Website performance: 12 warning signs

When is a website in good shape?

Every website has business or marketing goals, and it achieves them through the content and features it offers. Over time, though, it becomes less effective. Technologies and visitor habits change, and a website nobody touches falls behind them.

The following signs suggest that your website is working against you. If you recognise your site in more than one of them, it's worth taking a closer look.

Visitors leave before they have a chance to read anything about you or your product. There are usually several causes: dated design, a confusing content structure, outdated or misleading copy, or no clear call to action. Watch how visitors behave on your website and where they leave.

Nobody likes waiting, and online that's doubly true. You have literally a few seconds to catch a visitor's interest. Open your website and time how long it takes for something to appear. You can also check speed with tools such as PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix.

Google assesses page speed and stability with the Core Web Vitals metrics: LCP measures how quickly the main content appears, INP how quickly the page responds to a click, and CLS whether content jumps around while loading. In March 2024, INP replaced the original FID metric. We explain what these abbreviations mean in our glossary too.

Does your main menu have too many items, and you're no longer sure yourself what's where? If you've accumulated a lot of content over the years, rethink how visitors will find it and how to avoid overwhelming them right at the start. Not everything needs to be on the first page. It's better to offer content gradually, based on what the visitor is reading at that moment.

As your company develops, the look of your brand and products changes too. Your website should match your current brand guidelines, not the ones from five years ago.

Responsive websites have long been standard, yet not every one is truly usable on mobile. A scaled-down desktop version is not enough. On mobile, visitors have a smaller screen and use their fingers, not a mouse and keyboard. That's how we approached the DNA ERA online shop too.

Web technologies move fast and offer new possibilities, from more engaging forms of content to improvements in an online shop's checkout process. It would be a shame not to use them.

When did you last have your website checked for security? Attackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. A compromised website puts customers off and damages your brand's reputation, and a leak of sensitive data can cost you serious money. Our article 8 tips for a secure website covers the basics.

Look around you. Years ago you may have had the best website in your field, but the internet is a strong sales channel for your competitors too. See what their websites look like today and take inspiration from them.

If your search rankings have dropped, so has your traffic. Get advice from specialists in content and keyword optimisation. What worked a few years ago may not work at all today, or may carry a different weight.

If adding and editing content has become a nightmare, the website needs a fundamental rebuild. Otherwise you add less content, put off necessary changes, and the website gradually falls into disrepair. This often goes hand in hand with outages or very slow saving of changes.

Older websites often suffer from lots of 404 errors, meaning links to content that no longer exists. This frustrates visitors, and search engines see it as a negative signal. Over time, they stop sending people your way. Redirect broken links and make your 404 page useful, so visitors can carry on from there.

Like every part of a business, a website should have measurable short-term and long-term goals. Spot a declining conversion trend before it shows up in your cash flow. The right improvements to the website can turn it around.

Look after your website long term

Every website ages at its own pace. Some need a redesign or refresh after just a year, others last two or three years. We recommend looking after your website regularly and keeping an eye on how it performs against the competition.