Websites & apps
Six website and listing checks that help customers assess your business
Can a customer find the service, confirm your details and use the site on their phone? Work through six practical checks for your pages and local listings, with the limits of search visibility explained.
Written by Jessica Gardner, In-house Editor, Reeve Consult · 2 min read
Updated
What should you check on a website and local business listing?
Check service descriptions, contact details, opening hours and relevant listings for accuracy. Make the site usable on mobile, answer customers’ actual questions and keep structured data consistent with the page. These steps help people assess and use the business. They are not a universal checklist of ranking factors shared by Google and every AI service.
- A visitor should be able to tell whether you provide the service in their area.
- A review reply should address the customer’s experience.
- A fast page still needs clear content and a working enquiry or booking route.
A visitor can find your business and still leave without understanding whether it can help. An inaccurate listing, a vague service page or an awkward booking form can interrupt the decision at different points.
The six checks below examine that customer journey. They are not a formula used by every search engine and AI assistant.
1. Is the service clear?
Explain the work you do, who it is for and where you provide it. Include details that distinguish similar services. A visitor looking for an emergency repair needs different information from someone planning an installation next month.
The heading should name the subject, and the introduction should help someone decide whether to keep reading. “Solutions that work for you” cannot do that job on its own.
2. Are the business details current?
Check the location, contact routes and hours on the website and relevant listings. Explain appointment-only visits or service areas where necessary. The goal is that a customer can find or contact the business without being sent to an old address.
Listings can contain old information copied from elsewhere. Find the original place you can update and keep a record of the correction.
Make it easy to understand your services, decide whether to trust you and get in touch from a phone.
3. Does the evidence describe actual work?
Use genuine reviews, examples or credentials that a customer can assess. Say what a case study demonstrates and avoid turning one result into a promise for everyone.
A response to a review should address that person's experience. Repeating a generic promotional paragraph under every review adds little useful information.
4. Are the important questions answered?
Use the questions people ask before booking or enquiring: availability, service scope, preparation, access or what a quote includes. State the question and give a direct answer.
Do not label a block “Quick answer” if it only gives unrelated instructions. A customer asking “Do you repair this model?” needs the supported models or a way to check, not “Review your repair needs”.
5. Does the structured data match the page?
If markup describes your business, hours or services, it should agree with the content a person can read. Validation checks the code; factual accuracy needs a separate review. Our structured data guide explains that distinction.
6. Can someone complete the task on a phone?
Open the page on a phone and follow the actual booking or enquiry route. Check legibility, buttons, form instructions and any error messages. A fast-loading page still fails the visitor if the contact action is unclear.
What do these checks establish?
They identify problems in information and usability that you can address. Search services can still rank or summarise pages differently. Google's AI search guidance does not offer a guaranteed inclusion formula.
Reeve Consult can review specific pages and the work visitors need to do. A useful report should show the issue, its effect on that task and a concrete proposed correction.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers
Should every section be written as a question?
Can a fast website still fail to generate enquiries?
Next step
What do customers struggle to do on your website?
Tell us which page or task causes difficulty and what visitors need to complete. We can discuss focused changes or a wider website project.
Discuss your websiteJessica Gardner is the in-house editor at Reeve Consult. She writes and edits every guide, blog post, and resource published on the site, making sure the writing is plain-English, the facts check out, and the advice is genuinely useful for the UK independent business owners we work with. Jessica spent eight years in editorial roles across UK trade and business publications before joining Reeve Consult.