When most people look for a business to work with, or want to find out more about them, they head online and try to find a website. In most cases, people make big assumptions about a business from their website, or ‘digital shop front’. Sometimes, businesses have a website built by a company or built it themselves and think the job is done and they don’t need to look at it again. However, that is not the case. A lot of websites are letting businesses down by not being up to date, looking outdated or not actually answering the questions potential customers/clients are asking.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself about your website to see if it’s still working for you.
When was the last time you updated your website?
Only 52% of UK business owners with a website either maintain it themselves or have a dedicated web team to update and maintain it, which means there are quite a lot of websites which more than likely haven’t been updated within the last year. Have you been working on new projects, but you aren’t showcasing them on your website? If you aren’t showing off your recent projects, it could give off an impression to your potential clients that you’ve not been doing much for a few years.
Also, especially with wordpress sites, important updates on software or security could be missed. In 2024, 25% of businesses were hit by cyber attacks, so by not keeping your website up to date, you could be leaving yourself vulnerable.
Is your website mobile friendly?
We spend a lot of time on our phones, and if you want to find out more about something, you have a look on your phone. There are so many websites out there that aren’t mobile friendly. In 2025, over 64% of website traffic came from a mobile phone, so if your website doesn’t work well on a mobile phone, you could be losing a significant amount of clients or making a bad first impression.
Are your CTAs obvious enough?
When a potential customer/client lands on your website, they might be looking for something specific or just having a general look. Having a very clear call to actions helps direct someone to making contact with you. Having clear buttons or contact forms on each webpage saying ‘Book an Appointment’ or ‘See how we can help you’ will increase the chances of someone contacting you. If you do have a booking system, adding a button in your navigation bar at the top will also make it more obvious to viewers.
Tip: Having contrasting buttons which stand out against your other colours makes them more likely to be clicked. So if your branding is blue, try a bright red or bright green, rather than having the same colour blue.
Is your website accessible?
When putting a website together, accessibility isn’t always at the front of everyone’s minds. However, this is a really important step for your potential customers/clients and for those who use screen readers or have an impairment.
- Make sure your text is large enough to read. It’s recommended to be at least 16px
- The text colour and the background colour should contrast well enough for you to see it clearly. We recommend websites such as https://colourcontrast.cc/ to check these out
- Do all of your images have alt text? If not, Google and screen readers can’t see them. If they do, make sure they are relevant to the image and what you’re promoting
Is your website optimised for SEO and GEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) helps your website be found on Google and other search engines when customers aren’t searching for you specifically. For example, they could be searching for ‘a marketing agency in Staffordshire’ or ‘a Construction company in Derby’. Site structure, adding keywords and meta descriptions all help search engines go through your website and help users make a decision about if they should visit your site or not.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) helps your website be found via AI-driven engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. This works slightly differently then SEO as it will evaluate your business depending on reviews, credibility and if the content answers a question the AI engine has been asked.
- Being mentioned on other websites helps with GEO. Could you list yourself on a directory or publish something onto another website? Even videos on YouTube supports this
- Creating blogs or FAQs on your website is a great way to answer the questions your potential customers/clients may ask. For example, ‘What’s the difference between X and Y’ and ‘How long does it take to build X’ are good examples of you showing your customers the information that may be looking for, whilst making it an answer for AI to look for on your website
- Try using AI to find your business or search for your sector in your area to see what comes up
Are you checking your analytics?
Linking your website to Google Analytics or checking built in analytics is the best way to figure out if your website is working for you. Knowing how many people are coming to your website, where they are coming from and what pages they are looking at can give you a bigger picture of what is working and what’s not.
- If you don’t have many visitors, could you promote the website better?
- If you have visitors, but they don’t stay long, are you being clear enough about what you do or sell?
- Are most of your visitors from search engines or do they find you through social media?
- What is your most popular page?
All these questions can help you figure out if you need to start making some changes and figure out if you need to make some changes.
Make your website do the heavy lifting
If you haven’t looked at your website for a while, or you’re not sure if it’s working or not, here’s a checklist for you to make a start!
- Check for security and plug-in updates on your website
- View your analytics for the last 3 months and see what is happening
- Open your website on a mobile phone and see what it’s like
- Send your website to someone who doesn’t know much about you and see what they think and if they understand it (You can send it to us!)
- Check how old your images or case studies are. Could you add some more?
- Check is your CTAs are obvious
How we can help
Whilst we don’t build websites, we are able to offer independent advice from a marketing perspective, to help you make your website work for you. We can check your SEO and GEO optimisation and advise or help rewrite your content, or even help you understand your analytics without an agenda to sell you a new website.