Many website problems are small enough to miss during a design review but important enough to frustrate a customer. The best starting point is to use the site as a new visitor would: identify the service, find a practical detail and try the next action.
These ten checks are a working review list. They do not replace a full accessibility, security or technical audit, but they can reveal issues worth fixing before adding new features.
1. Making visitors guess what the business does
A clever slogan is not a substitute for a clear service description. Read the first screen without the logo and ask whether a new customer could identify the offer. Add a plain-language explanation if the answer is unclear.
2. Hiding practical information
Opening hours, coverage, contact details and booking instructions should be easy to find. A restaurant visitor should not need to search social posts for the menu. Check the information against the business’s current operations, not an old brochure.
3. Giving every action equal emphasis
Too many competing buttons make the next step harder to choose. Decide what the page is helping someone do. Supporting links can remain available without demanding the same attention as the main action.
4. Forgetting the phone experience
Open the site on a real phone. Read a service description, use the menu and follow a contact link. Look for clipped text, crowded controls and images that require unnecessary scrolling. Also check text enlargement; a small screen is not a reason to make text unreadable.
5. Publishing text only inside images
A photographed menu or promotional flyer may look familiar, but it can be difficult to read and inaccessible to some visitors. Put essential information in real page text. Keep image descriptions useful and avoid repeating decorative text unnecessarily.
6. Assuming a success message proves delivery
If your site has a form, submit a test and confirm it arrives where staff expect it. Check phone, email and booking links too. Use test details rather than a real customer’s personal information, and remove test records through the appropriate process afterward.
7. Borrowing trust you have not earned
Do not present stock photos as your team, demonstration work as a client project or invented reviews as evidence. Label illustrations and examples. Use customer names, photographs and testimonials only with appropriate permission and accurate context.
8. Leaving old content in place
Assign someone to review prices, staff details, hours and service availability when they change. An abandoned news section can create confusion; a smaller maintained site is often easier to trust. Only change an article’s update date when its content has actually been reviewed or revised.
9. Losing control of accounts and renewals
Record who manages the domain, hosting and related services. Keep recovery methods current and review access when a supplier or employee leaves. Read our domain guide to distinguish registration from hosting and email.
10. Measuring visits without checking the outcome
A clicked button is not necessarily a completed booking or useful enquiry. If you introduce analytics, define the difference and verify events against the real process. Avoid collecting message text, personal contact details or other unnecessary information in tracking events.
Turn the audit into a small maintenance routine
Start with broken customer actions and inaccurate information. Then address readability, navigation and performance. Record the issue, the page, the responsible person and how you will verify the fix.
The W3C quick accessibility checks can help identify common barriers, while Google’s SEO Starter Guide explains basic search discoverability. Neither a checklist nor an automated score guarantees that a website will rank or work well for every visitor.