Is Your Website Doing Its Job? A 10-Minute Audit for Busy Owners
- Beth Dunlop
- Jul 15
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 30
If your honest answer is “I'm not totally sure” – that's completely understandable.
Between serving customers, managing staff, and keeping the books, your website is working (or not working) for you every single day, whether you're paying attention to it or not.
It's usually the first stop for a potential customer before they ever walk through your door or pick up the phone. The good news: you don't need a massive redesign to make it better. You just need ten minutes and a clear-eyed look.
Here's a simple audit you can run this week.
1. Can people find your hours, location, and phone number in under 10 seconds? This is the single most common failure point. If a visitor has to hunt for how to reach you, they'll go to the next result instead.
The Quick Fix: Put this information somewhere obvious – ideally in the header or footer of every page, not buried on a “Contact” page.
2. Does it work on a phone? More than half of your visitors are almost certainly on a phone or mobile device. Pull up your site on your own phone right now. Is the text readable without zooming? Do buttons work with a thumb?
The Quick Fix: If it's not mobile-friendly, this is priority one. Contact your platform's support or search "[your platform] mobile optimization" to see how easily it can be adjusted.
3. Is it clear what you actually do, in the first five seconds? Someone lands on your homepage – can they tell, without scrolling, what you sell or do, and who it's for? Vague taglines (“Quality service you can trust”) don't tell anyone anything. Say the plain thing: “Custom cabinetry for island homes” beats “Excellence in craftsmanship.”
The Quick Fix: Rewrite your main headline today to be as literal and clear as possible.
4. Is there one clear next step? Every page should have an obvious answer to “what do I do now?” – call, book, visit, order. If there are ten competing buttons and links, visitors often do nothing at all.
The Quick Fix: Pick one primary action per page and make that button stand out.
5. When was it last updated? Check your hours, pricing, seasonal info, and any “coming soon” pages. Out-of-date information erodes trust fast, especially for visitors checking whether you're open right now.
The Quick Fix: Set a recurring calendar reminder for the first of every month to quickly review your key pages. *This affects your search results more than you think! Google penalizes sites with inaccurate info.
6. Would you trust this business, based on the site alone? Step back and look at it as a stranger would. Are there real photos (not stock or AI images), a few reviews or testimonials ("trust builders"), and a sense of who's actually behind the business? People buy from people, especially in a small community.
The Quick Fix: Swap out one stock photo for a real photo of you, your team, or your workspace this week.
How did you score?
5–6 passes: You're in great shape. Your site is doing the heavy lifting.
3–4 passes: A few tweaks will make a real difference in how customers experience your business online.
0–2 passes: Let's talk. You're likely losing business you didn't even know you could have had.
If you found a gap or two, you're in good company – this is true of most small business websites, not just yours. Fixing the basics usually matters more than anything flashy, and most of it can be done without hiring a developer.
This is the first in a series where we'll work through one piece of digital marketing at a time, so it never feels like a giant, overwhelming project. Next month: getting a handle on social media without trying to be everywhere at once.
Ready to improve your site?
Complete the audit above and when you're ready, book a free 30 minute consultation here:
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Speaking of websites – this month's "Ask Beth" column tackles a question I hear often from business owners who are weighing up on whether they even need one -
