Free checklist
The 12 things I check first.
Most of what holds a small business back online is sitting in plain sight. The site has never counted a visitor, or a forgotten file is telling AI assistants to stay out, and nobody notices because nobody has gone looking.
I go looking the same way every time. Before I write an audit for anyone, I run twelve checks, and they fit on one page you can work through on your own business this afternoon. Each takes about two minutes and needs no tools you do not already have.
Get the checklist
Tell me where to send it. The first email carries the download link.
- Right awayThe checklist
- After thatA short series
- LaterOccasional notes
What each check costs you when it fails
Same order as the checklist. The PDF adds the part that makes them quick to run: where to look, and what to search for when you get there.
Measure
Whether anything on your site is being counted at all.
- 01
Your site counts its visitors
If nothing is measured, every marketing decision you make is a guess.
- 02
Forms land somewhere countable
Enquiries cannot be counted by source, and ad platforms never learn what a good visitor looks like.
Be found
Whether search engines and AI assistants can reach you and make sense of what they find.
- 03
Nothing blocks the crawlers
One stray line can hide you from Google, or from the AI assistants people now ask instead. The fix takes minutes.
- 04
Every page states its own case
Missing or identical titles and descriptions waste the free ad space search gives you.
- 05
Fast on a phone
A slow load on mobile costs you rankings, and it costs you visitors.
- 06
One business on paper
A name, address or phone that disagrees across listings erodes local rank and confuses the machines that recommend businesses.
Be clear
What a stranger understands in the first few seconds on your homepage.
- 07
The five second test
A clever headline that fails it loses cold visitors before anything else matters.
- 08
One obvious next step
More choices means fewer clicks.
- 09
Proof sits next to the ask
Bare claims raise doubt exactly where doubt is most expensive.
Spend well
Whether the money you put into ads is being measured.
- 10
Ads and measurement connect
Ads without a tag spend blind. A pixel without ads builds an audience nobody uses.
Run it after check 01, which shows you how to find a tag.
Be believed
Whether what other people say about you backs up what you say.
- 11
Reviews are recent and answered
Nothing newer than three months reads as inactive, and an unanswered bad review signals neglect to the exact prospect who is reading along.
- 12
The same story everywhere
Different names, descriptions or offers confuse buyers, and they confuse the machines that summarize you to buyers.
That is all twelve. Get the checklist, steps included
The surface, and what sits under it
These twelve checks are the surface, the part anyone can see from outside. The written audit goes underneath them.
Run the twelve first. If you fail three or more, ask for the audit. It's free, and it starts where these checks stop.
- Your pages
- Your tracking
- Your listings
- Your reviews
- Your competitors