5 Signs Your Small Business Needs a New Website

Your website is often the first impression a potential customer has of your business. If that first impression is “this looks outdated” or “I can’t find what I need,” they’ll leave and find a competitor who made it easier.

Here are five clear signals that your website is costing you money — and what to do about each one.

1. Your Website Isn’t Mobile-Friendly

The reality: Over 60% of web searches now happen on mobile devices. If your site is hard to navigate on a phone — tiny text, horizontal scrolling, buttons too small to tap — you’re turning away the majority of your potential customers.

How to check: Pull up your website on your phone right now. Try to navigate to your contact page and fill out a form. If it’s frustrating, your customers feel the same way.

Google cares too: Since 2019, Google has used mobile-first indexing, meaning they primarily look at the mobile version of your site for ranking. A poor mobile experience directly hurts your search rankings.

The fix: Modern web design is mobile-first by default. Every page should be designed for phones first, then enhanced for larger screens. This isn’t optional anymore — it’s the baseline.

2. Your Site Takes More Than 3 Seconds to Load

The reality: 53% of mobile visitors leave a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. For every additional second, conversion rates drop by approximately 7%.

How to check: Go to Google PageSpeed Insights and enter your URL. If your performance score is below 50, you have a serious problem. Below 80, there’s meaningful room for improvement.

Common culprits:

• Unoptimized images (the #1 cause of slow sites)
• Too many plugins or third-party scripts
• Cheap shared hosting that slows down during peak traffic
• No caching or compression configured
• Old CMS platforms with bloated code

The fix: Sometimes speed issues can be fixed without a full redesign — image compression, caching, and hosting upgrades go a long way. But if your site is built on an outdated platform with years of plugin bloat, a rebuild on modern technology is often faster and cheaper than trying to optimize what’s there.

3. You Can’t Update Content Yourself

The reality: If you have to email your web developer and wait 3 days (and pay $100) every time you want to change a phone number, add a new service, or post an announcement, your website is a liability.

Why this matters:

• Outdated information erodes trust (wrong hours, old pricing, discontinued services)
• You can’t react to opportunities quickly (seasonal promotions, events, news)
• You’re paying ongoing costs for simple changes
• Your blog stays dormant because posting is too hard, which kills your SEO momentum

The fix: A modern website should give you the ability to update text, images, and blog posts without touching code. Whether that’s through a content management system or a simple data-driven architecture, you should be empowered to make routine changes yourself.

4. Your Website Doesn’t Generate Leads

The reality: If your website gets traffic but doesn’t generate inquiries, form submissions, or phone calls, it’s a brochure — not a business tool. A well-designed website should be your #1 salesperson, working 24/7.

Signs your site isn’t converting:

• No clear call-to-action on the homepage
• Contact information buried in the footer
• No social proof (testimonials, case studies, results)
• Generic copy that could describe any business in your industry
• No reason for visitors to take action now

The conversion framework: High-performing websites follow a proven structure: Hero (clear value proposition) → Proof (results, testimonials, trust signals) → Offer (what you’ll get) → CTA (clear next step). If your homepage doesn’t follow this flow, you’re leaving money on the table.

The fix: Sometimes it’s a copy problem, not a design problem. Before rebuilding, consider whether better headlines, clearer CTAs, and social proof could improve conversion rates on your current site. If the underlying design and structure are the limitation, a strategic website redesign focused on conversion can dramatically change results.

5. Your Competitors’ Websites Are Better Than Yours

The reality: Your customers are comparing you to your competitors online. If their websites look more professional, load faster, and make it easier to take the next step, they’ll win the customer — even if your actual service is better.

Do this exercise:

1. Google your main service + your city (e.g., “plumber Brattleboro VT”)
2. Visit the top 3 results that aren’t directories
3. Compare their websites to yours honestly
4. Ask yourself: “If I were a customer choosing between these businesses based only on the websites, who would I pick?”

What to look for:

• Professional design that builds trust
• Fast loading speed
• Clear explanation of services
• Visible testimonials and results
• Easy-to-find contact information
• Active blog or content showing expertise

The fix: You don’t need to outspend your competitors — you need to out-convert them. A focused investment in a website that’s strategically designed to win customers will deliver returns for years.

When to Redesign vs. When to Optimize

Optimize your existing site if:

• The design is decent but content is weak
• You just need speed improvements
• It’s less than 2-3 years old and built on a modern platform
• The main issue is copy, not design

Redesign from scratch if:

• Your site is 4+ years old
• It’s built on an outdated or abandoned platform
• It’s not mobile-responsive
• The underlying code is too bloated to optimize
• You’ve significantly changed your services or target market

What to Do Next

If you recognized your business in two or more of these signs, it’s time to take action. The longer you wait, the more customers you’re losing to competitors whose websites are working harder than yours.

Here’s what we recommend:

1. Audit your current site — Check your PageSpeed score, mobile experience, and conversion rate
2. Review your competitors — Know what you’re up against
3. Define your goals — What should your website accomplish? (Leads? Calls? Bookings?)
4. Talk to a professional — Get a free website audit and we’ll tell you exactly what’s working, what’s not, and what it would take to fix it

Your website should be your best employee — not your biggest liability.