Check your own website from your phone in 5 minutes

This is not your Google listing and it is not your reviews. This is the actual website, the page someone lands on after they already found you. Twelve checks, five minutes, done from your phone like a stranger would see it.

Do this part first

Open a private browser window before you start. In Chrome, tap the three dots and choose New Incognito Tab. In Safari, tap the two squares and choose Private. Your own phone already has your site saved, so it loads fast and looks familiar to you in a way it does not for anyone else. A private window shows you the real thing.

The 12 checks

1. Type your web address in fresh, do not tap a saved bookmark. Fail if you had to search for it because you do not actually remember it.

2. Time how long it takes to load, count out loud. Fail if you get past five seconds before you see anything.

3. Look for the padlock or "https" at the top. Fail if your browser shows a "not secure" warning.

4. Read the homepage without pinching or zooming. Fail if the text is too small to read normally or anything runs off the side.

5. Look at the top of the page for one sentence that says what you do and where. Fail if a stranger would have to guess.

6. Tap your phone number. Let it actually try to dial, then hang up. Fail if it does not dial or dials an old number.

7. Find your address or service area without scrolling far. Fail if it is missing or buried at the bottom.

8. Find today's hours. Fail if hours are missing, outdated, or say something different than your Google listing.

9. Tap every link in your main menu. Fail if even one goes nowhere or shows an error page.

10. Look at every photo on the homepage. Fail if any photo is blurry, a stock photo, stretched, or does not load at all.

11. Scroll to the bottom and check the copyright year. Fail if it says a year that already passed. It tells visitors nobody has touched the site in a while.

12. Try to book, message, or buy something, all the way to the last step, without actually submitting it. Fail if a form is broken, a button does nothing, or you got lost partway through.

Score it

0 to 2 fails: your site is doing its job. Fix what you found and move on.
3 to 5 fails: people are landing on your site and quietly leaving. Nothing here looks broken from the owner's chair, which is why it stays broken.
6 or more: the site is costing you customers who already found you and almost booked. That is the most expensive kind of miss there is.

What this costs

$0. This is a checklist you run with your own thumb. Whatever you find broken, some fixes are free (an old phone number, a wrong hour) and some need an actual rebuild (a site that will not load, no secure padlock). You will know which is which once you see the list.

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