What Italian small-business websites get wrong: data from our audits

How we did it

Every site is analysed with the same tool, one we built: it opens the pages as a phone on a 4G network with a throttled processor, watches what fires before the visitor answers the cookie banner, reads what Google reads and checks the domain's settings. The figures on this page come from every audit we have run since September 2026 and update as we add new ones.

This is not a statistical sample: they are businesses we picked, almost all small and medium-sized, and 64% of the sites run on WordPress. We name no one. When a check could not run on a site, that site was not counted: the numbers below are a floor, not a ceiling.

Slow on a phone: 69% of sites

On 69% of sites the main content shows up after 2.5 seconds, the threshold Google rates as good; among the slow ones the median is 4.6 seconds. On 55% of sites opening the home page costs more than 3 MB, and the record was 30.3 MB for a single page. The weight almost always comes from photos uploaded straight off the camera and from code nobody uses.

How to check: open PageSpeed Insights, paste the address and look at the mobile result. More in How much should a website weigh.

A cookie banner is not enough: 66% of sites

On 66% of sites some tracking tool (analytics, advertising, social pixels) fires before the visitor has chosen, or fires on a site with no banner at all. Tools that are not strictly needed should only start after a yes. On 51% of sites the banner covers at least 40% of the phone screen, and on 29% it covers all of it: visitors see the banner, not you.

How to check: open the site on your phone in a private window. If the banner hides the page, or rejecting is harder than accepting, it needs fixing. Knowing what fires before the choice takes a technical check: ask whoever runs the site.

Google cannot tell what you do: 44% of sites

On 44% of sites the description Google shows under the result is missing, is the menu text picked up at random, or the page title is generic, like “Home”. On 34% of sites the home page has no main heading (H1) saying what you do, and on 22% there is no structured data, the information written specifically for search engines and AI assistants.

How to check: search Google for site: followed by your domain, for example site:yoursite.com. If titles and descriptions do not say who you are and what you do, people move on. The same goes for AI assistants: more in Getting found by AI: what GEO is.

Reaching you is harder than it should be: 34% of sites

On 34% of sites the first phone screen has no number to tap, no WhatsApp button, no form and no link to the contact page, even though they exist further down. On 29% of sites there is a written address but no map or link to get there.

How to check: open the site on your phone and, without scrolling, try to call or message yourself. If you cannot in one tap, neither can a customer.

Hard work on a phone: 53% of sites

On 53% of sites at least a quarter of the links and buttons are smaller than 24 pixels, too small for a finger. On 37% of sites at least a quarter of the text is in a colour too close to its background to read well. On 33% of sites there are photos without a description, so people using a screen reader cannot tell what they show.

How to check: use the site on your phone, outdoors, with one hand. Whatever takes effort for you takes effort for customers too.

Security and upkeep: 73% of sites

On 73% of sites the basic protections a server can ask the browser for (security headers) are missing: invisible, but they make some common attacks harder. Among the sites built with WordPress, 60% had the core or some plugin out of date. And on 28% of domains at least one of the two settings (SPF and DMARC) that stop others from sending email in your name, and help yours stay out of spam, is missing.

How to check: ask whoever runs the site when it was last updated and whether the domain has SPF and DMARC. Two one-minute questions.

The details that cost trust

On 17% of sites the footer shows a “©” stuck on a past year (the oldest: 2012): to anyone who notices, the site looks abandoned. On 20% of sites we found no VAT number, which Italian businesses must show on their website. On 36% of sites there was no tool at all to count visits: no way to know whether the site brings in customers.

What goes right

Not everything needs redoing. 97% of sites adapt to a phone screen, 85% use a secure connection (HTTPS) and 24% are fast even on a phone. The basics are there almost everywhere: what is missing are the details that separate a site that exists from a site that brings in customers.

Check yours in five minutes

1. Open PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile result: does the main content arrive within 2.5 seconds?
2. Open the site on your phone in a private window: does the cookie banner let you see the page and reject in one tap?
3. Search Google for site: and your domain: do titles and descriptions say who you are and what you do?
4. From the first phone screen, can you call or message yourself in one tap?
5. In the footer, are the year and the VAT number right?

If you want the full audit of your site, like the ones these numbers come from, write to us.