4 Website Red Flags That Demand Immediate Attention

Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business, and while looking good is important, there are fundamental technical and legal requirements that can make or break your online presence. If you’re unsure whether your website needs an overhaul, asking yourself these four critical questions will quickly reveal where you stand.

1. Is Your Website Secure?

*Note: Some browser configurations may highlight insecure sites with a “Not Secure” warning instead of highlighting secure websites with a padlock icon.

2. Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?

More than 60% of UK web traffic now comes from mobile devices. If your website doesn’t work seamlessly on smartphones and tablets, you’re turning away the majority of your potential customers.

Google’s mobile-first indexing means your mobile site performance directly impacts your search rankings, so a website that looks professional on desktop but breaks on mobile is potentially as bad as having no website at all.

Key indicators of mobile-friendliness:

• Text is readable without zooming
• Buttons and links are easily tappable
• Content fits the screen width
• Pages load quickly on mobile connections
• Navigation works intuitively with touch

Try testing your website on various devices and screen sizes, and ask others for feedback. If users are pinching, zooming, or struggling to navigate, your design needs urgent attention.

3. Are You Compliant With Privacy Laws?

UK privacy laws, including UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), are legal requirements with serious penalties for non-compliance.

Your website must clearly inform visitors about data collection, provide transparent privacy policies, and obtain proper consent for cookies and tracking. The days of generic “this site uses cookies” banners are long gone.

Compliance essentials:

• Comprehensive privacy policy written in plain English
• Cookie consent management that meets UK GDPR standards
• Clear data processing purposes and legal basis
• Easy-to-find contact information for data protection queries
• Processes for handling data subject rights requests

If your privacy policy was last updated before 2018, or if you’re still using a basic cookie notification, then you’re likely non-compliant. But this isn’t just about avoiding fines, research shows that customers are increasingly choosing to support businesses that demonstrate a respect for their privacy.

4. Is Your Website Accessible to Everyone?

One in five people in the UK has a disability, which represents a significant portion of your potential customer base. Also, the EU Accessibility Act which recently came into force imposes legal obligations on website owners and is likely to influence future UK accessibility law.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide clear standards for making websites usable by people with various disabilities, including visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments.

Accessibility basics to check:

• Alt text for all images
• Proper heading structure (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
• Sufficient colour contrast ratios
• Keyboard navigation functionality
• Screen reader compatibility

Accessible websites also tend to perform better in search engines and provide better user experiences for everyone, so if you’ve never considered accessibility in your website design then you’re missing both an audience and an opportunity.

The Bottom Line

These four areas – security, mobile responsiveness, privacy compliance, and accessibility – form the foundation of any modern website. Weakness in any of these areas indicates your website is in urgent need of a redesign.

The good news is that addressing these issues through a thoughtful redesign process will improve your website’s performance across the board, leading to better search rankings, increased user engagement, reduced legal risk, and access to a broader customer base.

If you answered “no” or “I’m not sure” to any of these questions, it’s time to start planning your website redesign.