10 Sneaky Website Problems That Could Be Costing You Customers

A smart business owner knows to keep a lookout for sneaky issues that’ll drag them down—the problems that don’t seem huge on their own, but that compound over time and negatively affect each other to the point of failure. If your work is done entirely online (say, if you’re a digital nomad running a company from your laptop), the very tool you use to find customers could be precisely the problem that’s driving them away. A solid web presence and a trustworthy website that your prospects can refer to will go a long way toward your business’ success. Here are a few issues to look for—ones you can fix from anywhere in the world, letting you travel wherever you want and breathe easy!

Slow Loading Times

Visitors are impatient and will leave your website if it takes longer than a few seconds to load. And this is especially true when your visitors are on slow or spotty networks, like airport wifi.

Slow loading times can result from too-large images, unoptimized code, or too many third-party scripts. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix can identify problem areas and suggest how to fix each one. Here are a few common fixes to slow loading times:

• Compress your images so the file sizes are much smaller
• Use a content delivery network, which stores files in data centers closer to the user accessing them
• Minimize HTTP requests, like combining multiple CSS or JavaScript files
• Use a high-performance server, which can deliver content quickly and scale seamlessly if you have periods of higher traffic

There are many ways you can improve loading times, and once you do, you might just find that you rank better on Google and other search engines, in addition to keeping eyes on your website!

Confusing Layout

Your users will get frustrated and bounce if your website has a confusing design, cluttered navigation menus, or inconsistent formatting. Simplicity and clarity are key:

• Menus should be intuitive
• Content should follow a logical flow
• Design elements should be uniform across your pages

Think about airport signage design: if you travel a lot, you might notice that airports use very consistent signs and symbols that travelers from all over the world can understand and use. Your website should be similarly intuitive. Using heatmap tools, which indicate the areas of your site that users are looking at and interacting with the most (and what they’re staying away from), can help you understand exactly how people use your platform. From there, you can refine its structure by putting navigation elements and important information where users’ eyes are more likely to be drawn.

Broken Links

Fixing broken links is one of the quickest and easiest ways to improve your user experience—and boost your site’s credibility and SEO rankings! Visitors will lose trust in your business if you have links directing them to “404 Page Not Found” errors. This is especially true if you want to position yourself as a thought leader or provide services like consulting or coaching.

Tools like Google Search Console can help you find and fix broken links across your website. Here are a few tips:

• Audit for both internal and external broken links—that is, links to pages on your own site and to pages outside of your site that have changed and need to be fixed
• If you change the URL of a particular page on your site, set a 301 redirect from the old link to the new one
• The same goes if you delete a page from your site; set a redirect to a different page so that users can still find relevant information without encountering an error

No Customer Service Options

If you have a business that generates a lot of questions from customers—like an ecommerce company—being able to give them immediate answers can be a game changer. If your customers can’t find exactly what they need quickly, they’ll get annoyed and leave.

This is where a chat bot for business comes in! You can provide 24/7 support to handle frequently asked questions and route complex inquiries to a human representative. Plus, it can handle simple questions while you’re trekking in Patagonia or enjoying wine in Tuscany.

No Contact Information

A chat bot is only one of many options you can provide for customers to contact you. A dedicated contact page with information about who to get in touch with and for what will help establish trust with your visitors. Add some details about the team behind the business, too—it helps to humanize your company. Try to provide a few different ways for users to get in touch, like through phone, email, or embedded contact form.

Difficult to Upload or Update Content

If you have trouble adding or editing the content on your website, like creating announcements or updating product information, that’s a bad sign. There are tons of user-friendly content management systems (CMS) out there, like WordPress and Squarespace, that make it incredibly easy to upload and edit content as quickly as you would a Word document. This is especially important if you’re on the road frequently and need to make updates from your phone.

If your website is built on an old, outdated system that requires a lot of technical know-how just to edit some text on a page, you can do better! Bringing your site into the 21st century will help improve your own experience and that of your users—if your site is hard to use as the owner, it’s probably onerous for visitors as well.

Doesn’t Work on Phones

Speaking of bringing your website into the modern age…mobile devices account for the majority of web traffic globally, and if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re in trouble. If your visitors need to pinch and zoom, they won’t stay long. And if you depend on Google for traffic, know that they prioritize mobile-first indexing! Make sure that your site has a responsive design that adapts to all screen sizes, including phones, tablets, and desktops—fortunately, a lot of modern website-building tools have mobile-friendly themes and designs available so that you don’t have to play guessing games with your layout.

Unclear Calls to Action

A well-designed website guides users toward specific goals, whether purchasing, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource. Without clear calls to action (CTAs), your visitors may feel aimless and leave without taking meaningful steps. Put your CTAs in prominent and consistent spots that can’t be missed, and make them visually distinct and action-oriented. Use basic, actionable phrases like “Buy Now,” “Sign Up Today,” or “Learn More.” Try A/B testing different calls to action to identify what resonates best with your audience and drives the most activity.

No Secure Domain

A website without a secure domain (indicated by HTTPS in the URL) looks unprofessional and puts users’ data at risk. If you process payments, you’re putting yourself and your customers at risk by not having a secure site. Browsers like Chrome flag non-secure sites, discouraging visitors from proceeding—meaning that even if you have a fantastic product or service, you won’t get it in front of potential customers because they don’t trust you. An SSL certificate—which is simple to install and which you may be able to get completely for free from your web host—encrypts the data transmitted between your website and its users.

A Dated Aesthetic

First impressions matter, and a dated website design can make your business (and you) look unprofessional. Modern design trends emphasize clean layouts, vibrant visuals, and easy readability. If your website looks like a relic from the early 2000s, it’s time to redesign. Hire a professional web designer or look for web design platforms that can help you create a visually appealing and functional site.

Over to you! What are your tips for fellow business owner travelers? Share your thoughts and advice with the Frayed Passport community!

Featured image by Aleh Tsikhanau on Unsplash