a website checklist / dark hour designs
can a customer find
their next step?
Open your website on your phone. Imagine you’re visiting for the first time. These seven checks can help you spot what to make clearer.
Tick the things your website already does well. Choose one unchecked item to work on first. This is a starting point for reviewing your content, not a technical audit or a prediction of sales. Your ticks stay on this page and are not sent to the studio.
Can someone understand the service from your first heading and a short sentence? Use the words your customers would use when asking for help.
For example: “Home cleaning in Charlotte” tells a visitor more than “Excellence, every time.”
Make your service area or location easy to find. Check that addresses, town names, hours, and contact details are current and consistent.
A mobile service can list the areas it covers. A shop can put its address and opening hours near the contact button.
Make the main action specific: request a quote, call the shop, or book through your existing booking provider. Help visitors understand what happens after they click.
“Request a cleaning quote” is more specific than “Learn more.”
Describe your main services in short, distinct sections. State what’s included and what needs a separate quote, where that matters.
A cleaning business might explain the difference between regular, deep, and move-out cleaning.
Show genuine work, your process, or the person behind the business. Use only reviews and customer photos you have permission to share. Label examples or concept work clearly.
Starting out? Explain how you work and what a customer can expect. You do not need to invent a testimonial.
Read the page without pinching to zoom. Try the menu and main buttons. Look for clipped text, sideways scrolling, overlapping content, or a button that is hard to tap.
Check the actual phone you use, then ask someone with a different phone to try the main task.
Check the phone, email, booking, and social links. Submit a clearly labelled test through your own inquiry form and confirm you can find it where you expect.
A success message is useful. Confirming the message arrived is the next check.
one useful change at a time.
Fix incorrect contact details first. Then make your main service and next step easier to understand. A focused update may be enough; a new website is worth discussing when the current setup cannot support what you need.
Want help with one of these? Send your website link and tell us what you’d like to fix. We’ll check the platform and explain what an update would involve.
A practical resource from darkhourdesigns.com · Updated 12 October 2026. For search basics, see Google’s SEO Starter Guide. Search visibility and rankings are not guaranteed.