Here’s a question I ask every owner who tells me their website is “doing fine”: how many calls, forms or orders did it bring in last month?
Usually there’s a pause. The site gets visitors. It looks good. But nobody can say what it actually produces.
That gap between visits and customers is where the money goes. And it almost never comes down to one big problem. It’s a handful of small ones, stacked on top of each other. I call them leaks.
Here are the six I see most often on small-business websites, and how to check each one yourself.
1. Visitors can’t tell what you do in five seconds
A stranger lands on your homepage from Google. If the first thing they read is “Quality you can trust” or “Welcome to our website,” they still don’t know if you do what they need, or if you serve their area.
Check it: Show your homepage to someone who doesn’t know your business for five seconds. Then ask them what you do, who it’s for and where you are. If they can’t answer all three, your headline needs work.
2. Your phone number makes people work
On a phone, nobody wants to scroll to the footer, copy a number and switch apps. If calling you takes more than one tap, some people won’t bother. They’ll tap the next business in the search results instead.
Check it: Open your site on your own phone. Is there a tap-to-call number or button at the top of every page? Does tapping it actually dial?
3. The site is slow on phones
Your site might feel fast on your office computer. Your customers are often on a phone, on cellular data, standing in a parking lot. Every extra second of loading is a chance for them to hit the back button.
Check it: Run your homepage through Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool and look at the mobile score. Big, uncompressed photos are the most common culprit, and they’re usually an easy fix.
4. Your best proof is hidden
You have happy customers. Maybe you have dozens of 5-star Google reviews, a guarantee or years of experience. But if all of that lives on a separate “Testimonials” page nobody clicks, it isn’t helping you sell.
Check it: Look at your homepage and your main service page. Can a visitor see real reviews, your star rating or a guarantee without hunting for it?
5. There’s no clear next step
Every page should answer one question for the visitor: what do I do now? Call? Book? Get a quote? Buy? When a page ends with nothing, or with five different options, people tend to do nothing.
Check it: Scroll to the bottom of each important page. Is there one obvious button that tells people what to do next? And if you have a contact form, is it short? Ask only for what you need to follow up.
6. Google’s AI and ChatGPT recommend someone else
More people now ask ChatGPT or Google’s AI answers for a recommendation instead of scrolling through search results. Those tools pull from your website, your Google Business Profile and your reviews. If your information is thin, out of date or doesn’t match from place to place, you’re less likely to be the one they name.
Check it: Ask ChatGPT for the best business like yours in your town. Are you in the answer? Then make sure your name, address, phone and hours match on your website and your Google Business Profile.
Find your leaks before you spend money on a redesign
Most of these fixes don’t need a new website. They need someone to look at your site the way a customer does and point out where people are dropping off.
That’s exactly what our free Website Leak Check does. You enter your website and email, and within one business day you get a one-page report with 10 checks and your top 3 leaks, ranked, in plain English. A real person reviews every report before it goes out.
If you want to know what each leak is costing you in dollars, the $99 Leak Report goes deeper, with 27 checks, a dollar figure for every leak and a 30-day fix plan.