What's Wrong With My Website? A Solopreneur's Diagnostic
What's Wrong With My Website? A Solopreneur's Diagnostic
Most website problems fall into one of three categories: nobody can find it, people arrive and leave too quickly, or visitors don't get in touch. The cause is almost always one of those three — and each one has a different fix.
Work through these checks in order. Start with traffic. If that's fine, move to engagement — then conversion.
Nobody Can Find Your Site
If your site gets fewer than 50 visitors a month from Google and you've been live for more than 6 months, the site almost certainly has an SEO problem.
How to check if Google has indexed your site
Go to Google and type site:yourdomain.com. If no results appear, Google hasn't indexed your site — or has de-indexed it. A brand-new site can take 3–6 months to show up in results even with solid content.
Set up Google Search Console (free, takes 10 minutes). It shows you which pages Google has indexed, which ones it hasn't, and why. If you don't have it set up, you're flying blind.
Why most solopreneur sites don't rank
Google doesn't rank a site just because it exists. It looks for three things: content that matches real search queries, other sites linking to you, and consistent signals over time.
Check your page titles. If your homepage title says "Home" or "Welcome to [Business Name]", that's a significant part of the problem. Your page title is the first thing Google reads — it should say exactly what you do and who you do it for: "Copywriter for SaaS Startups in Dublin", not "Jane Smith — Creative Writer".
Run a free Lighthouse audit: open Chrome, go to your site, press F12, click Lighthouse, and run it for SEO. A score below 70 means basic signals are missing. Below 50 means there are structural problems worth fixing before anything else.
People Arrive but Leave Immediately
If Google Search Console shows visitors landing on your site but your analytics shows a high bounce rate or very short session times, the problem is speed, clarity, or mobile — in that order.
How to check your site speed
Go to pagespeed.web.dev and paste your URL. The number that matters is the mobile score. Over 60% of small business website traffic comes from phones.
A score below 50 on mobile means most visitors won't wait for your page to load. Google also uses this score as a ranking signal — a slow site ranks lower and drives fewer visitors to begin with.
Most sites built on page builders (Wix, Squarespace, WordPress with Elementor) score between 30 and 55 on mobile. They load dozens of scripts the visitor doesn't need. A custom-built site in the same category typically scores 90–100. Here's what actually makes a website fast in 2026 if you want to dig into why.
What to check on mobile
Open your site on your phone — not a desktop preview, your actual phone on a real connection.
- Does the text fit the screen without needing to zoom in?
- Is the contact button easy to tap with a thumb?
- Does the nav menu close after you tap a link?
- Does anything overlap or break at the edges?
If any of those fail, you're losing visitors. Ireland's average for small business sites is around 60% mobile traffic. A site that breaks on mobile is breaking for most of your audience.
Is the message clear in 5 seconds?
Ask someone who doesn't know your business to look at your homepage for 5 seconds, then close it and describe what you do. If they can't, your homepage has a clarity problem — not a design problem.
The most common version of this: a beautiful hero image, a vague tagline, and no mention of who you help or what they get. Visitors don't read websites. They scan for relevance, decide in seconds, and leave if they can't find it.
Visitors Don't Contact You
If people are landing on your site and spending time on it but not filling in forms or getting in touch, the problem is almost always one of three things: no clear call to action, missing trust signals, or an unclear offer.
What a clear call to action looks like
Every page should have one obvious next step. Not a menu of services, not three buttons, not a form at the bottom of a long page — one clear action and a reason to take it.
"Book a free 20-minute call — I'll tell you exactly what your site needs" works. "Contact us" with a blank form doesn't. Visitors need to know what happens after they click — specificity is what makes the difference.
The three trust signals most solopreneur sites are missing
A photo of you — not a logo, not a stock image, a real photo — raises contact rates measurably. People hire people. A faceless website is harder to trust than one where you can see who you're dealing with.
One specific result with a number. "Helped a Dublin-based coach increase her enquiries by 40% in 3 months" is more persuasive than "passionate about helping businesses grow". Generic claims are invisible — specific results create belief.
A sentence that says exactly who you help. "I build websites for independent nutritionists" is clearer than "I work with health and wellness professionals". The more specific you are, the easier it is for the right person to recognise themselves.
Is your offer clear?
Most solopreneur sites list services. They don't explain outcomes. "Brand strategy" doesn't tell me what I'll have when we're done. "I'll give you a one-page brand guide with your positioning, colours, and messaging — ready to hand to a designer" tells me exactly what I'm getting.
If your services page reads like a menu with no context, most visitors will assume you're like everyone else and move on.
When to Get a Second Opinion
If you've worked through those checks and still can't pinpoint the problem — or you don't have the time — a structured audit saves hours of guessing.
The Diagnosis is a €59 site review. You submit your URL and your goal. I look at the site, run the technical checks, and deliver a PDF report within 3 working days with five specific issues, what's causing each one, and what to do about it — including a DIY fix and what a proper build would solve.
PDF report delivered within 3 working days
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my website not getting any traffic?
The most common reason is that Google hasn't indexed your site properly, or your page titles and content don't match what people actually search for. Go to Google, type site:yourdomain.com — if nothing appears, that's your first problem. Then check Google Search Console for indexing errors.
How do I know if my website is too slow?
Go to pagespeed.web.dev and paste your URL. A score below 50 on mobile means most visitors won't wait for it to load. Anything below 70 is worth fixing. Sites built on page builders like Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress with Elementor typically score 30–55 on mobile.
Why do people visit my website but not contact me?
Usually it's one of three things: no clear call to action, missing trust signals (no photo, no results, no social proof), or the offer itself isn't clear. Most solopreneur sites have a contact form buried at the bottom and nothing else — that converts at under 1%.
How long does it take for a new website to show up on Google?
A brand-new site can take 3–6 months to appear in search results, even with well-written content. Google needs to crawl and index the site, and it needs to see signals that the site is trustworthy — like backlinks and consistent publishing.
What is a good Lighthouse SEO score?
Anything above 90 is good. Below 70 and you're likely missing basic SEO signals — missing meta descriptions, unoptimised page titles, or content that isn't structured for search. You can run Lighthouse for free in Chrome DevTools.
How do I check if Google has indexed my website?
Type site:yourdomain.com into Google. If results appear, your site is indexed. If nothing appears, set up Google Search Console (free) and request indexing. A new site with no backlinks can take weeks to appear even after indexing.
Why is my website not converting visitors into customers?
Most solopreneur sites convert badly because they have too many options and not enough direction. Every page should have one clear next step. A photo of you, one specific result you've achieved for a client, and a sentence that explains exactly who you help will raise your contact rate without changing anything else.
What's the difference between bounce rate and exit rate?
Bounce rate measures visitors who leave after viewing only one page. Exit rate measures the percentage of visitors who leave from a specific page, regardless of how many pages they viewed. A high bounce rate on your homepage usually means the message isn't landing fast enough.
How do I check if my website works on mobile?
Open your site on your phone and test three things: does the text fit without pinching to zoom, is the contact button easy to tap with a thumb, and does the navigation close when you tap a link. If any of those fail, you're losing mobile visitors.
What should I do if I can't figure out what's wrong with my website?
Get a structured audit. The Diagnosis is a €59 site review — you get a PDF with five specific issues, what's wrong with each one, and how to fix it. It takes about 3 working days.
