Your website might be working against you without you knowing it. Nobody emails to say "your prices are wrong" or "your form is broken." They just leave and call someone else.
Here are seven signs we look for when we review a small business site, roughly in order of how much business they tend to cost.
1. Your information is out of date
Old hours, an old phone number, prices from two years ago, a service you no longer offer, or a team member who left last spring. Outdated details are the most common problem we see and the easiest to fix.
Why it matters: customers who act on wrong information get frustrated before they ever talk to you. And when your website disagrees with your Google Business Profile, people don't know which to trust.
What to do: read every page as if you were a new customer. Make a list of everything that's wrong and fix it in one sitting, then set a monthly reminder to check again.
2. Your forms or contact links don't work
A contact form that stopped sending, a booking link that goes to an expired page, a phone number that isn't tappable on mobile.
Why it matters: this is lost business you'll never see. The visitor wanted to contact you and couldn't.
What to do: test every form, button and link that leads to contact today. Then test them again after every site update.
3. It's slow or awkward on phones
Most people will first see your site on a phone. If text is tiny, buttons are hard to tap, or pages take a long time to load, many visitors give up.
Why it matters: mobile experience affects both visitor patience and how search engines evaluate your site.
What to do: open your site on your phone using cellular data, not Wi-Fi. Try a free page speed tool to spot heavy images and slow scripts. Compressing large images is often the quickest win.
4. It looks dated
Design trends change, but "dated" usually means specific things: cramped layouts, tiny fonts, stock photos that feel generic, or a design that doesn't match your current brand.
Why it matters: visitors make fast judgments. A dated site can signal that the business itself is behind the times, even when it isn't.
What to do: start with real photos of your work, team and place of business. Fresh, genuine photos often modernize a site more than a new color scheme.
5. Nothing new has been added in a year or more
No new projects, no new photos, no blog posts, no news. The site is technically accurate but frozen in time.
Why it matters: fresh content gives returning visitors a reason to look around and gives search engines signs of an active business.
What to do: commit to one small addition a month: a recent project, an updated FAQ, a short article answering a common customer question.
6. You get security warnings or have no backups
Browser warnings about your site's security, emails from your host about suspicious activity, or simply not knowing whether backups exist.
Why it matters: a hacked or lost site can take days to restore, and warnings scare visitors away immediately.
What to do: confirm your site uses HTTPS, update all software, and make sure regular backups are stored off the server. If you're not sure how, this is a good time to get help.
7. Updating it is so painful you avoid it
If you dread logging in, can't remember how, or depend on someone who's hard to reach, your site will fall behind no matter how good it was at launch.
Why it matters: this is the root cause behind most of the other signs on this list.
What to do: either simplify your setup so updates are easy, or hand them off to someone whose job it is.
A quick self-check
Set a timer for ten minutes and visit your site on your phone. Try to find your hours, your main services and a way to contact you. Submit your own contact form. If anything was hard to find, wrong or broken, you've found your first update.
Update, refresh or rebuild?
Not every sign means you need a new website. In our experience:
- Signs 1, 2, 5 and 6 usually call for maintenance and small edits, not a rebuild.
- Sign 3 can often be improved with image and code cleanup, though very old sites may need a rebuild.
- Signs 4 and 7 are the most common reasons to consider a refresh or new build.
How we can help
Fixing these issues and keeping them fixed is what KeptWeb does. Our plans include monitoring, updates, backups and security checks, plus small edits every month: one on Basic ($49/mo), up to four on Growth ($99/mo) and up to 10 small edits per month on Pro ($149/mo). They're month-to-month, and you can cancel anytime online or by email. $0 and discounted builds need a 12-month plan. Learn more about small edits and website security.
If a rebuild makes more sense, our website building packages start at $349, or $0 with any 12-month plan.
Not sure which signs apply to you? Ask for our free website review and we'll go through this list for your site. Or see our plans. If you run a trade business, see our pages for plumbers and electricians.