9 Ways Your Website Is Killing Your Business

People go online to look for local businesses. In 2021, Visual Objects surveyed 500 consumers. They found that 76% of people search for a company online before visiting in person.

Without a website, you could lose thousands of dollars in potential sales. That said, a bad website can also harm your business by:

• losing leads and customers,
• damaging your reputation, and
• hiding you in search results.

A lot can go wrong with a website. Large organizations dedicate specialized experts to support their web operations for a reason. As a small business owner, you're likely managing it alone. Some may have delegated this task to someone "good with computers." Few have an expert on staff.

How do you make a good website when you're doing it yourself?

It can depend on your audience and needs. It's easier to start by identifying what makes a bad website.

I view websites as a three-legged stool; the whole thing will collapse if any one of its legs is weak or missing. Your website's legs consist of its technical infrastructure, content, and design.

I've identified three major problems for each leg. I'll expand on each in future blog posts, but for now, the nine pitfalls every website should avoid include:

1. Long load time
2. Bad mobile experience
3. Security problems
4. Broken links
5. Low-quality content
6. No search engine optimization
7. Poor structure
8. Outdated and amateurish design
9. Low-quality images

Let's explore what each issue is, why it hurts your business, and how I avoid it. I'll start with the technical foundation.

Technical problems: How your website runs

Long load time

Every second your website takes to load, you lose more visitors. According to KissMetrics, 40% of people will abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

That's a significant loss of potential sales. But it gets worse.

An article in Forbes cites that 88% of online users won't return to a site after a bad experience. In other words, your slow website may have also cost you repeated future sales. But that's not all.

Google uses site speed as a ranking factor. Ranking is complex, but if everything else is equal, a fast website will rank higher than a slow one.

Site abandonment, also known as bounce rate, isn't a direct ranking factor. That said, it suggests your website has problems and isn't worth visiting. A poor user experience further lowers your rank.

The bottom line: ensure your website loads as quickly as possible. Tools like PageSpeed Insights can test your website and identify areas for improvement.

This is such an important topic that I have dedicated an entire post to it. I explain why slow websites drive away customers and damage brands. It's a deeper analysis of why speed matters, what makes websites slow, and how to avoid or fix common issues.

I do everything I can to optimize my websites as much as possible. Before adding scripts, my website got perfect scores in PageSpeed Insights. I aim to do the same for all my clients. Third-party scripts (e.g., Google Analytics) may lower the performance score, but they can be worth it.

Looks bad on mobile

Most visitors to your website are likely using their phone. According to StatCounter, in March 2025, 62.21% of people used a mobile device to access the Internet. When focusing on the United States, the split is closer to 50/50 between mobile and desktop.

Regardless of the stats, your website must function and look good on people's phones. Google cares about the mobile user experience; if you want your website to rank well, you should too. To do this, ensure it's responsive and designed with many breakpoints.

Optimizing your website for smartphones:

• engages users,
• pleases Google, and
• attracts customers.

It takes more work than shrinking your website to fit on a phone screen. I cover this in depth in "Mobile-First Matters: Optimize Your Website to Rank Higher and Sell More."

You can check your website's responsiveness by opening it on your computer. Ensure you aren't in full-screen mode, and then drag the corner of the window to adjust the screen size. The layout and content should shift around in response to the changing window. If the design doesn't shift or looks bad at specific sizes, you have a serious problem.

Just as people leave slow websites, they'll bounce if it looks bad or is unusable on their phone. Your website should look good at all sizes, but it's a good idea to pay the most attention to mobile.

I check every design at various screen sizes throughout the development process. If anything appears off, I'll continue adjusting until I'm satisfied with the appearance. Then I'll test at different sizes again to be confident I didn't break one of the other sizes.

Security problems

Security isn't optional. Every website needs to implement basic security measures. Collecting personally identifiable information and payment info makes this even more critical.

All websites must use the HTTPS protocol and install SSL/TLS certificates. Both measures encrypt data, protecting its integrity and people's privacy. In most cases, you'll set both up through your web host.

Additionally, if you use a platform like WordPress, you need to stay up to date with updates. If you don't, you're inviting hackers to attack your website.

Failure to secure your website can damage its reputation and credibility. It'll rank lower in search, and users may receive a warning message when navigating to it. Very few people will proceed after seeing such a message.

Every website I host uses the HTTPS protocol and SSL/TLS certificates. Security updates are a non-issue for my websites---they are 100% static and not on a platform like WordPress. While it is possible to attack a static website, it's immune to things like SQL injections. This makes it less vulnerable than its dynamic counterparts.

Content problems: What your website says

Broken links

Have you ever clicked on a link only to receive a "404: Page Not Found" error message? It's annoying. If you get too many on the same website, you might get frustrated by the poor user experience and leave.

There's no excuse to have a link to one of your pages 404ing. It looks bad, blocks crawlers, and indicates that you haven't updated your website. Broken links to other websites are more forgivable, but they are still undesirable.

You need to check your website for broken links. If your website is small, you can do this by clicking every link. If you don't want to spend time doing a manual check, consider using a free or paid tool to automate the process. Google Search Console is a good free option.

I use Google Search Console for Neva Masquerade. It helps me understand how Google sees my website. I can also use it to identify potential problems beyond broken links. Its many reports can provide valuable information.

Low-quality content

A beautiful website can only carry you so far. You can design and code your website to perfection, but if the content is weak, it won't be worth much.

Poor content can take a few different forms:

• Spelling and grammar errors that challenge your professionalism and attention to detail.
• Lack of structure or organization that confuses readers and obscures your offer.
• AI-generated content that is bland, generic, and devoid of authenticity.

When you write, you must also consider why you're writing and for whom it's intended. Your writing should also serve a purpose. You're wasting your time if it doesn't help your customer or further a business goal.

Your website's content should also work for you---think of it as a salesperson who never eats, sleeps, or gets sick. Build sales funnels into your web content to attract leads and customers. I explore this topic in "Sell While You Sleep: Create a Website That Converts."

Develop a content strategy to give your writing purpose. You should also set a schedule to audit all your pages to keep them current and relevant. Rewriting old content is a great way to give it new life and boost your website's search results.

I do all this on my website. I use Grammarly to catch errors and the free Hemingway Editor to keep my writing simple and easy to read. I don't use AI to generate my content, but I do use it as an assistant for ideas, research, and editing.

Ignoring SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO, improves your website's position in search engines. You need SEO to rank in search results; you want to rank on the first page in one of the top three spots.

Most of the other issues on this list will negatively impact your SEO. Some other things to watch out for include:

• duplicate content (more than one page with the same content),
• keyword stuffing (awkward text that repeats words excessively, it can also look spammy),
• ignoring user intent (your content does not match what people expect to find),
• poor title tags and meta descriptions (the text search engines and social media show for your website),
• incorrect header tags (creating an outline structure and organization to your text),
• neglecting internal links (links to your website from your website) and backlinks (links to your website from other websites),
• and so much more.

SEO can be a full-time job. It's a lot of work, but ignoring it isn't an option. You can funnel traffic to your website with paid ads, but your traffic will dry up if you stop running them. SEO is how you generate organic traffic without burning through money.

I optimize every website I work on for on-page SEO. Every developer should do on-page SEO by default. I'd consider that a red flag if they charge extra for it. For keyword research and other SEO tasks, I use Semrush, but Ahrefs is another popular option.

Design problems: How your website looks

Bad structure

People can't buy from you if they can't find what they're looking for. Your content can be hard to find if it has:

• shallow navigation (your organization is too broad and offers too many choices early on),
• orphaned pages (a page that isn't connected to other pages via navigation or links), and
• illogical links (unconventional labels or vague link text).

Your navigation labels should be clear, intuitive, and match your customers' mental models. Users should be able to navigate to every page on your website without needing to know its exact URL. Your link paths should follow a consistent pattern and identify the page's content.

Give some thought to the organization of your website. If possible, ask your customers where they would look to find x---their responses may surprise you.

Shallow navigation isn't a concern for a basic 5-page website. When I work on a website with 15, 20, or more pages, I'm mindful of creating a clear organization and related content. I also always follow best practices for URLs and add breadcrumb trails (the path from the homepage to the current page) to all page headers.

Outdated or amateurish design

The aesthetic-usability effect posits that people are more forgiving of visually appealing designs. That doesn't mean you should focus on form over function---you need both. But it does stress the importance of good design.

People are more willing to ignore minor inconveniences if they like the design. If they think it's ugly, every minor annoyance will bother them, and they'll think it's garbage. They'll think this even if the ugly version works better than the pretty one!

Don't lose customers to your competition because their website looks better than yours.

I'm mindful of design principles and best practices. For each project, I use a:

• defined color palette,
• typography rules, and
• consistent spacing.

These practices, along with other design rules and consistency, create a professional look.

Every aspect of a design should be a conscious and intentional choice. That's why I like to get to know my clients; it allows me to make informed choices that suit them, rather than my tastes.

Image problems

Images convey information faster than words. Poor-quality photos can send the wrong message.

When selecting images, consider how you'll use them. Favor information-carrying images over decorative ones. Your pictures should be more than eye candy; they should add value.

Always start with quality, high-resolution images to maintain a professional appearance. You should also keep a consistent editing style to achieve a uniform look. For example, if you favor dark and moody photos, throwing in a lone light and airy one will look jarring and out of place.

Always resize images for your website. Avoid using a large, print-quality image as a small thumbnail. Use a photo editing tool to resize the image and save it in a web-optimized format.

Always add alt text to your images. Alt text helps people with impaired vision understand the purpose of the image on the page. It also benefits sighted people if the image doesn't load. Avoid using alt text to include unrelated keywords.

Neva Masquerade is a cat-themed brand, so my imagery features cats. I add more consistency to them by applying a sepia-toned overlay to every image. This creates a recognizable, branded look. For my branding clients, I will also develop a set of guidelines for their brand's imagery.

I always crop and resize images for my websites to optimize them for mobile and larger screens. Then, I export them as .webp to keep the page as light and fast as possible. When I write alt text, I consider the photo's purpose and include that in the description. For example, my cat images often convey concepts or emotions, so I incorporate that into the alt text.

Avoid these pitfalls to transform your website

Websites aren't easy. They are so much more than throwing text and multimedia on a page, and calling it a day. To recap, the 9 pitfalls include:

1. Long load times: People don't wait long for a website to load. If yours takes more than 3 seconds, it'll leak leads as people abandon it before it loads.
2. Bad mobile experience: People don't stay on a website they can't use. If your mobile website is bad, more than half of your visitors may choose to go to your competition instead.
3. Security problems: People don't trust insecure websites, particularly if they collect personal information. Failing to update your website leaves you vulnerable to hackers.
4. Broken links: People don't like getting a 404 error. The errors also make your website look like you don't update it.
5. Low-quality content: People aren't convinced by weak content. If your website doesn't move visitors further down your marketing funnel, it's failed.
6. Ignoring SEO: People can't discover your website if it doesn't show up in search results. Without SEO, you'll have to pay for ads to attract visitors.
7. Bad Structure: People can't buy from you if they can't figure out your website. If your website is hard to use, they'll go elsewhere.
8. Outdated or amateurish design: People aren't trusting or forgiving of bad design. If your website doesn't look professional, they may question your legitimacy.
9. Image problems: People aren't limited to words; images can also carry meaning. Unoptimized images can harm your site's aesthetic and performance.

It's not easy to balance the technical, content, and design aspects of your website. A weakness in any one area can create ripples that further erode the quality of your website.

I plan to write in-depth analyses of each pitfall. I've already covered speed and performance, mobile-first, and conversions.

Whether you hire someone to manage your website or do it yourself, be aware of these nine pitfalls. If you can avoid them, your website will transform into a 24/7 employee that:

• attracts leads,
• converts visitors, and
• drives growth in profits.

If you feel overwhelmed, you aren't alone. We can work together to design, develop, and maintain your website. I promise to pay special attention to avoid these pitfalls. If you'd like to learn more about how this can work, book a commitment-free consultation call. There is no charge, and we won't proceed unless you're enthusiastic and ready to move forward.