Every week, I speak with Milton Keynes business owners who know something's wrong with their website but can't quite put their finger on it. The phone's not ringing. Enquiries have dried up. Competitors seem to be everywhere online while their site gathers digital dust.
Sound familiar?
After helping dozens of local businesses across Milton Keynes transform their online presence, I've noticed the same problems cropping up again and again. These aren't obscure technical issues but they're fixable problems that are silently costing you customers every single day.
Here are the seven website problems I fix most often for MK businesses, why they matter, and what you can do about them.
1. Your Website Takes Forever to Load
This is the big one. If I had to pick a single issue that kills more local businesses online, it's slow loading times.
Here's the reality: 53% of mobile visitors abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. That means if your website takes 4 or 5 seconds to appear, you're losing half your potential customers before they even see what you offer.
And it gets worse. Google uses page speed as a ranking factor. So not only are you losing the visitors who do find you but as a result, you're also becoming invisible to everyone else because Google's pushing faster competitors above you in search results.
What causes slow websites?
Most MK businesses I work with are using page builders like WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or GoDaddy. These platforms have bloated code, unoptimised images, and unnecessary scripts that drag your loading time down. They're convenient and allow you to edit yourself, sure. But that convenience and ability to self-edit content comes at a cost.
When I rebuilt the website for Stirling People Solutions, a recruitment consultancy here in Milton Keynes, their old GoDaddy site was scoring 82/100 on Google PageSpeed. That might sound decent, but their Largest Contentful Paint (the time it takes for the main content to appear) was a sluggish 4.5 seconds.
After migrating them to a custom-coded site, that dropped to 1.5 seconds meaning it was 67% faster. Their PageSpeed score jumped to 98/100 thanks to our custom website.
What this means for your business:
Every 100 milliseconds you shave off your load time can increase conversions by 1%. For a business generating £100,000 annually through their website, a one-second improvement could mean an extra £7,000 in revenue. That's basic maths.
Quick check: Open Google PageSpeed Insights, pop in your website address, and see what score you get. Anything below 90 on mobile is costing you business.
2. Your Site Doesn't Work Properly on Mobile Phones
Here's a number that should make every business owner sit up: 62% of all website traffic now comes from mobile devices. In Milton Keynes, where people are searching for local services on their phones while commuting, walking through Centre:MK, or sitting in Costa, that percentage is probably even higher.
Yet I regularly see MK business websites that look gorgeous on a desktop computer and completely fall apart on a phone. Text too small to read, buttons impossible to tap, images that overflow off the screen and contact forms that require a magnifying glass.
Google has been crystal clear about this: they use mobile-first indexing. That means they judge your entire website based on how it performs on mobile, not desktop. If your mobile site is broken, your search rankings suffer across the board, further impacting SEO and possible enquiries to your website.
What you can do:
Grab your phone right now and visit your own website. Try to navigate it with just your thumb. Can you easily find your phone number? Is it clickable? Can you fill out a contact form without zooming? If any of this feels frustrating, imagine how your customers feel.
3. Google Can't Find You (Poor Local SEO)
"Why doesn't my business show up when I Google what we do?"
I hear this constantly. A Milton Keynes accountant searches "accountant Milton Keynes" and finds their competitors on page one while their own site is nowhere to be seen. A local plumber types "emergency plumber MK" and draws a blank.
The problem usually comes down to missing local keywords and poor technical SEO. Your website might talk about your services beautifully, but if you never mention "Milton Keynes," "MK," or the specific areas you serve, Google has no idea you're a local business.
Common local SEO mistakes I see:
- No location mentioned in page titles or headings
- Meta descriptions that don't include Milton Keynes and instead broadly describes the business
- Missing or incomplete Google Business Profile
- No local schema markup telling Google where you're based
- Content that focuses on what you do but not where you do it
The fix isn't complicated:
If you're a decorator in Milton Keynes, your homepage title shouldn't be "Quality Painting & Decorating Services." It should be "Quality Painting & Decorating Services in Milton Keynes | Your Business Name".
Every page on your site should reinforce where you're located. Not in a spammy way, just naturally. E.g., "We've been helping homeowners across Milton Keynes for over 10 years."
Quick win: Make sure your Google Business Profile is complete, verified, and matches your website information exactly. Inconsistencies between your website, Google Business Profile, and directory listings confuse Google and hurt your rankings.
4. Visitors Have No Idea What to Do Next
You've got someone on your website. They're interested. They want to take the next step. And then... nothing. No clear call to action. No obvious phone number. No simple way to get in touch.
This is what I call the "dead-end website" problem, and it's shockingly common among Milton Keynes businesses.
Signs your website has this problem:
- Your phone number is buried in the footer (or worse, only on a Contact page)
- You have no clear call to action on your first homepage element
- Your contact form asks for too much information
- There's no incentive for visitors to reach out
- Multiple competing calls to action buttons confuse visitors
What works:
The best-performing websites I build have one clear primary action on the home page. Usually, it's a prominent phone number that's clickable on mobile, combined with a simple contact form or WhatsApp button.
When I designed the new site for Stirling People Solutions, we replaced their old chatbot with a direct WhatsApp integration. Why? Because real conversations convert. WhatsApp messages have a 98% open rate compared to 20% for email. Their enquiries went up because we made it stupidly easy for people to get in touch.
The rule I follow: A visitor should be able to contact you within two taps on a mobile phone, from any page on your site. If it takes longer than that, you're losing business.
5. Your Website Looks Like It Was Built in 2015
First impressions happen fast online... about 50 milliseconds, according to research. That's 0.05 seconds to convince a visitor that your business is trustworthy and worth their time.
Outdated design doesn't just look bad. It actively damages trust. Visitors see an old-fashioned website and assume the business behind it is equally outdated and/or closed. They wonder if you're still operating. They question whether you can deliver quality work if you can't even maintain a decent website.
Red flags that date your site:
- Tiny text and cramped spacing
- Clunky navigation menus
- Flash elements or heavy animations
- Outdated colour schemes and typography
- No dark mode or accessibility features
Modern doesn't mean flashy:
The best business websites in 2025 are clean, fast, and focused. They use plenty of white space. Typography is clear and readable. Images are authentic. Navigation is intuitive.
When visitors land on a modern site, they feel confident in the business. They trust that if the company cares about their online presence, they probably care about their work too.
Honest assessment: Look at your closest competitor's website, then look at yours. If theirs looks noticeably more professional and up-to-date, that's a problem. Potential customers are making the same comparison.
6. Your Site Isn't Accessible to Everyone
Website accessibility isn't just about doing the right thing. It's also about reaching more customers and avoiding legal issues.
Around 16% of the global population lives with some form of disability. If your website isn't accessible, you're potentially excluding a huge chunk of your market. Plus, accessibility and good SEO go hand in hand.
Screen readers and search engine crawlers interpret websites in similar ways. Many accessibility improvements such as like proper heading structure, descriptive alt text on images, and clear link text also help your Google rankings.
Common accessibility issues I fix:
- Missing alt text on images (screen readers can't describe them)
- Poor colour contrast making text hard to read
- Forms without proper labels
- No keyboard navigation support
- Videos without captions
- PDFs that can't be read by assistive technology
The business case:
Beyond the ethical and legal considerations, accessible websites simply work better for everyone. Captions help people watching videos in noisy environments. Good contrast helps people reading on phones in bright sunlight. Clear navigation helps everyone find what they need faster.
When I build websites, WCAG compliance isn't an add-on but it's built in from the start. It's one of those things that costs very little extra to do properly but can cost a lot if you ignore it.
7. You're Trapped by Your Website Platform
This might be the most frustrating problem I encounter. Business owners who want to make changes to their website but can't as their platform won't let them, because they don't have access to their own site, or because every small tweak requires paying their agency hundreds of pounds.
Platform prison looks like this:
- You want to update your prices but have to wait two weeks for your developer
- Simple text changes cost £75-100 each
- You can't access your domain or hosting directly
- Moving to a new platform means starting from scratch
- Your current site can't do what you need, but you're locked in
The page builder trap:
Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy are easy to get started with. But as your business grows, their limitations become painful. You hit performance ceilings. You can't implement the features you need. You're paying ongoing fees for a site you don't really own.
Two ways to escape the trap:
I offer two options depending on what matters most to you:
Option 1: £0 down, £150/month: This includes everything down to hosting, unlimited edits, 24/7 support, and a free redesign every three years. There's a 12-month minimum contract, and while you don't own the site outright, you never have to worry about maintenance, updates, or any surprise costs. It's a genuine partnership where I handle everything so you can focus on running your business.
Option 2: £3,600 one-time payment where you own the site completely. The code, the design and the content, it's all yours. Want to move to a different host? Go for it. Want another developer to make changes? No problem. You're never locked in. Hosting is available at £20/month, or if you want me to handle ongoing edits, that's £75/month.
Either way, you're not trapped. You're choosing the arrangement that works best for your situation.
What These Problems Are Really Costing You
Let's put some numbers to this.
If your website gets 500 visitors a month (pretty typical for a small local business), and a slow, mobile-unfriendly site causes you to lose 50% of them before they even see your content, that's 250 potential customers gone.
If your poor local SEO means you're only appearing for 10% of relevant searches instead of 50%, multiply that loss accordingly.
If your lack of clear calls to action means only 1% of visitors contact you instead of the 3-5% a well-designed site converts, you're leaving two-thirds of your potential leads on the table.
These problems compound. Fix them, and the improvements compound too.
The Path Forward
Here's what I've learned from working with MK businesses: these problems don't fix themselves. That website you've been meaning to update for the past two years? It's actively losing you money every single day you delay.
But here's the good news: none of these issues are insurmountable. They're all fixable with enough time. The businesses that fixes them, which invest in a fast, mobile-friendly, SEO-optimised website with clear calls to action, see real results quicker.
Adam from Stirling People Solutions put it well after we rebuilt his site:
"The process from start to finish was superb! Lewis took on board all of my ideas and tried to deliver as close to what we wanted as possible. He was always available and on hand at every step, and quick to tweak things and make changes as we worked our way through each page of the site. We're incredibly happy with the finished website."
If any of these problems sound familiar, I'm happy to take a look at your current site and give you an honest assessment which would be a conversation about what's working, what isn't, and what it would take to fix it.
Give me a call on 01908 881018 or drop me a text message. I'm a Milton Keynes local, I speak plain English, and I genuinely enjoy helping local businesses sort out their websites.
Your website should be working for you, not against you. Let's make that happen.
