We review a lot of small business websites. Many of them look decent enough at first glance — clean layout, a logo, maybe a slider. But the moment we try to find a phone number, check pricing, or figure out where the business is actually located, things fall apart. Visitors who hit a wall don't wait around. They close the tab and move on to whoever ranks next. These mistakes are common, fixable, and often invisible to the owner — which is exactly why they stick around for years.
Your contact information is too hard to find
A phone number buried in the footer. An email address written out in plain text to dodge spam bots. A contact form that hasn't worked since the last plugin update. Each of these creates friction — and friction kills conversions. Someone ready to pick up the phone doesn't want to hunt for your number.
Put your phone number and email in the header. Make the number tap-to-call on mobile. Add a Contact link to your main navigation — not just the footer. The easier you make it to reach you, the more people actually will.
No pricing information anywhere
Plenty of business owners avoid publishing prices — services vary, they don't want competitors to see, they're worried about committing. That's understandable. But a visitor who sees no pricing often assumes the worst and leaves rather than asking.
You don't need a fixed price list. Even writing 'Projects start from £500' or 'Pricing depends on scope — request a quote' does the job. It signals transparency and opens a conversation instead of closing the door.
The site loads too slowly
Google has published the data: if a page takes more than three seconds to load on mobile, over half your visitors are already gone. The usual culprits are oversized images, cheap shared hosting, and too many plugins running in the background.
Run your site through Google's PageSpeed Insights right now — it's free and takes thirty seconds. A mobile score below 50 is a serious problem. Compressing images and upgrading hosting are usually the two changes that move the needle most, and neither has to be expensive.
- Compress every image before uploading (try Squoosh.app — free and browser-based)
- Choose hosting with servers close to where your customers actually are
- Audit your plugins and deactivate anything you don't actively need
Outdated content that makes you look closed
Business hours from three years ago. A news section that stopped in 2021. Services you no longer offer still listed as if they're available. Each of these signals to a visitor that nobody is paying attention — and raises an obvious question: is this business even still open?
Set a reminder once a year to walk through every page of your site. Update contact details, remove discontinued services, and refresh your About page. If you have a blog with three posts from four years ago, seriously consider removing the blog section entirely. An empty archive hurts more than having no blog at all.
The mobile experience is broken
More than 60 percent of web searches now happen on smartphones. If your site squishes everything into a tiny desktop layout — small text, overlapping buttons, images that won't fit the screen — you're losing potential customers every single day.
Pull out your phone and open your own website right now. Can you read the text without pinching to zoom? Can you tap the contact button without hitting something else by mistake? If the answer to either question isn't a clear yes, making the site properly responsive should be your top priority.
Stock photos that nobody believes
The grinning team that's never met. The spotless workshop that belongs to no one. The classic handshake photo on the homepage. Visitors recognise stock imagery immediately, and it erodes trust rather than building it — because it signals that you're hiding rather than showing who you actually are.
A handful of real photos of your space, your products, or your team will outperform a library of polished stock images every time. A modern smartphone and decent natural light are enough to get started. Authenticity builds trust far more effectively than perfection does.