters too.
If the site still shows services you no longer offer, staff who’ve left, pricing that’s out of date, or an old logo, it’s creating problems. Potential clients are making decisions based on wrong information. Or worse, they’re noticing the discrepancy and wondering what else is out of date.
There’s also a subtler version: the site still technically reflects what the business does, but not how it does it or who it does it for today. Businesses evolve. A site from 2021 might not represent a business that’s had four years of refinement.
4. It doesn’t match what the business actually does
This is the most common one.
A business starts, builds a site, then grows and changes direction. The site says “we do X, Y, and Z” but the business has quietly moved upmarket, dropped the low-margin work, and is now focused on a specific type of client that the site doesn’t speak to at all.
If you’d describe your business differently in conversation than your site does in writing, that’s a gap worth closing.
5. It’s generating almost no enquiries
If the site gets traffic but produces few or no enquiries, something is broken in the conversion path. Maybe the contact page is buried. Maybe the call to action is vague. Maybe the copy doesn’t address the questions the ideal client is actually asking. Maybe the trust signals aren’t there.
Traffic without conversion is the most expensive kind of website problem — you’ve already paid to get people there, and they’re leaving without taking any action.
6. You’re embarrassed to share the URL
This is the most honest indicator of all.
If someone asks for your website and you find yourself adding “it’s a bit out of date” or “I really need to update it” before you send the link — you already know. You’re managing expectations because you don’t trust the site to represent you well.
A website should be something you send without apology. It should do the work of building credibility before the conversation even starts. If it isn’t doing that, it’s not neutral — it’s actively working against you.
What to do about it
Not every problem requires a full rebuild. Sometimes the issue is specific — a slow hosting provider, a mobile layout that needs fixing, a homepage that needs a rewrite. Sometimes it does warrant starting fresh.
Send your URL via the contact page and I’ll give you a straight read — load times, mobile experience, copy, conversion path — before we talk about anything else.