Most business owners I talk to have one of two ideas about their website: either "we have a site, it works," or "I know it's old, but customers still come, so I leave it be." The problem is that a website that looks fine on your computer can be practically unusable for a customer on a phone or for Google — and you don't know it, because you look at your site completely differently than they do.
This article isn't about selling you anything. It's a checklist you run yourself. Eight things, each takes a few minutes, no technical knowledge needed. By the end you'll know whether your site is fine, or whether it's quietly costing you customers. And if it turns out everything's OK — great, I just saved you money.
1. Open your site on a phone (not a computer)
Over 70% of people browse websites on a phone today. Take your mobile, type in your website address, and look through a customer's eyes:
- Do you have to pinch-zoom the text to read it?
- Are columns broken, images overflowing, buttons overlapping?
- Do you have to scroll sideways?
If so, your site wasn't designed for mobile (it lacks what's called "responsive design"). Since 2021 Google rates sites primarily by their mobile version — so a bad mobile site also means worse search rankings. And above all: a customer with a phone in hand and the competition a fingertip away will close a site like that within five seconds.
2. Measure how fast your site loads
Open the free PageSpeed Insights, enter your address and switch to the Mobile tab. You'll get a 0–100 score and three metrics Google calls Core Web Vitals.
Simply put: a mobile score under 50 is a problem. A slow site drives visitors away (every extra second of loading means some people leave) and Google ranks slow sites lower. The usual culprits are huge unoptimized photos and plugin bloat. I break it down in how to speed up your website.
3. Check the padlock (HTTPS)
Look at the browser address bar before your site's address. Do you see a padlock, or a "Not secure" warning?
If your site runs only on "http://" without security, browsers show a warning — and a customer who sees "This site is not secure" usually backs off. Security (an SSL certificate) is standard today, usually free with quality hosting, and its absence feels like having a sign on your door that says "enter at your own risk."
4. Can Google even find you?
Two quick tests:
Test A — are you indexed? Type site: into Google followed immediately (no space) by your address, e.g. site:yourcompany.cz. Google shows how many of your pages it knows. If it's zero or just a few, Google doesn't really "see" your site.
Test B — do customers find you? Search the way a customer who doesn't know you would — not your company name, but the service and city: "hair salon Ostrava-Dubina", "plumber Ostrava", "pizzeria Hrabůvka". Are you on the first page? Is the first page taken by directories and competitors instead of you? That's the difference between "the site exists" and "the site brings customers."
5. Is your Google Business Profile filled in?
The Google Business Profile (that card with the map, rating and opening hours that pops up when someone searches for you) is often more important than the website itself for a local business. Check:
- Does your profile exist and is it "verified" (managed by you)?
- Are the opening hours, phone and address correct?
- Do you have current photos and some reviews?
An empty or missing profile means you're invisible in maps and in the "pack" of three businesses above the search results — and that's exactly where it's decided today who the customer calls. (By the way: you must not write reviews yourself or have staff write them — Google prohibits it and can detect it.)
6. Is the site visibly outdated?
Go through the site and look for the quiet signals of age:
- The year in the footer — does it say "© 2013"? A visitor wonders whether the business is even still running.
- Outdated information — old prices, promotions that ended long ago, the name of an owner who's no longer there.
- Broken links — click through the main buttons and menu. Does anything lead to a blank page or a "404 not found" message?
An outdated site doesn't just look ugly — it undermines trust. And broken links are a signal to Google too that no one is looking after the site.
7. Is it easy to order or call from the site?
On mobile, try: how many clicks separate you from a call or an order? The ideal is one — a phone number you can tap to call directly; an "Order" or "Book" button visible right away. When a customer has to dig for contact info through three subpages or copy a number by hand, some give up. A website isn't a decorative business card — it's a tool meant to bring inquiries.
8. Do you know who runs the site and where your access is?
An uncomfortable question, but an important one: if the site went down tomorrow, would you know who to go to? Do you have access to the domain, hosting and site, or does "some guy who made it years ago and doesn't answer anymore" have it? Plenty of businesses discover they don't have access to their own domain only when the site stops working or the domain is about to expire. If you're unsure, I've written a crisis guide for when your site goes down.
How many "yes, that's a problem" did you tick?
- 0–1: Congratulations, your site is doing better than most. Focus more on whether people find you (points 4 and 5).
- 2–4: Your site is probably quietly costing you customers. You don't necessarily need a new one — targeted fixes are often enough.
- 5 or more: Your site is working against you. Every customer who opens it and closes it is an inquiry that went to the competition.
The most important thing to close with: your customers check all of this too these days — subconsciously, in a few seconds, when choosing between you and the business two streets over. A good site doesn't have to be expensive or flashy. It has to be fast, readable on mobile, trustworthy and easy to use.
If you'd like a second opinion with no strings attached, I'll go through your site for free and send you a few concrete things holding it back — no obligation, no sales pitch. Just get in touch via the free mini-audit. And if you're still weighing whether a website is worth the investment, read why a website for 5,000 CZK isn't enough.