The problem with auditing your own website is that you already know what’s on it. You’ve stopped seeing it as a visitor sees it. This checklist is designed to break that habit.
Do this on your phone first, then on a laptop. Most of your visitors are on mobile.
The first thirty seconds
Open your homepage. Without scrolling, without clicking anything, can you answer these three questions?
- What does this business do?
- Where is it located (if that’s relevant)?
- What should I do next?
If you can’t answer all three in thirty seconds, you have a homepage problem. Most small business websites have a homepage problem.
The contact test
Find your phone number. Time how long it takes. If it takes more than fifteen seconds to find your phone number on mobile, that’s too long.
Now find your address, if you have a physical location. Find your email. Find your opening hours.
These four pieces of information should be on every page, or findable from every page within one click.
The booking or inquiry path
Try to book an appointment or make an inquiry as if you were a new customer. Complete the entire process.
- How many clicks does it take?
- How many form fields are there?
- What happens when you submit? Is the confirmation clear?
- Did a confirmation email arrive? How long did it take? What did it say?
Most businesses have never done this themselves. Most businesses have at least one broken step.
The about page
Does your about page have a photo of you, or your team, or your space? Not a stock photo. A real photograph.
People hire people. They book with businesses where they feel some sense of who they’re dealing with. A real photo does more for conversion than almost any amount of copy.
The evidence question
What evidence is on your site that you’re good at what you do?
Reviews, testimonials, before-and-after photos, case studies, press mentions, years in business, qualifications — some form of social proof should be visible without needing to search for it.
The speed test
Open your site on a mobile data connection, not wifi. How long does it take to load? If you can see the load happen — if there’s a visible delay before content appears — it’s too slow.
Page speed matters for SEO and it matters for conversion. Every second of load time reduces conversion rate.
The obvious things
- Is the copyright year in the footer correct?
- Are any links broken? (Try the navigation, the social media links, any call-to-action buttons)
- Is the site secure? (It should say https:// in the address bar, with a padlock)
- Is the text readable? (High contrast, not too small, not too light)
What to do with what you find
Write down every problem you found. Order them by impact: which ones are losing you the most business right now?
Fix the top three this week. Don’t try to fix everything at once — you won’t, and you’ll leave it all unfixed. Three specific improvements, done this week, will outperform a complete overhaul planned for some future date that never arrives.
Ada runs a one-person studio doing brand work for restaurants and shops. She writes Folio's recurring column on websites that don't get in the way.
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