What we check before a website goes live

A website that looks fine on a big screen can still be a mess on a phone. A button drops off the edge. A price breaks mid-word. So we check every website against a fixed list. Here’s exactly what’s on it.

Where does your website start?

With a website we already know inside out. We keep a library of 35 websites, each for a different trade, from bakery and hairdresser to bike shop, painter and plumber. All 35 pass the measurements below for phones, larger text and speed.

Your website starts from one of those 35. Then we make it yours: your name, what you offer, your prices and your opening hours. And then it goes through the list below again.

What does the computer measure?

• Narrow phones. We look at every page on a screen 320 pixels wide, as narrow as a small phone. Also at 375 and 390 pixels, and on a big screen.
• Larger text. If you turn the text size up on your phone, everything must still fit. So we also test with text at 125 per cent.
• Nothing wider than the screen. You never have to scroll sideways to read a sentence or a price.
• Buttons big enough for a thumb, on a small phone too.
• Speed. We measure it with a Google test set up like a phone. A website has to score at least 95 out of 100.
• Accessibility and technical best practice. In the same test, we aim for 100 out of 100.
• Readable by screen readers and AI helpers. Buttons are real buttons, links are real links, and every input field has a name. So a screen reader can read the page, and so can an AI assistant looking something up for a customer.
• One clear main heading per page, with your trade and your town.
• Accurate data for Google. Your name, address, phone and opening hours are also in a form Google can read directly. They come from the same details as the wording on the page, and we check they’re complete.

Does booking or ordering work?

Can customers book, make an appointment or order from you? Then we go through it from start to finish, tap by tap, on a narrow phone, from the first choice to the confirmation. If anything drops off the edge of the screen along the way, we fix it.

What does a person do?

Measurements don’t catch everything. So a person then looks at your website. Are the facts right? Does anything look odd? Does it suit your business? Only then does it go live, with our stamp and the date. More in Checked by a person: what our stamp means.

What does this check promise?

That your website works properly: on a phone, for everyone, and readable by Google and AI assistants. Not that you’ll be at the top. Nobody can promise that. Read why in How do customers find you, on Google and AI?

See for yourselfWe make an example of your own website first, free. Get your free example.

First the computer measures. Then a person looks.