Your website is often your customer's first impression. And just like a messy storefront or an unreturned phone call, a poor web experience can send people running. Here are the five most common mistakes small businesses make with their websites — and how to fix them.

1. No Clear Call to Action Every page of your website should guide visitors toward something: calling you, filling out a form, booking an appointment, buying a product. If users have to guess what to do next, they'll leave. Fix this by placing clear, bold CTAs where they make sense—above the fold, at the bottom of content, and on key service pages.

2. Slow Load Times More than 50% of users will bounce if your site takes more than 3 seconds to load. Heavy images, bloated code, or poor hosting can slow things down. Use tools like GTMetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights to test speed, then compress images, reduce unnecessary scripts, and consider a faster hosting provider.

3. Not Mobile-Friendly Over 60% of website traffic happens on mobile. If your site doesn’t resize or navigate easily on phones, you’re losing customers. Always use a responsive design and test across multiple screen sizes.

4. Weak SEO Foundation Your site may look good, but can it be found? Missing title tags, no alt text, poor keyword strategy, and broken internal links all hurt your discoverability. Make sure each page has optimized metadata, alt-tagged images, and keyword-rich (but natural) content.

5. DIY Designs That Undermine Trust Homemade websites can look unprofessional, especially when inconsistent fonts, outdated layouts, or off-brand visuals are involved. Trust is everything. If your website feels outdated or clunky, it’s time for a refresh.

Want to Know If Your Site Is Hurting Your Business? Schedule a free website audit with Bold Horizons. We’ll walk you through what’s working, what’s not, and how to turn your website into a lead-generating machine.

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