3 Signs Your Website Isn’t Performing and How to Fix Them

Your website is often the first place customers judge your business. But if it’s not performing, you’re losing sales before you even get a chance to compete. In 2026, customer expectations will be higher than ever: they want speed, seamless journeys, and clear value. Miss the mark on any of these, and they’ll bounce straight to a competitor. Here are three clear warning signs your website might be underperforming, and what to do about them.

1. High bounce rates

A bounce rate that sits far above the norm is a clear indicator that your site is not giving visitors what they expect. In 2025, most eCommerce websites see bounce rates in the 20% to 45% range, depending on sector and traffic source. If your numbers are higher than this, users are clicking away because they’re either unimpressed with the content, confused by navigation, or misled by the promise of an ad or search listing.

To address this, keep your site visually current and relevant, ensure it works seamlessly on mobile, and add interactive features that encourage exploration. Align your landing pages closely with the intent behind the traffic you’re attracting, and give visitors clear next steps so they know where to go next. A high bounce rate doesn’t just hurt your conversions, it also sends the wrong signals to search engines.

2. Slow page load times

Few things frustrate users more than a sluggish site. By 2026, the expectation is clear: people expect desktop pages to load in around 2 seconds, and they’ll abandon a mobile site if it takes longer than three. Research shows that every extra second of delay can cut conversions by 4–7%.

The good news is that speed is one of the easiest issues to measure and fix. Start by testing your site with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to understand what’s slowing things down. Then look at your hosting provider to make sure they can scale with your traffic. Beyond that, optimise your images using modern formats like WebP or AVIF, lazy-load media so it only loads when needed, and strip out unnecessary scripts and plugins. Getting your Core Web Vitals into the green should be a priority; not only does it improve user experience, it also helps with SEO visibility.

3. Low conversion rates

Driving traffic is only half the battle. If people are landing on your site but not converting, it’s time to find out why. Average eCommerce conversion rates in 2025 typically range between 2% and 4%. If you’re well below that, it’s worth digging into the details. Analytics, A/B testing, heat maps and funnel tracking can all highlight where visitors are dropping off.

Sometimes the fixes are straightforward: a checkout process that’s too long, calls to action that aren’t clear enough, or navigation that makes it hard to find products. In other cases, the issue may lie in your proposition. Are your price points competitive? Do you offer incentives for new customers? Is your product search and filtering intuitive? By personalising the journey and making it as frictionless as possible, you can turn more of your visitors into buyers.

The bottom line
These three issues, high bounce rates, slow load times, and low conversion rates, are often the clearest signals that your website is underperforming. The good news is they’re all measurable, and they’re all fixable. If you’d like to know whether your site is keeping up with the benchmarks in 2025, or want to understand exactly where it’s falling short, get in touch. At R3, we help businesses optimise their platforms so they don’t just attract visitors, but turn them into loyal customers.