Your website has one job: turn visitors into enquiries. Most small business sites get plenty of looks and very few messages, and the reasons are usually simple and fixable.
These seven checks take about five minutes. Do them on your phone, because that’s where most of your visitors are. Tick yes or no for each one and your score adds up as you go. Your score and what it means sit right underneath, followed by a quick fix for each one you said no to.
The seven checks
- The first screen says what you do and where. No scrolling, no slideshow.
- It loads quickly on a phone. Test it on mobile data, not the office wifi.
- Every page has one obvious next step. Call, message or a short form.
- Your phone number is tap-to-call. Tap it on your phone. It should offer to call straight away.
- It shows real work and real people. Not stock photos.
- It has proof. Reviews, client names, finished projects.
- You can find it. Search for what you do plus your town. If you’re not there, your customers can’t find you either.
0/7
What your score means
6 or 7: it’s working
Keep it up to date. Add new work and new reviews as they come in, and check your mobile speed every few months.
4 or 5: it’s leaking enquiries
People arrive and leave without getting in touch. Fix your lowest-scoring check first. It’s usually the first screen or the next step, and both are quick to put right.
0 to 3: it’s costing you work
Patching won’t fix it. It’s time to rebuild around what your customers need to see, in the order they need to see it.
A website that looks good but brings no enquiries is a brochure.
Quick fixes for each check
1. The first screen says what you do and where
People decide whether they’re in the right place within a few seconds, before they scroll. If the first thing they see is a slogan, a slideshow or “Welcome to our website”, they have to work it out, and many won’t bother.
How to check: show your home page to a friend for five seconds, then ask what you do and where you’re based. If they can’t say both, it fails.
The fix: one plain headline that names the service and the town, such as “Electrician in Colchester for homes and businesses”, with a short line underneath and one button.
2. It loads quickly on a phone
A slow site loses people before they’ve seen anything, and the problem is always worse on a phone in a car park than on the office computer. Google also pays attention to how quickly pages load for real visitors.
How to check: turn off wifi and open your site on mobile data. Count how long it takes before you can read the headline. For a fuller picture, put your address into Google’s free PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile score.
The fix: the usual culprits are huge photos, background videos and too many plugins. Resize images before you upload them, save them as WebP, and think twice about a video that plays before anything else.
3. Every page has one obvious next step
Visitors rarely arrive on your home page. They land on a service page or a project from Google, read it, and then need to know what to do next. If the only contact details are hidden in the footer, a lot of interested people simply leave.
How to check: open three different pages and, without scrolling to the bottom, find how to get in touch. If you have to hunt, so do your customers.
The fix: pick one main action, whether that’s a call, a WhatsApp or a short form, and put it in the header and at the end of every page. One clear button beats five competing ones.
4. Your phone number is tap-to-call
On a phone, nobody wants to copy a number, switch apps and type it in. If your number is an image or plain text, every call depends on someone making that effort.
How to check: tap your number on your own phone. It should offer to call straight away. Do the same with your email address.
The fix: make the number a proper phone link and put it somewhere easy to reach, ideally in the header on mobile, not only in the footer.
5. It shows real work and real people
Stock photos of smiling people in a meeting room tell visitors nothing about you. Real photos of your work, your team and your premises do the opposite: they show you exist, what you’re like and what you’ll deliver.
How to check: count the photos on your home page. How many could appear on a competitor’s site without anyone noticing?
The fix: swap stock images for real ones, even if they’re taken on a phone. A good photo of a finished job beats a polished stock photo every time.
6. It has proof
Before getting in touch, people look for a reason to trust you. Reviews, the names of businesses you’ve worked for and examples of finished work do that far better than anything you say about yourself.
How to check: can a visitor find a review, a client name and a finished project within one scroll of your home page?
The fix: show a few short Google reviews with names, add a handful of project write-ups that explain the problem and the result, and ask every happy customer for a review while the job is still fresh.
7. You can find it
The best website in the world won’t win work if nobody sees it. Most customers search for a service and a town, then pick from the first few results and the map.
How to check: open a private browser window and search for your main service plus your town, for example “plumber Colchester”. Note whether you appear on the first page, and whether you show up on the map.
The fix: give each main service its own page that names the service and the town, keep your Google Business Profile complete and active, and collect reviews. It takes weeks rather than days, but it builds.
What to do next
Start with the first screen. Say what you do, who for and where, and add one clear button. Then work down the list, one check at a time.
Your website and your brand get judged together. If the site passes these checks but still looks dated, take the 10-point brand check next.
Want a second opinion? See how we approach website design in Colchester and Essex, or get in touch and we’ll go through your score with you.
