10 Signs Your Website Is Hurting Your Business
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If your business has a website but customers aren’t calling, booking, or buying your website might be the reason. Not your product. Not your pricing. Your website.
A bad website is like a shop with a broken door, flickering lights, and no one at the counter. People show up, look around for 3 seconds, and leave. The worst part? You probably don’t even know it’s happening.
This post is going to walk you through 10 clear signs your website is hurting your business and I won’t just point out the problems. I’ll show you exactly how to detect each one, what free tools to use, and how to fix it. Even if you’re not a tech person.
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💡 Quick Tip Before We Start |
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Bookmark this page. You’ll want to come back and run through each check one by one. Share it with your web developer or business partner too — it could save you a lot of money. |
Sign 1: Your Website Is Not Showing Up on Google
This is the big one. If people can’t find your website on Google, it doesn’t matter how beautiful it looks. You might as well not have one.
Here’s a simple way to think about it: Imagine you opened a restaurant but the building has no sign, no address on Google Maps, and the door faces a back alley. That’s what it’s like when your website doesn’t appear in Google search results.
How to Check if Your Website Is on Google
Step 1: Do a simple site search. Open Google and type this exactly:
If Google shows results with your pages listed — great, Google knows you exist. If it says “No results found” or “Your search did not match any documents” — your website is invisible to Google. This is a serious problem.
Step 2: Use Google Search Console (it’s free).
Go to Google Search Console. This tool is made by Google itself and it tells you exactly how your site is performing in search. You can see:
- How many times people see your site in search resultsWhat keywords bring people to your siteWhether Google has any errors crawling your pages
Step 3: Check if your site is indexed.
Inside Google Search Console, click “URL Inspection” and type in your homepage URL. It will tell you if Google has indexed that page or not.
Why This Happens
- Your site is brand new (Google can take weeks to find new sites)Your website settings are blocking search engines (a common developer mistake)You have zero backlinks or other sites pointing to yoursYour site was penalised by Google for bad practices in the past
Quick Fix
Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. A sitemap is basically a list of all your website pages that tells Google, “Here I am, please index me.” You can generate one free using XML-Sitemaps.com.
Sign 2: Your Website Takes Forever to Load
Did you know that 53% of mobile users leave a page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load? That statistic comes from Google’s own research. Three seconds. That’s it.
If your site is slow, visitors leave before they even see what you’re offering. And Google knows this — slow websites rank lower in search results too.
How to Test Your Website Speed
Use these free tools right now:
- Google PageSpeed Insights — Go to web.dev and paste in your URL. It will score your site from 0–100 and tell you exactly what’s slowing it down. Aim for a score of 90+ on mobile.
- GTmetrix — Visit com for a deeper breakdown. It shows you a waterfall chart of what loads slowly.
- Pingdom Speed Test — Go to pingdom.com and select a server location close to your target audience.
Quick Fixes for Slow Websites
Compress your images before uploading (use TinyPNG.com it’s free) Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like CloudflareEnable browser caching (your developer can do this)Upgrade to a better hosting plan if you’re on shared hosting
Sign 3: Your Website Looks Terrible on Mobile
More than 60% of all internet traffic now comes from mobile phones. If your website is hard to navigate on a phone tiny text, buttons that are impossible to click, images that don’t fit the screen you are losing more than half your potential customers.
How to Check Mobile Friendliness
Use Google’s free Mobile-Friendly Test. Paste your URL in and it will instantly tell you if your site passes or fails the mobile test. It even shows you a screenshot of what it looks like on a phone.
Also, simply pick up your phone and visit your own website. Ask yourself:
- Can you read the text without zooming in?Are buttons easy to tap with your thumb?Does the page load in under 3 seconds on mobile data?Does the menu work properly?
If the answer to any of these is no, your site needs a mobile redesign.
Quick Fix
Ask your web developer to make your site “responsive.” A responsive website automatically adjusts its layout based on the screen size. Most modern website builders like WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace offer responsive themes out of the box.
Sign 4: Your Website Has No Clear Call to Action
When someone lands on your website, what do you want them to do? Call you? Book an appointment? Buy something? Fill out a form?
If your answer is clear to you but it’s NOT obvious on your website, you have a serious problem. Visitors won’t guess. They won’t search around for what to do next. They’ll just leave.
A Call to Action (CTA) is simply a button or link that tells the visitor what to do next. Examples:
- “Call Us Now””Get a Free Quote””Book Your Appointment””Shop Now””Download the Free Guide”
How to Check Your CTAs
Open your homepage and ask yourself: “Within 5 seconds, can a new visitor tell what I want them to do?” If no, your CTA is either missing, unclear, or buried.
Use Microsoft Clarity (free) to see heatmaps of where people click on your website. It’s eye-opening — sometimes you’ll discover visitors are clicking on things that aren’t even links.
Quick Fix
Put your main CTA button “above the fold” — meaning visitors should see it without scrolling. Make it big, colourful, and direct. Use action words like “Get Started,” “Book Now,” or “Call Today.”
A bounce rate is the percentage of people who land on your website and leave without clicking on anything or visiting another page. A high bounce rate means people are landing on your site and immediately going, “Nope, this isn’t what I need.”
A bounce rate above 70% on a business website is a warning sign. It means something is wrong whether it’s the design, the content, the load speed, or the fact that the page doesn’t match what people searched for.
How to Check Your Bounce Rate
Install Google Analytics 4 (completely free) on your website. Once set up, you can see:
- Which pages have the highest bounce ratesHow long visitors spend on each pageWhere visitors are coming from (Google, social media, direct)What devices they use
To install Google Analytics, you paste a small code snippet into your website’s header. Most website builders like WordPress have plugins that make this one-click easy (e.g., MonsterInsights).
Quick Fix
Match your page content to what people are searching for. If someone searches “affordable plumber in Lagos” and lands on your homepage talking about 20 years of experience with no prices or location info they’ll bounce. Give them what they came for, immediately.
When did you last update your website? If the answer is “I can’t remember” — that’s a problem. Google loves fresh, relevant content. And visitors trust websites that look current and alive.
Outdated content includes:
- Blog posts from 5 years ago with no new ones sinceTeam pages with staff who no longer work therePrices or services that are no longer accurateA ‘latest news’ section where the latest news is from 2019Copyright notices that say © 2020 in the footer
How to Audit Your Content
Use Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free up to 500 pages). It crawls your website and lists all your pages, like a spider going through a web. You can see:
- Pages with very little content (under 300 words)Duplicate content across pagesBroken linksMissing meta descriptions and title tags
Also use Google Search Console to see which pages are getting zero traffic. Those pages are candidates for updating or removing.
Quick Fix
Start a simple blog. You don’t need to write every day. Even one helpful article per month about topics your customers care about can dramatically improve your rankings over time. Need help finding topics? Try AnswerThePublic.com — type in your industry and it shows you the exact questions people are typing into Google.
Clicking a link and landing on a “404 Page Not Found” error is frustrating. It makes your business look careless. And Google actually penalises websites with lots of broken links it tells them your site is poorly maintained.
Broken links happen when you delete pages, rename them, or move content without updating the links pointing to them.
How to Find Broken Links
Three tools you can use right now:
- Broken Link Checker — Free online tool. Paste your URL, click go, and it scans your entire site.
- Google Search Console — Go to Coverage in the left menu. It shows all 404 errors Google found when crawling your site.
- Screaming Frog — Filter by “Response Codes” and look for 404s.
Quick Fix
For every broken link found, either update the link to the correct page, or set up a 301 redirect this is basically a forwarding address that sends visitors and Google to the right page. Your developer can help set these up in minutes.
Look at your website’s URL in the browser. Does it start with https:// or just http://? That small difference matters a lot.
The “S” in HTTPS stands for Secure. It means the connection between your visitor’s browser and your website is encrypted. Without it, browsers like Chrome will show a “Not Secure” warning right in the address bar. That warning alone causes thousands of visitors to immediately close the tab.
Google has also confirmed that HTTPS is a ranking factor meaning non-secure websites rank lower in search results.
How to Check
Visit SSL Checker and enter your domain. It will tell you if your SSL certificate is valid, who issued it, and when it expires.
Or simply look at your browser’s address bar. A padlock icon means you’re secure. A warning triangle or “Not Secure” means you’re not.
Quick Fix
Contact your web hosting provider and ask them to install a free SSL certificate. Most hosts now offer free SSL through Let’s Encrypt. It usually takes less than 10 minutes to set up. There is no excuse not to have this in 2026.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Think of it as the language you use to talk to Google. If your website pages have no proper title tags, no meta descriptions, no headings, and no keywords Google doesn’t know what your pages are about, and it won’t show them to the right people.
Here are the most important on-page SEO elements every page should have:
- A unique, keyword-rich Title Tag (shown as the blue link in Google search) A Meta Description (the short description under the title in search results)An H1 Heading — the main heading on the pageH2/H3 Subheadings to structure the contentKeywords naturally placed throughout the contentImage alt text (descriptions for your images)
How to Check Your On-Page SEO
Install the free SEOquake browser extension (available for Chrome and Firefox). When you visit any page on your website, it shows you the SEO stats right in your browser title tag, meta description, heading structure, and more.
For a more detailed audit, use Ubersuggest by Neil Patel. The free version gives you an SEO score for your website and lists what needs fixing.
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📌 Example of Good vs Bad Title Tag |
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Bad: Home |
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Good: Affordable Web Design Services in Lagos | YourBrandName |
Quick Fix
If you’re on WordPress, install the free Yoast SEO plugin. It walks you through optimising every page like a checklist. Even a 10-year-old can follow it literally. It shows green, orange, and red lights to tell you what’s good and what needs fixing.
You could have a fast, mobile-friendly, SEO-optimised website and still lose customers if your site doesn’t feel trustworthy. People decide within seconds whether to trust a business based on its website.
These are the trust killers:
- No physical address or phone number visibleNo testimonials or reviewsNo team photos or ‘About Us’ pageNo clear refund or privacy policyStock photos that look fakeSpelling and grammar mistakesNo social media links or activityPrices that are completely hidden
How to Audit Your Trust Signals
Ask a friend or family member who has never seen your website to visit it cold and answer these questions:
- “Would you feel comfortable buying from this site or calling this number?”
- “Can you find a phone number or address within 10 seconds?”
- “Does this look like a legit business?”
Their honest answer is worth more than any tool. Also use Trustpilot or Google Business Profile to collect and display real reviews.
Quick Fix
Add a dedicated Testimonials or Reviews section to your homepage. Show real photos of happy customers if you can. Put your phone number in the header where everyone can see it. And write a real “About Us” page people buy from people, not faceless websites.
Bonus: The Complete Toolkit to Diagnose Your Website Today
Here is a handy reference table of all the free tools mentioned in this article:
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Tool |
What It Does |
Cost |
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Google Search Console |
Track rankings, errors, indexing |
Free |
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Google PageSpeed Insights |
Test website load speed |
Free |
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GTmetrix |
Detailed speed analysis |
Free |
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Google Analytics 4 |
Track visitors and behaviour |
Free |
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Mobile-Friendly Test |
Check mobile usability |
Free |
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Screaming Frog |
Full website audit |
Free (500 pages) |
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Ubersuggest |
SEO audit and keyword research |
Free (limited) |
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Broken Link Checker |
Find 404 errors |
Free |
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SSL Checker |
Verify HTTPS security |
Free |
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Microsoft Clarity |
Heatmaps and session recordings |
Free |
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Yoast SEO (WordPress) |
On-page SEO guidance |
Free |
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AnswerThePublic |
Content ideas from search queries |
Free (limited) |
Step-by-Step: How to Know If Your Website Isn’t Showing on Google
I promised to break this down like you’re 10 years old. Here it is — exactly what to do, right now, in order:
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📋 Your 10-Minute Website Health Check |
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Step 1 — The Site Search Test Open Google. Type: site:yourwebsite.com If you see your pages listed → Google knows you exist ✅ If you see nothing → Go to Step 2 immediately ⚠️ |
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Step 2 — Set Up Google Search Console Go to search.google.com/search-console Click ‘Start now’ and sign in with your Google account Add your website as a property Download the HTML verification file and upload it to your site (your developer can do this in 2 minutes) |
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Step 3 — Submit Your Sitemap In Google Search Console, click ‘Sitemaps’ in the left menu Type in: sitemap.xml Click Submit Google will now know all your pages and start indexing them |
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Step 4 — Wait and Monitor Indexing can take 1–4 weeks for new sites Check back in Search Console to see if your pages are being indexed Look at the ‘Coverage’ report to spot any errors |
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Step 5 — Run a Speed Test Go to pagespeed.web.dev Paste your homepage URL Note your mobile score — if it’s below 50, get your developer to fix it |
Conclusion: Your Website Should Be Working FOR You
Your website is not just a digital brochure. Done right, it’s the hardest-working employee you have available 24/7, never takes a day off, and can reach thousands of potential customers while you sleep.
But done wrong? It’s like paying rent on a shop that nobody walks into.
Here’s what I want you to do after reading this: Pick just ONE sign from this list and go check it right now. Don’t try to fix everything at once. Start with Sign 1 — do the Google site search and go from there.
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