We audit a lot of underperforming websites, and the same handful of problems show up again and again — often on sites that look perfectly fine at a glance. Here are the ten issues we find most often in 2026 audits, roughly in order of how often they're silently costing conversions.
1. Mobile load time over 3 seconds
Over 60% of B2B and B2C traffic to most Canadian sites we audit is now mobile. Once Largest Contentful Paint crosses 3 seconds, bounce rate climbs sharply — Google's own research puts the increase at over 30% between a 1-second and 3-second load. The most common cause: unoptimized hero images (multi-megabyte JPEGs instead of properly sized, compressed WebP/AVIF) and render-blocking third-party scripts (chat widgets, marketing pixels) loaded synchronously in the head.
2. Forms with no inline validation
A form that only tells the user what's wrong after they hit submit, and then clears the entire form, is a guaranteed conversion killer. This shows up constantly on sites using default Contact Form 7 configurations without a validation layer added.
3. No clear next step above the fold
A homepage or landing page with a hero image, a headline, and no obvious action for the visitor to take relies entirely on the visitor to know what to do next. Every key page needs one clear primary call to action visible without scrolling.
4. Broken or missing redirects from old URLs
Sites that have been through a redesign or platform migration without careful redirect mapping bleed both direct traffic (bookmarked or linked URLs hitting a 404) and search rankings, since search engines treat a 404'd page as a signal to drop it from the index. This is one of the most common issues we find in post-migration audits.
5. Accessibility barriers that block real users and create legal exposure
Missing alt text, insufficient colour contrast, and forms that don't work with keyboard navigation or a screen reader are more common than most site owners realize — and in Canada, this isn't just a UX gap. Public-sector sites and increasingly private-sector organizations have real obligations under AODA in Ontario and the Accessible Canada Act federally, with WCAG 2.2 AA as the practical benchmark. We routinely find sites failing basic contrast checks on their own primary CTA buttons.
6. Cookie consent and privacy notices that don't match actual data practices
Under PIPEDA, and Law 25 for organizations handling Quebec residents' data, consent banners need to accurately reflect what's actually being collected. We frequently find sites running a generic cookie banner while a dozen third-party trackers fire before any consent is given — a compliance gap, and one more thing making the site feel untrustworthy to a privacy-conscious visitor.
7. Search that returns nothing useful
Site search built on a CMS's default (WordPress's native search, or an unconfigured Drupal core search) frequently fails to match on synonyms or partial terms, returning "no results" for perfectly reasonable queries. For content-heavy or catalogue sites, this is a direct path to lost conversions — visitors who search and get nothing rarely dig further.
8. Contact information that's inconsistent or hard to find
Phone numbers, addresses, and hours that differ between the website footer, the Contact page, and Google Business Profile create real friction and hurt local SEO. This is a simple fix that we still find on a surprising number of otherwise well-built sites.
9. Checkout or lead forms that don't work on mobile
Date pickers that don't open properly on iOS Safari, dropdown menus that require precision tapping, and multi-column layouts that don't collapse correctly — these are consistently underweighted in QA because they're tested on desktop first and mobile second, if at all.
10. No tracking of where leads actually come from
Sites running Google Analytics with no goal or conversion tracking configured, and no UTM discipline on paid or email campaigns, can't answer "which marketing channel actually produces customers." Without that, budget allocation decisions are guesses.
Fixing this without a full rebuild
Most of these issues don't require a rebuild — items 1, 2, 6, 8, and 10 are typically fixable in days to a few weeks. Items 4, 5, and 7 usually need a more structured audit and remediation plan.
Want a straight list of which of these ten apply to your site? Send us your URL and we'll run a quick audit and tell you what's actually costing you conversions.
Surrey, BC
A full-service digital agency working in WordPress, Drupal, Shopify, Webflow, React, and React Native. We partner with universities, governments, and growing brands to ship sites and products that hold up after launch.
