Before getting into the broader point of this article, it’s worth giving a little context about what led me to write it, a real-world experience of searching for a service as a customer.
Recently I found myself helping a friend search for an equestrian centre that could support wheelchair users. Specifically, we were looking for somewhere with a hoist that could safely transfer a rider from a wheelchair onto a horse.
It’s a fairly niche requirement, so we expected the search might take some time. What became clear fairly quickly, however, was that it wasn’t just the niche requirement that made the search difficult.
As a web developer, I’m well aware that usability issues on websites exist. But the search reinforced just how often websites make fairly simple questions unnecessarily difficult to answer, even when those questions have nothing to do with niche requirements.
Our search wasn’t just about the hoist. We were trying to understand things like locations, prices, facilities, availability, and who actually operated certain centres. At one point we even came across the same location appearing under multiple organisational names across different websites, which made it difficult to understand who was responsible for the service or how bookings worked.
Interestingly, we were physically at one of the locations at the time while checking its websites. There was nothing on site to suggest multiple organisations were involved, yet online it appeared that several different entities might be operating there.
None of this meant the centres themselves weren’t good. In fact, many clearly do fantastic work.
But from the perspective of someone trying to find the information needed to narrow down the search, the experience wasn’t straightforward.
The problem was fairly clear. Many of these websites had likely been built by the business owners themselves, or by someone within the organisation, perhaps a friend or family member who “knew computers”.
That’s completely understandable. Running a small business already involves wearing many hats, and building a website often becomes another task added to the list.
The result is that many businesses end up with a site that technically exists, but hasn’t really been designed by someone with the experience to understand how a website should be structured around the needs of the user.
And that’s where the problem begins for many businesses.
The point of this article isn’t whether I eventually found an equestrian centre that met my partner’s needs. The more interesting question is what that search revealed about the gap between having a website and having one that actually works, rather than one that quietly sends potential customers looking elsewhere.
Before looking at the data around websites and businesses, it’s worth asking a simple question.
Have you ever searched for a business, product, or service online, landed on a website, and quickly decided to move on because something about the experience put you off?
The Business Perspective
The irony is that most business owners already understand how important an online presence can be.
Research published by Forbes Advisor suggests that around 78% of small businesses in the UK now have a website, and 83.5% of those businesses say their website plays an important role in their success.
At first glance, those numbers might suggest the problem is largely solved. The majority of businesses recognise the value of having a website and have taken steps to build one. And most of those that do have a website say it benefits their business.
But when you look a little closer, the picture becomes more interesting.
If we simplify those statistics slightly, out of every 100 small businesses:
- around 78 have a website
- roughly 65 believe that website plays an important role in their business
That leaves two noticeable groups of businesses: those that don’t have a website at all, and those that have one but don’t consider it particularly important.
For the roughly 1 in 5 small businesses still without a website, the reasons are often practical—time, cost, perceived lack of need. But in 2026, with search engines and customer expectations increasingly digital, skipping an online presence means competitors capture those searches by default. Recent data shows 78% of UK small businesses now have one, and those without risk being overlooked entirely.
But the numbers do suggest something worth thinking about. If the majority of businesses now have a website, and most of those say it benefits them, then choosing not to have one at all may mean missing opportunities that competitors are already capturing.
The second group of businesses is perhaps even more interesting: those who have a website but don’t consider it important.
There are several possible explanations for this.
Some businesses operate primarily through repeat customers, word-of-mouth recommendations, or strong local reputation. Others deliberately keep their operations small and have little need to attract large numbers of new enquiries.
For businesses in those situations, a website may simply act as a reference point rather than a major driver of new business.
But there may also be another explanation.
Sometimes a website exists, but it simply isn’t doing the job it was meant to do.
The User Perspective
From the perspective of someone searching for a service, websites are often the first interaction they have with a business.
Before making a phone call, sending an email, or visiting a location, most people will take a few moments to look at the business online. In many cases, the website becomes the first impression a potential customer forms about the organisation.
And first impressions matter.
Research from Stanford’s Web Credibility Project found that around 75% of people judge a company’s credibility based on its website design. In other words, the way a website looks and behaves can strongly influence whether visitors feel confident engaging with the business behind it.
User behaviour research also shows something else that’s important to understand.
When websites are difficult to use, people rarely complain.
They simply leave.
Recent 2025 studies confirm that 88% of users are less likely to return after a poor experience, and many switch to competitors immediately—often without ever contacting the original business and this is consistent with past studies.
And this behaviour makes sense.
When someone is searching online, they are usually trying to answer a straightforward question:
- What services does this business offer?
- Where are they located?
- What does it cost?
- How do I contact them?
If the website answers those questions quickly and clearly, the visitor may decide to take the next step.
But if finding those answers becomes difficult, most people won’t spend time trying to figure it out. They will simply move on and continue searching.
Which means the website hasn’t just failed to help the business.
It has quietly helped a potential customer choose someone else.
Where the Two Perspectives Meet
When you place these two perspectives side by side, the gap becomes easier to understand.
On one side, businesses recognise that having an online presence matters. Most have invested the time or money to build a website because they understand that potential customers will look for them online. And most, for one reason or another, have realised the potential because their website does help drive business to them.
On the other side, customers approach websites with a very simple expectation: they want to find answers quickly. If they have a poor experience, they are far more likely to leave and continue searching elsewhere. Studies consistently suggest that around four out of five users will abandon a website after a bad experience.
When those two expectations meet, the benefits are realised by both parties. But when they do not, the data suggests that a poorly designed website can potentially do more harm than no website at all.
A website that is clear, easy to navigate, and structured around the questions customers are likely to ask can help visitors quickly understand whether the business is right for them.
But when a website makes those answers harder to find, something different happens.
Visitors don’t analyse the design decisions behind the site. They don’t stop to consider whether the business owner built the website themselves, or whether it was created several years ago and never revisited.
They simply move on.
From the perspective of the business owner, this behaviour is almost invisible.
There are no complaints. No emails explaining that the navigation was confusing or that important information was difficult to locate.
There is only the absence of an enquiry that might otherwise have happened.
This is why the difference between having a website and having one that actually works matters so much.
A website doesn’t need to be completely broken to lose potential customers. It simply needs to make finding information harder than it should be.
And when that happens often enough, a business may begin to feel that its website isn’t particularly important to its success.
Not because websites don’t matter, but because the one they have isn’t performing the role it could.
Understanding Whether a Website Is Actually Working
One of the challenges for business owners is that this kind of problem is often difficult to see.
Unlike many other aspects of running a business, websites rarely provide obvious feedback when something isn’t working well. Customers don’t usually send messages explaining that they left because the navigation was confusing or because they couldn’t quickly find the information they needed.
They simply move on.
However, it is possible to build a picture of how effectively a website is performing. Website analytics tools can reveal how visitors interact with a site, how long they stay, which pages they visit, and how often they leave without taking any further action.
Patterns in this data can often highlight where visitors are struggling to find what they need, or where a website may be losing potential customers before they ever make contact.
For many businesses, this kind of insight can be revealing. A website may look perfectly acceptable on the surface, but the data can sometimes tell a different story about how visitors actually experience it.
So What Should Businesses Take From This?
For many businesses, the decision to build a website begins with good intentions.
They recognise that customers search online, that competitors have websites, and that having an online presence is becoming increasingly important. So they build something. Often quickly, sometimes on a tight budget, and frequently while juggling all the other responsibilities that come with running a business.
In many cases that website works well enough. It exists, it provides basic information, and it helps customers find the business.
But as the earlier statistics suggest, not every website ends up playing an important role in the success of the business behind it.
Sometimes that’s because the business genuinely doesn’t rely on online enquiries.
But sometimes it’s because the website itself hasn’t been designed with the user experience in mind.
Good websites rarely happen by accident. They require an understanding of how people search for information, how they navigate pages, and what they expect to find when they arrive.
That doesn’t necessarily mean every business needs a complex or expensive website. But it does mean that the structure, clarity, and usability of the site matter far more than many people realise.
Because from the customer’s perspective, the website is often the first interaction they have with a business.
And when that interaction works well, it helps customers move confidently toward making contact.
When it doesn’t, they simply continue searching.
Which brings us back to the question at the centre of this article.
For many businesses, the real question isn’t:
“Do we have a website?”
It’s:
“Is our website helping customers choose us, or quietly sending them somewhere else?”
If reading this has prompted you to take a closer look at your own website, it might be worth asking an honest question about how well it is actually serving your business.
At Ncodein, I work with businesses to design and build websites that focus on clarity, usability, and helping customers quickly find the information they need. Because when a website is built with the user in mind, it doesn’t just exist, it works.
