A website doesn't have to be down to be costing you customers. Most of the damage is quiet: a visitor who leaves without you ever knowing they were there. Here are nine signs worth checking for, roughly in order of how much they cost.
1. It's slow on a phone
In a 2018 analysis of mobile pages, Google found that as load time went from one second to ten seconds, the probability of a mobile visitor bouncing increased by 123%, and that for 70% of the mobile pages analyzed, it took more than five seconds for visible content to appear above the fold. That data is a few years old now, but the underlying pattern, that people leave slow pages fast, hasn't reversed. Test your own site's real-world speed with Google's free PageSpeed Insights, on mobile specifically.
2. The phone number isn't a real link
If tapping your phone number on a phone doesn't open the dialer, every visitor who wanted to call instead of reading has to stop, copy the number, and switch apps. Many won't. See click-to-call: why your phone number belongs in the header for the one-line fix.
3. No reviews are visible
BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults found that 47% won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 31% will only use a business rated 4.5 stars or higher. If your site doesn't show your rating and review count, you're asking visitors to go find that proof somewhere else, and some won't bother. See how many reviews do customers need before they trust you?
4. Your hours or contact info don't match your Google listing
A phone number that's different from your Google Business Profile, or hours that disagree between the two, isn't just confusing to a visitor. Research into how AI assistants evaluate local businesses points to exactly this kind of mismatch as a reason systems lose confidence in a listing and recommend someone else instead.
5. It has no schema markup
Without structured data, search engines and AI assistants have to guess at basic facts about your business instead of reading them directly. See what is schema markup and LocalBusiness schema for contractors for what a correctly marked-up page looks like.
6. The copyright year, or the content, is visibly stale
A footer that still says an old year, or a "recent projects" section with nothing from the last year, reads as a business that isn't paying attention, whether or not that's true.
7. Every service is crammed onto one page
A single "Services" page listing ten things in a sentence each can't answer the specific questions a customer has about any one of them. See what pages does a contractor website need and how to write a services page that ranks.
8. The contact form doesn't actually work
Test it yourself, right now, the way a customer would. A broken form is one of the most common and most invisible failures, because nobody on your end ever sees the submissions that silently fail.
9. It looks like every competitor's site
If your site is a barely modified version of the same template three other businesses in your trade are also using, it's not doing the one thing a website can uniquely do: prove you're a real, specific business and not a placeholder. See why we ask for your own photos and website builder vs custom website.
How to actually check these
Most of this list doesn't require a developer. Load your site on your own phone, on a real cell connection instead of office wifi, and go through it like a stressed customer would: try to call, try to submit the form, look for reviews, check the hours against your Google listing. An hour of this catches most of what's on this list.
Questions
Which of these matters most?
Speed and the phone number tend to cost the most, because they lose visitors before anything else on the page gets a chance to work.
Can I fix these myself, or do I need a developer?
Several (checking the form, updating the copyright year, adding reviews, fixing hours to match your Google listing) don't need a developer. Schema and click-to-call links are small code changes that a developer can usually make quickly once identified.
How often should I re-check this list?
Once when you first go through it, then again any time you change providers, redesign, or notice a slowdown in calls with no obvious cause.