A 20-minute website audit any owner can run

You do not need to understand code to spot the problems that actually lose sales. Open your site on your phone, set a timer, and work through these checks in order.

The five-second test

Look at your homepage on a phone without scrolling. Can a stranger tell what you do, where you do it, and what to do next? If any of those three is missing, fix that before anything else. Most small business homepages open with a slogan instead of an answer.

Speed

• Load the site on mobile data, not your shop's wifi. If it takes longer than about three seconds, people are leaving.
• The usual culprit is huge photos uploaded straight from a camera. Resizing them is often the whole fix.
• Run the free PageSpeed Insights tool and look only at the mobile score and the top two recommendations.

Contact friction

Count how many taps it takes to call you from the homepage. It should be one. Your phone number should be tappable, your address should open in maps, and your form should ask for the fewest fields you can live with. Every extra required field costs you enquiries.

Page titles and headings

Check the browser tab title of each main page. If several say the same thing, or say 'Home', search engines have nothing to work with. Each page needs a title describing that page and, where it makes sense, the area you serve.

Trust signals

• Real photos of your team, premises or work — not stock imagery.
• Reviews or testimonials with a first name and location, shown on the page rather than hidden on a testimonials tab.
• Clear pricing or at least a price range. Silence about price reads as expensive.
• Licences, insurance, guarantees and years in business, stated plainly.

What to fix first

Write down everything you found, then do only the top three: the clarity of the homepage, the speed problem, and the easiest way to contact you. Those three move the needle far more than a redesign.