Your website is almost always your first and most important customer touchpoint. Most folks will visit your site before buying from you or booking your services, so if it’s not up to scratch, you could be missing out. But don’t worry! We’re here to break down why having a solid website is such a big deal in 2025 (and beyond), and what to keep an eye on to make sure yours is working hard for you.

What makes a good website?

Simply put, customers today expect a website that’s fast, functional and aligned with your brand. While this isn’t necessarily the ‘be-all end-all’, these three core parts of a user’s experience are noticeable if absent and a significant part of how a customer would deem your site to be “good”.

There are a few questions that you should be asking yourself when looking at your site:

Your website health check

Is your website aesthetically pleasing? Does the design style match your brand?
Does your website function properly? Do all the buttons and links work?
Does your site provide helpful content, including all the services you offer and your contact information?

If you answered “no” to one or more of these questions, it doesn’t necessarily mean your website is “bad”, but it is a sign that your site may be holding back your business and needs some work to reach its full potential.

You only get one chance to make a first impression

People repeat this saying all the time for a reason! Users tend to make assumptions about your business and whether they want to use your services or buy from you within seconds of arriving on your site.

We have a saying here at Webcentral: build once, build right. Your website’s design should represent who you are as a company, the values or ideas you embody and be appealing to your ideal customers. Here are some things you should consider when it comes to the appearance of the website:

Colour scheme - It should fit within the family of colours that match your existing brand identity. Straying too far from the colours people already associate with your brand can lead to confusion or mistrust in the authenticity of the site.
Typography - The typeface you choose can have a big impact on how usable your site is. Save the fancy fonts for hero text that isn’t important for navigation, and pick an easily legible font for the rest!
Imagery - Relevant, high quality imagery captures attention and builds trust, so it's essential to have engaging images that represent your brand, services or products, drawing people in without distracting from important information.

Showcasing your brand and setting yourself apart from your competitors is one of the most important things you can do. However, designing a website that really represents the brand you’ve worked so hard to build can be a big undertaking. Our website design service offers custom solutions built around you. With a dedicated build manager, ongoing expert support and monthly updates, the pressure is really taken off!

Mobile traffic is king

Global figures for 2025 show that the majority of website traffic, almost 60%, comes from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. So, how does that impact your website? Well, older sites are often not optimised for use on mobile devices. This can lead to content not loading properly, images being far too large for the screen size, or functionality being affected.

Ensuring your website is optimised for mobile devices not only improves user experience (UX), it reduces bounce rate as well. It also significantly improves your website’s positive SEO signals and resulting organic rankings for relevant keywords. This is because, as of October 2023, Google switched to mobile-first indexing, which means it primarily uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking.

All of this increases your chances of ranking higher up on the search engine results page (SERP) and being seen by more potential users, big win!

User experience impacts sales and leads

The quality of your site’s user experience (UX) can directly impact your bottom line if it isn’t up to scratch, meaning losses of sales and leads. If users are met with slow loading times, confusing navigation, or content that's hard to read, there's a good chance they’ll get frustrated and leave. But it's definitely not all doom and gloom! There are plenty of things you can do to improve UX and turn those frustrating moments into successful conversions.

Core Web Vitals, of course, play a big part in ensuring a good user experience. These are Google's key metrics that measure the speed, responsiveness, and visual stability of your website. They're not just technical jargon; they directly reflect an average user's interaction with your site. By optimising these aspects, you're laying the foundations for a more satisfying user journey.

Beyond technical performance, a well-designed site builds confidence and guides users to take action. A cohesive, on-brand website design with consistent branding immediately tells users your business is professional and trustworthy.

Don’t forget, making sure your content is engaging encourages users to stay on your site and explore. This is essential if you want to generate those leads or sales. High-quality, relevant content isn't just for SEO; it's what keeps users hooked.

By focusing on the technical backbone of Core Web Vitals through to thoughtful design and compelling content, you can transform your website into an active sales and lead generation machine.

Why is my website not coming up on Google?

Simply having a website isn't enough; it needs to be found. This is where visibility and search ranking come in, and it's about far more than just looking good. Your website's ability to rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs) is essential to attracting potential customers and staying competitive.

A good site is more than looks

While a visually pleasing design goes a long way to helping with user experience, the real work of online visibility lies beneath the surface, in elements that directly influence Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This can cover things like:

Structure - A well-structured website provides a clear roadmap for both users and search engine crawlers. This includes things like a logical hierarchy of pages, intuitive navigation (think clear menus and breadcrumbs), and a clean URL structure. These help search engines understand the relationships between your content. This allows them to index your pages more efficiently and understand your site's overall authority and relevance.
Speed - The average user of today expects instant gratification, and search engines know this. Page load speed is a critical ranking factor, especially on mobile devices, which, as mentioned, now account for the majority of web traffic. A delay of just a few seconds can significantly increase your bounce rate!
Content - The old adage "Content is King" is still true today. However, it's not just about having any content; it's about having high-quality, relevant, and helpful content that addresses user queries.

An outdated site may not show up in searches

If your website isn't regularly updated and optimised, it risks becoming a digital relic, effectively invisible to potential customers. This is because search engine algorithms, especially Google's, are constantly evolving. They will always prioritise websites that offer the best user experience and the most relevant, up-to-date information. An outdated site, with a poor Core Web Vitals score, broken links, or stale content, can send negative signals to these algorithms. This can push your site further down the SERPs, where fewer and fewer people will find it. This would turn the site into a ‘digital relic’, buried beneath the other sites in SERPs that the algorithms determine as more relevant and up-to-date.

An outdated website can also mean outdated business hours, addresses, or service offerings, causing confusion and frustration. If your business has physical locations but your local information isn’t up to date, it can prevent your business from showing up in "near me" searches, sending potential local customers elsewhere.

An outdated website can actively hurt your visibility and reputation. It's a liability that not only hinders your online presence, but also your ability to compete in today's digital world. Investing in a website that has a robust structure, lightning-fast speed, and fresh, valuable content is a fundamental building block for online success in 2025.

A central hub for growth

As we said before: build once, build right. In 2025, a good website isn't just a digital brochure; it acts as a foundation for future growth, capable of evolving and adapting as your business expands. So, getting that foundation nice and strong from the get-go is super important!

Wherever you want to take your business, your website should be able to go with you. Whether it's adding new features like online bookings, email newsletter signup to nurture leads, targeted ads that direct traffic to specific landing pages, or making the leap into e-commerce, your website is the hub where it all connects.

A website that’s easy to use, has a great user experience (UX), and really represents who you are as a business isn't just about today. It's about laying down the foundations that support your ambitions. This kind of site reduces friction for your customers, scales effortlessly with new services, and reinforces your brand identity. This type of site would have the opportunity to properly grow, and be more future-proofed against changes down the line to search engines’ ever-evolving algorithms. It means you can innovate and expand without having to rebuild your core online presence. This ensures that every new initiative or growth strategy has a reliable, high-performing platform to launch from, saving you time, money, and headaches down the line.
Not sure whether your current site is helping or hurting your business? We can help you with that! Webcentral offers done-for-you websites built by professionals, without the hassle! We focus on creating those strong foundations so your business can flourish for years to come. Learn more about our website building and design services here!

Rhiannon Thomas