y00r

· 1 min read

Is your website ugly? The 60-second checkup

Six checks anyone can do on a phone in a minute: does it fit the screen, is there a padlock, can you tap the phone number, what year the footer says, does it load fast, and what Google shows about you. Two or more fails: it is costing you customers.

The short answer: grab your phone, open your own website, and run these six checks. If two or more fail, your site is costing you customers, and every one of them is fixable.

1. Does it fit your phone?

If you have to pinch and zoom to read it, it fails. People look up a local business on a phone, standing somewhere, in a hurry. Nobody pinches for long.

2. Is there a padlock?

Look at the address bar. No padlock, or a "Not secure" warning, and some visitors leave before the page even finishes. The fix is a security certificate, and most hosts give one away free.

3. Can you tap your phone number?

Tap it. If nothing happens, a customer who wanted to call you now has to copy it by hand. Plenty of them won't.

"© 2014" tells every visitor nobody is minding the shop. It takes ten seconds to fix, and it changes how the whole site feels.

5. Does it load before you get bored?

Count to three. If the page is still blank or jumping around, it is too heavy: giant photos, sliders, scripts nobody needed.

6. What does Google say about you?

Search your business name. If the blurb under your site is a random scrap of text, your page has no description of its own. You can write one in a sentence.

What to do if it failed

Fix the cheap ones today: the footer year, the description, a phone number you can tap. Want the grown-up version of this checkup? The free audit runs about forty checks, grades your site, and shows what the problems may be costing you a month. Or skip to the end: paste your site at y00r.com and see it rebuilt fresh in a few minutes, all six checks passing. Your real site is not touched until you say so.

Run my free audit

Questions, answered

How do I know if my website works on phones?

Open it on your phone. If you have to pinch or zoom to read it, or the words run off the screen, it is not set up for phones.

Why does my website say "Not secure"?

It has no security certificate (https). Browsers warn visitors, and some leave. Most hosts give a certificate for free; ask yours to turn it on.

How fast should a small business website load?

Its words should show in a second or two on a phone. When it takes longer, it is usually oversized photos or extra scripts.

Rather have it done?

Paste your site and see it fixed in a few minutes, then change anything by chatting. Or run the free audit first: your grade, what it may cost you, and y00r's version beside it.

Read next

  1. What a small business website actually needs (and what it does not)The short list that brings customers in: what you do, where and when, your prices, a phone number you can tap, real photos, and one clear next step. And the long list you can skip.
  2. What your ugly website costs you a month (the math, with your numbers)A slow, phone-unfriendly site loses some of the people who were ready to call. With your own visitors, how many reach out and your average sale, the leak becomes a dollar estimate you can check, and a fix you can price.
  3. Slow and squished: why phones decide who calls youMost local searches happen on a phone, so your site is judged on one. Four phone problems send ready customers back to the search results: a desktop layout, a slow first view, a number you cannot tap, and buttons too small to hit.