InsightsWebsites · 1 min read
Ranked by what they cost, not by how they look. Four of the five you can check yourself in under ten minutes.
A dated design is a matter of taste. These five are not. Each one loses you customers who never tell you they tried.
1. A contact form that does not deliver
The visitor fills it in, presses send, sees a thank-you message and waits for a reply that never comes. You never knew they existed. Check it: send yourself a message through your own form from a phone on mobile data, and see whether it arrives.
2. No HTTPS
Browsers warn visitors that the site is not secure before they see a single word of it. Check it: look for the padlock, or a “Not secure” label, next to your address in the browser.
3. Not built for a phone
Most people who look you up will do it on a phone. If they have to pinch and zoom to read your opening hours, many will not bother. Check it: open your site on your own phone and try to call you from it.
4. Invisible to Google
A missing page title or description, or a site that has fallen out of Google entirely, means people searching your name find someone else. Check it: search for your business name and see what comes up, and what it says.
5. A domain about to expire
When the domain lapses, the website and often the email disappear overnight. This is the one you cannot see from the outside. Check it: ask whoever registered it for the renewal date, and whose name it is in.
One more: speed
You have loaded your own site a hundred times, so your browser has it saved. A first-time customer has not. Open it on a phone, on mobile data, and wait. The usual cause is photographs uploaded straight from a camera at full size.