I’m still amazed by how many small businesses are struggling with the basics of their websites in 2026.
You’d think we’d be past the days of clunky layouts, hidden menus and pages that fall apart on a phone, but here we are. I keep landing on sites that make it harder than it needs to be to find simple information, and it genuinely baffles me.
The thing small businesses forget is this:… customers don’t push through it. They don’t sit there trying to decode your navigation or guess whether that 2 year old blog section is still relevant. They just leave and go somewhere that makes life easier.
I was reminded of it again at the weekend. My wife and I were heading to the coast, and I thought I’d check what the local bars and cafés were serving. Nothing complicated. Just trying to see what food was on offer.
Half of them didn’t have a website at all. A few had one, of varied usefulness, but the rest relied on a Facebook page with a menu buried somewhere in the feed, posted six months ago, with no sign it was still relevant. So we skipped them and went to one of the few places that actually told us what they offered on their usable website.
That’s how people behave. It’s not harsh. It’s just reality.
Your website isn’t a box you tick. It’s the first impression people get of you. It’s how they decide whether to trust you, visit you, buy from you or even bother walking through the door. If it’s out of date, confusing or broken, it’s costing you business quietly in the background.
A bad website (or no websites at all) doesn’t just look bad. It turns people away to your competitors.
When was the last time you went through your own site the way a customer would?
I’m Craig Pickles, a web designer, developer, technical SEO and social media specialist.