--- title: "Is your website working? 5 signs it's costing you customers (and how to check it today)" description: "Your website is live, but is it really bringing you customers? These 5 signs reveal that it's costing you sales and this is how you can check it yourself today." date: "2026-10-06" category: "Business websites" keywords: "how to know if my website works, my website doesn't generate customers, review my website, signs my website is failing, website that doesn't convert, check my website" portada: "/portadas/portada-como-saber-si-mi-web-funciona.webp" --- Open your website on your phone and start the stopwatch. That's all a customer needs to decide between calling you or closing the tab and trying the next one. Almost nobody orders a website and then worries about it: it gets ordered, published and considered done. And it may work... more or less. But how do you know whether it's really bringing you customers or whether it's just sitting there, occupying your domain? The problem is that nobody calls you to say "I went on your website and left". The customer who doesn't find what they're looking for doesn't complain: they quietly go to the competition. The good news: a website can be reviewed the same way a shop window is reviewed. And you don't need to be a programmer or hire anyone to spot almost all the problems. These are the signs that give away that your website is costing you money, and the check you can do today, from your own phone. ## What a business website is exactly for A business website isn't there to "be there", but to win customers: so that people call you, message you, ask for a quote or book. Everything else — how pretty it is, the animations, the colours — only counts if it pushes towards that. A website that works is one that turns visits into conversations. Not the one you like best, but the one that makes it easiest for a stranger who finds you on Google to end up contacting you. And that's the trap: it's very hard to judge your own website, because you already know where everything is, what your business is called and what you sell. Whoever visits you for the first time knows nothing about you. And they decide in seconds: most people who land on a website leave it within less than a minute if they don't find what they're looking for. ## The 3 questions anyone who lands on it asks (without telling you) When someone visits you for the first time, their head asks three questions in a row. If your website doesn't answer them in less than a minute, that visit is lost: 1. **"What does this business do?"** Without decoding jargon. Even if they searched for "plumber", a website can't start with "comprehensive home solutions". If in five seconds it isn't clear what you do, where and for whom, you've already lost half your visits. 2. **"Does it solve my problem?"** It doesn't matter so much what you sell as what I gain. The customer wants to see their case: prices, even approximate ones; opening hours; whether you handle emergencies; whether you work in their area. 3. **"Can I trust them?"** This is where reviews, real photos of work and the names of the people who will serve them come in. In a local business, the review is the first proof and weighs more than any logo. ## The 5 warning signs (check them on your own phone) **1. Someone asks you something that's already on the website.** "Do you come to my home?", "how much is it?", "are you open today?". When a customer asks on the phone something you published months ago, it's not their fault: it's that they haven't found it. The information is there, but it can't be seen. And sales that don't appear in any statistic get lost in that gap. **2. It takes a long time to load.** Open your website on mobile data, not on your home wifi. Count to five. If it isn't ready after five seconds, a significant part of your visitors have already left. It's the easiest problem to measure: there are free tools that give you the exact score and, if it's bad, it can be fixed. **3. There's no clear action.** Every page should push towards one single thing: calling, messaging on WhatsApp, asking for a quote or booking. If the button is hidden, if the phone number can't be tapped directly, or if there are ten different links competing, the visitor gets stuck and leaves. **4. You don't know where your customers come from.** How many visits did you have last month? How many tapped the call button? How many filled in the form? If you don't know, you can't improve anything: your business is running blind. Statistics aren't a technical whim: they're the dashboard of the website. **5. Nobody has left a review since it was made for you.** A website with no new reviews is a website with no customers leaving a record. And for whoever compares two similar businesses, the recent review is what decides. If your latest customers are delighted but that can't be seen anywhere, you're giving it away. ## The 10-minute check With your phone in your hand, a stopwatch and a notepad: 1. **Stopwatch.** Open your website on mobile data and count until you can read what you do. More than three seconds is already a warning. 2. **Search for yourself the way a stranger would.** Search Google for "[your trade] in [your city]" and see whether you appear and what someone clicking on your website will find. 3. **Ask someone unrelated to tell you what you do.** If they don't get it in ten seconds, your website isn't saying it either. 4. **Act as a customer.** Send a message from the website itself and time how long it takes you to receive it and to reply. If something fails, you've just found a lost customer. 5. **Look at the statistics.** Go into your website's dashboard (or ask whoever made it for you) and check whether you know how many visits and how many contacts there were last month. If nobody can tell you, that's the most serious sign of all. ## The conclusion Your website isn't a brochure: it's your hardest-working salesperson. It's out there at all hours, serves ten people at once and never takes a holiday. The question isn't whether it's pretty, but whether it works for you. And that can be checked: today, with your phone and ten minutes. If these checks threw up any warning sign, don't worry: they're problems that can be fixed, and a few well-chosen details almost always matter more than a complete redesign. At pedroaren.com we build and repair business websites with that goal, not with the goal of winning a design award: that they find you, that it's clear what you do and that they call you. You can [request a free website proposal](/solicita-web/en) and we'll tell you what we would change in your case, with no obligation. And if this topic has got you thinking, keep going with [why your website doesn't generate customers](/blog/en/por-que-tu-web-no-genera-clientes) and [whether your business shows up when people ask ChatGPT](/blog/en/tu-negocio-aparece-en-chatgpt).