A customer who leaves your website doesn't write to tell you what was wrong. They don't leave a bad review, they don't call to complain. They close the tab and open your competitor's. And you will never know they stopped by.
It happens fast. According to Jakob Nielsen, many users leave a web page within 10-20 seconds; those who stay past the first 30 seconds, on the other hand, tend to stick around much longer (Nielsen Norman Group). The first few seconds decide almost everything.
The good news is that the mistakes that drive people away are nearly always the same, and you can find them with free tools. In this guide we look at the 7 most common ones, how to spot them and how to fix them, even if you're not an expert.
1. The site is slow on mobile
Most people find you on their phone, often on a less-than-perfect connection. If the page takes too long to appear, they don't wait: they go back.
How much speed matters was measured by a study commissioned by Google and carried out by Deloitte on 37 sites of major European and American brands and more than 30 million sessions. Making the mobile site just 0.1 seconds faster increased conversions by 8.4% for online retailers and by 10.1% for travel sites (web.dev). A tenth of a second.
The free tool: PageSpeed Insights. Go to pagespeed.web.dev, paste your site's address and look at the Mobile tab. The 0 to 100 score matters less than the suggestions below it: they tell you what is slowing the page down, in order of importance.
The usual fixes: images that are too heavy (they should be compressed and saved as WebP), too many plugins or external scripts, fonts loaded from external services instead of from the site itself.
2. Nobody can tell what you do in the first few seconds
"Innovative solutions for your business". "Your passion, our commitment". These are sentences that could sit on any website, and that is exactly why they say nothing.
Nielsen sums it up like this: if you want a few minutes of attention, you have to communicate your value within the first 10 seconds. Visitors need to understand straight away what you do, who it's for and what they can do right now. Otherwise, as Steve Krug teaches in Don't Make Me Think, every doubt is a reason to leave.
The free tool: the 5-second test. Show your home page to a friend who doesn't know your business, for exactly 5 seconds. Then close it and ask: what does this business do? Who is it for? What would you do now? If they can't answer, the problem isn't your friend.
The fix: a concrete headline at the top ("Realistic and blackwork tattoos in Cagliari" beats "Art on your skin"), one line explaining the benefit and a single main button.
3. The way to contact you is hidden
The phone number only in the footer, the form on a "Contact" page buried in the menu, the button in the same colour as everything else. Anyone who wants to get in touch has to go on a treasure hunt, and often gives up.
The free tool: Microsoft Clarity. It anonymously records how people use your site and creates heatmaps: you see where they click, how far they scroll and where they get stuck. "Rage clicks", repeated angry clicks on something that doesn't respond, are a warning sign. Be careful: Clarity uses cookies, so in Europe it must only be switched on after consent in the cookie banner.
The fix: a clear call to action that is always visible, in a colour different from everything else (the Von Restorff Effect), large and easy to reach with your thumb on a phone (Fitts's Law). On mobile, the phone number should start the call with a single tap.
4. Too many things shouting
The newsletter pop-up as soon as you land, the chat that opens on its own, the offers banner, the Instagram feed, the background music. Each element seems like a good idea, but together they cover exactly what the visitor was looking for. And the more things shout, the fewer get noticed: that's banner blindness.
There's a cost on Google too. Since 10 January 2017, pages that cover their content on mobile with intrusive pop-ups right after a visitor arrives from a search can rank lower. Notices required by law, such as the cookie notice or age verification, are still allowed (Social Media Today).
The free tool: your phone. Search for your business on Google from your phone, open your site and count how many things ask for your attention before you see the content. If it's more than one, it's too many.
The fix: keep only what the person needs at that moment. The newsletter pop-up, if you really need it, can appear after the person has read something, not the moment they arrive.
5. The contact form is an interrogation
First name, last name, phone, email, city, company, budget, "how did you hear about us", three different checkboxes to tick. Every extra field is one more reason to give up.
Baymard Institute, which has been studying online checkouts for years, counted an average of 11.3 fields in checkout forms, while most sites could make do with 8 (Baymard). And a contact form needs even fewer. It's the same lesson as the 300 million dollar button: every obstacle before the value costs you customers.
The free tool: count the fields. For each field ask yourself: do I really need this to reply to this person? If the answer is "it would be useful", remove it. Clarity's recordings also show you where people stop while filling it in.
The fix: name, one contact (email or phone) and the message. If the form has to be long, split it into steps and show how far along people are: that's the Zeigarnik Effect, a task once started is one we want to finish.
6. No proof that you can be trusted
A website can be beautiful and still convince no one if it doesn't show that other people have already trusted you. Before contacting a stranger, we want to know that someone did it before us and came away happy.
The numbers confirm it. Northwestern University's Spiegel Research Center found that a product page with five reviews converts on average about 270% more than one with none. For more expensive products the increase rises to 380%, for cheaper ones it stops at 190%. And ratings between 4.0 and 4.7 stars are more convincing than a perfect 5, which looks too good to be true (MarketingProfs).
The free tool: your Google Business Profile. It's the easiest place to collect genuine reviews. Ask happy customers for them with a direct link, reply to all of them, including the negative ones, and show them on your site.
The fix: genuine reviews close to the contact button, photos of your real work (not stock images), your face and your name. Never fake reviews: people can tell, and they destroy the very trust they were meant to build.
7. The text can't be read
Light grey text on a white background, words over busy photos, tiny type on mobile. It looks like an aesthetic detail, but it's the most widespread mistake on the web: according to the WebAIM Million 2026 report, 83.9% of the home pages of the world's most visited sites have low-contrast text, and 95.9% have at least one detectable accessibility issue (Priority Pixels on the WebAIM report).
And it's not just a matter of comfort: since 28 June 2025, with the European Accessibility Act, accessibility has become a legal requirement for many businesses that sell online. We'll cover it in a dedicated article.
The free tool: WAVE. Go to wave.webaim.org, enter your address and look at the "Contrast Errors": it shows you exactly which pieces of text are too light.
The fix: a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 between text and background, body text of at least 16 pixels on mobile, and never important words over busy photos without a dark overlay underneath.
Bonus: Google can't find you
You can fix all seven mistakes, but if Google doesn't show your site, nobody will get to see it. Google Search Console is free and tells you which searches you appear for, how often people click, what position you're in and whether there are pages Google can't read.
The tools in one table
| Mistake | Free tool | What to look at |
|---|---|---|
| Slow site | PageSpeed Insights | The "Mobile" tab and the suggestions below the score |
| Unclear what you do | 5-second test | Whether a stranger can say what you do, who for and what to do next |
| Hidden contacts | Microsoft Clarity | Heatmaps, scroll depth, rage clicks |
| Too many distractions | Your phone | How many things appear before the content |
| Form too long | Count the fields (and Clarity) | Non-essential fields, where people drop off |
| No proof of trust | Google Business Profile | Number and quality of reviews |
| Unreadable text | WAVE | "Contrast Errors" |
| Google can't find you | Search Console | Searches, clicks, pages not indexed |
Your site doesn't need to be perfect, it needs to be free of obstacles
None of these mistakes requires rebuilding your site from scratch. An afternoon is often enough: compress a few images, rewrite a headline, move a button, remove three fields from a form.
The point is to change perspective: stop looking at your site the way you do, knowing everything already, and look at it the way someone sees it the first time, on a phone, in a hurry, with a question on their mind. Every obstacle you remove is a customer who stays.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on your website, get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my website is slow?
Use PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev): enter the address and look at the mobile result. The suggestions below matter more than the score, because they tell you what is slowing the page down and what to fix first.
Is Microsoft Clarity really free?
Yes, the basic plan is free and includes heatmaps and session recordings. Since it uses cookies, in Europe it must only be switched on after the visitor has given consent in the cookie banner.
How many fields should a contact form have?
As few as possible: name, one contact (email or phone) and the message are usually enough. Every extra field increases the effort and the chance that the person gives up.
How do I check whether the text on my site is readable?
With WAVE (wave.webaim.org), which is free: it flags text with contrast that is too low. The basic rule is a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 between text and background.
Sources
- Nielsen Norman Group, How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages?, Jakob Nielsen, 11 September 2011.
- web.dev, Milliseconds make millions, study by Deloitte for Google, 2020.
- Social Media Today, Google: disable intrusive pop-ups or suffer SERP downgrades, 2016.
- Baymard Institute, Checkout flow average form fields, 26 June 2024.
- MarketingProfs, The measurable impact that reviews and ratings have on sales, 2017 (Spiegel Research Center data).
- Priority Pixels, Web accessibility is getting worse according to the 2026 WebAIM Million report, 1 April 2026.
- Capterra, Microsoft Clarity.
