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7 Signs Your Website is Hurting Your Business and How to Fix it

Written by

Jake Hartigan

Published:

January 8, 2025

Your website is like your storefront—it’s often the first impression potential customers get of your business. If it looks outdated, loads slowly, or doesn’t work well on mobile, people won’t stick around. In today’s fast-moving digital world, an outdated website can cost you customers, credibility, and cash. Here are seven clear signs your website needs a refresh in 2025:

1. Your Website Doesn’t Work Well on Mobile 📱

Imagine walking into a store, and everything is crammed into a tiny space—you can’t move around easily, and the signs are too small to read. That’s what a non-mobile-friendly website feels like to customers.


Since 60%+ of web traffic comes from mobile devices, your website needs to automatically adjust to different screen sizes. If visitors have to zoom in, scroll sideways, or struggle to tap buttons, they’ll likely leave and find a competitor with a better site.


Quick test: Test your site on a phone. If it doesn’t look good or function smoothly, it’s time for a mobile-friendly redesign.

2. Your Website Takes Forever to Load ( more than 3 seconds )

Every had to wait more than a 2 days for shipping, feels like an eternity right? Those days can feel long because Amazon has set the standard for delivery times as short as 2 days, or less. The same goes for websites—if it takes more than three seconds to load, visitors lose patience and leave.

Slow loading times usually happen because of old coding, large images, or too many unnecessary plugins. And here’s the kicker—Google ranks slow websites lower, so you’re missing out on potential traffic and customers even before they get to your website.

Quick Fix: Run a Google PageSpeed test and optimize large images. If your site is still sluggish, you might need a modern website framework or faster hosting.

3. Your Branding Looks Outdated 

Would you trust a business with a faded, peeling store sign, or rusty fence? Probably not. Your website works the same way—if the design looks like it hasn’t been updated in years, customers might assume your business isn’t active or professional.

🚨 Signs of outdated branding:

  • Old-fashioned fonts or too many types of fonts

  • Color schemes that don’t match modern design trends.

  • A logo that doesn’t scale well on mobile or social media.

  • Inconsistent messaging that confuses potential customers.

Quick Fix: If your website still has a dated look, consider a branding refresh with modern fonts, colors, and layouts that better reflect your business. Often the solutions is removing colors, fonts and irrelevant images and not adding more.

4. Your Website’s Security is Weak

Would you hand over your credit card to a cashier without a secure payment system? No way. But that’s exactly what happens when a website lacks proper security—customers won’t trust it. Often modern browsers like chrome, won’t even let customers visit your website if it’s not secured properly.

🚨 Warning signs of an insecure website:

  • No HTTPS (the little padlock in the address bar).

  • No regular security updates.

  • Old plugins and software that can be hacked easily.


Quick Fix: If your website still says “Not Secure” in the browser, upgrade to HTTPS immediately. Also, make sure your site is regularly updated to prevent cyber threats.

5. Your Website Isn’t Accessible to Everyone

Imagine a retail store with no wheelchair ramp—it would exclude a huge number of customers. The same happens with websites that aren’t accessible to people with disabilities.


Accessibility features like text-to-speech, keyboard navigation, and high-contrast options aren’t just nice-to-haves—they’re essential in 2025. Plus, businesses can face legal issues if their sites don’t comply with accessibility standards like WCAG 2.2.


Quick Fix: Use an accessibility checker to see how your website scores and make improvements, like adding alt text for images and improving color contrast.

6. Your Payment Options Are Limited

Think of your website like a cash register—if you only accept cash, but your customers want to pay with cards or mobile wallets, you’re losing sales.

Modern buyers expect options like:

✅ Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal

✅ Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services like Klarna or Affirm

✅ Even cryptocurrency, for tech-savvy customers


Quick Fix: If you’re only taking traditional credit cards, consider integrating Stripe or Square for more payment flexibility.

7. Your Website Feels Like a Static Brochure 

Would you visit a brick-and-mortar store if it looked exactly the same year after year, with no updates or new products? Probably not.

Websites that never change feel outdated. Today’s users expect interactive experiences, like:

  • Engaging videos

  • Animations

  • Dynamic content


Quick Fix: Start small—add a video, refresh your blog, or update your homepage with fresh content.

Time for a Website Re-vamp?

If your website checks two or more of these boxes, it’s time for an update. Think of it as upgrading your storefront—a modern, fast, and interactive website will help you attract more customers, boost sales, and stay ahead of competitors.


A website refresh is an investment, but in 2025, it’s one of the best things you can do for your business.


Jake Hartigan

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