There is the concept that top-level officials should not concern themselves with certain technical details. Especially if they already have a team to handle this. But while that attitude might be common, it is a better strategy to know how to identify issues with your website. You do not need a background in HTML or server logs to recognize poor website performance when your website is not doing its job.
If your pages load at a sloth’s pace, buttons do not respond, or visitors quickly leave before they even reach vital information. Your site is steering prospects away, clearly taking your brand’s reputation, search visibility, and bottom line with it.
The good news? You do not have to dive into code or hire an engineer to spot the red flags of poor website performance. In this post, we will guide you through some non-technical checks that help identify when your site is underperforming. Ultimately, you should know exactly where to look and what questions to ask so that you can steer your sluggish pages in the right direction.
Before we jump into those, let’s take a look at why performance matters.
Why Does Website Performance Matter?
Did you know that website performance is not just a backend concern? It is a business growth problem, and every extra second your pages take to render directly impacts user engagement, lead generation, and ultimately your revenue. Slow experiences frustrate visitors, erode trust in your brand, and drive prospects to your competitors’ sites.
When your site lags, this creates frustrated users and lower Google rankings. Google’s algorithms now factor in core web vitals, which include load time, interactivity, and visual stability when ranking pages. So if your site stumbles on speed, you are not only repelling customers but also compromising your SEO.
Red Flags That Your Site Might Be Underperforming
Let’s take a look at some red flags you can easily identify and what that means for your website.
High Bounce Rate
When visitors land on your website but leave without interacting or visiting another page, this contributes to your bounce rate. This is usually an indication that they did not find what they expected, or the experience was not engaging enough to stay. This could be due to poor design choices, irrelevant content, confusing navigation, or slow speed.
Low Time on Site
Low time on site means users only spend a few seconds on your website before leaving. This typically suggests users are not interested, cannot find what they need, or the site does not guide them toward action. This is usually because your content is not useful or your layout is overwhelming, or your CTA is not clear.
Drop in Conversions or Leads
If the purpose of your website is to garner leads and you notice that fewer users are filling out forms, signing up, or making purchases, then this directly impacts your business goals. This could be as a result of broken links, confusing workflows, a poor mobile experience, or slow load times.
Slow Load on Mobile
With users predominantly on mobile devices, pages taking too long to load on phones or tablets is a huge red flag. Bear in mind that mobile users are less patient, and Google factors mobile speed into your SEO ranking. This could potentially be caused by large images, poor hosting, bloated code, or non-optimized design.
SEO Rankings Declining Without Major Content Changes
If your rankings are slipping even though your content has not changed, that might be evidence of underperformance. This typically points to technical SEO problems rather than content quality. Often caused by site speed issues, mobility usability problems, bad internal linking or changes in Google’s algorithm penalizing performance.
For preliminary answers, some tools require little to no skill to check. Here is a list of tools:
Compare Your Site to the Competition
Finding the red flags and using the tools are only steps in a process that should help you decide on the next steps. The other players in your industry are raising the bar, investing in their total infrastructure to improve faster load times, smoother UX, and clearer messaging. If you are not keeping up the pace, then you’re falling behind. Those internal discoveries should help you ask some hard questions, and this one in particular, “Does our site feel slower, harder to use, or outdated compared to industry leaders?”
It is easy to become too familiar with your website and stop noticing what’s clunky, confusing, or behind the curve. The truth is that your users notice. So here are some additional questions to ask during your comparison session:
- Is our design clean and intuitive?
- Does the site load quickly, especially on mobile devices?
- Can a new visitor understand what we do in 5 seconds?
- How does our site feel compared to top players in our industry?
Remember, this is not just about aesthetics. The goal is better website performance, improved trust, and assured conversion. You are also not just competing on product or price; experience is also a factor.
What You Can Do About It (Without Doing It Yourself)
Start with a Site Audit
If your site is underperforming, never guess; get the facts. A proper audit will help you understand what’s going on behind the scenes.
Your team already has the data and the context to pinpoint exactly where your website is underperforming. By collaborating closely, you can turn raw analytics into clear, actionable steps. Review bounce rates and session duration, load times, and map out funnel drop-off points, then prioritize and plan your action. Gather your teams and rank issues by impact, then schedule workshops and sessions to assign owners, set deadlines, and agree on metrics for success.
Consult an External Agency
Sometimes the issues hiding in plain sight need a fresh set of expert eyes, and that’s where a specialized agency can make all the difference. An agency like WDB Agency can perform competitive benchmarking to help uncover gaps and opportunities. Perform additional comprehensive diagnostics, create strategic, goal-aligned recommendations, as well as an opportunity to partner with experts for ongoing monitoring.
Don’t Wait Until It Costs You Clients
You can spot the warning signs, even without any coding knowledge; a sluggish homepage, confusing menus, or fewer leads should be an indication that it is time for some tweaks. Some targeted fixes like image optimization, mobile layout tweaks, and script tuning can often be done quickly and at a fraction of a redesign cost.
Are you ready to see what’s exactly slowing you down? Get your free website performance snapshot from WDB Agency and uncover the quick wins that will power your website forward.
Schedule your call with our team today.