Website check-up

What it looks for

Every check here is something we found on a real local business's website this year, usually one the owner didn't know about.

• The website goes somewhere else. When a domain lapses, someone else can buy it. We found shop links on Google that now open a gambling site, a shoe store in Indonesia and a doctors' directory.
• The domain is parked or for sale. Same cause, less harm, but customers still read it as closed.
• Template text never replaced. "Say something interesting about your business here", "Lorem ipsum" and the builder's sample cards.
• A call button that won't dial. A callto: link does nothing on an iPhone; tel: works everywhere. A number with no link at all can't be tapped.
• An email address that bounces. We look up the mail server for every address on the page. One typo in the domain and every message is lost.
• Pages that are gone. We open up to twelve pages your home page links to and report any that are missing.
• Not made for phones, a security certificate that has run out, an old footer year, a page title that says "Home", and the old Google Analytics code that stopped counting in 2023.

It also lists the phone numbers on your page. We can't read your Google listing for you, so compare them yourself. A different number on Google than on the website was one of the most common problems we found.

What it can't see

It reads your home page as plain HTML, the way Google first does, so text that only appears after scripts run may be missed. It doesn't check your Google Business Profile, Facebook page or reviews, your hours, or how fast the site loads. For speed, Google's own PageSpeed Insights is the tool to use.

Some hosts turn away automated checkers like this one, including GoDaddy's website builder and Ecwid stores. For those it tells you it couldn't check, rather than guessing, and lists what to try by hand.

Privacy

Your website is fetched by our server, because browsers can't read another site's pages. It only asks for public pages on the address you typed, and keeps the answer for ten minutes so repeat checks don't hit your site again. The mail-server lookups go from your browser to Cloudflare's public DNS. We keep no log of which sites were checked.

Want it fixed for you?

Illumination Development builds websites and phone apps for small businesses: a site that fits a phone, keeps your hours and number right, and an app your regulars keep on their home screen. You keep the domain, the code and the accounts. Get in touch, or see the apps we publish ourselves.