A Competitor’s IPO Uncovered Some Hard Truths
The Hidden Digital Chaos Behind Rapid Growth
A friend of mine works as a global web project manager, specialising in auditing complex B2B websites. She’s often called in when something feels “off” but nobody can quite put their finger on why. Earlier this year, she was hired by a medium-sized UK facilities management firm that had grown quickly through a string of mergers and acquisitions.
From the outside, the business looked like a success story. On the inside, their digital presence was a mess. They had a patchwork of regional websites, each with its own look, tone, and structure - all competing against each other in search results. Some contained outdated information, others had broken links, and the messaging was inconsistent. To make matters worse, their head of digital marketing had left more than a year earlier and never been replaced. The managing director was under pressure to deliver growth, and a competitor’s IPO prospectus had made it embarrassingly clear to everyone that their own website performance was lagging significantly behind.
The Audit That Exposed Ten Critical Website Issues
When my friend showed me the summary of her audit, I was left wondering if the website was functioning at all. Her review uncovered ten serious issues:
Slow load times: Pages took several seconds to load, sending potential clients elsewhere before they’d even engaged with the content.
Outdated, inconsistent design: Visual styles varied wildly between regions, failing to convey a coherent brand identity.
Poor mobile usability: Some regional sites were borderline unusable on a phone, frustrating prospects on the go.
Confusing navigation: Menu structures differed so much between sites that even regular customers couldn’t find the right information easily.
Security vulnerabilities: Unapproved plug-ins installed by local teams left the company exposed to potential breaches.
Duplicate content: Competing pages across different domains diluted search performance and confused search engines.
Weak SEO performance: Core services were buried under generic industry terms that attracted the wrong traffic.
Inconsistent analytics: Tracking was set up differently on each site, making it impossible to get a clear picture of performance.
No integration with Pipedrive: Without this link, valuable lead data was being lost or never captured at all.
Regional rivalry: Teams were competing for the same keywords, cannibalising each other’s traffic.
Choosing the Right Agency for the Overhaul
She pulled everything into a comprehensive report and recommended three specialist agencies with excellent reviews, strong sector experience, and proven B2B track records. All three could do the job, but each had a different edge: one had a UK-based development team, another operated mainly out of Eastern Europe, and the third was headquartered in India. They also differed in preferred technologies and experience integrating websites with Pipedrive. But each, very well respected and capable of the overhaul required.
Cutting Through the Noise: The Value of a Trusted Expert
She offered to make personal introductions to save time and bypass a drawn-out procurement process. The managing director praised the report for being both thorough and actionable. Under pressure to move quickly, he asked her which agency she’d pick. She told him, and he asked her to make the introduction.
It was a clear example of how commercials can mask underlying problems until they can't… and how a single, well-connected expert can help cut through the noise to get a company back on track.
