Start with the pages someone would actually use. For a small business, that might be the homepage, a service page and the contact page. For a blog, add the post listing and a recent article. Four well-chosen pages can tell you more in fifteen minutes than a long list of scores.
Do this after publishing, moving hosts or changing navigation. For each check, record the URL, what happened and what you expected.
Minutes 1–2. Open the public address
Paste the address into a private browser window. Confirm that it opens over HTTPS, shows the intended site and has no certificate warning. If visitors use a second version of the address, such as the www version, open that too. A permanent redirect to your chosen address gives visitors and search engines a consistent destination.
Some browsers upgrade HTTP automatically. If you want to check what the server actually sends, use a terminal command such as curl -I http://example.com/ and look for the status and Location header. Replace example.com with your own domain. Google’s guide to canonical URLs and redirects.
Minutes 3–5. Complete one task on a phone
Open the site as if you have never seen it. Can you tell what it offers and where to go next? Tap the menu, open the main button and follow it as far as you reasonably can. Look for a link or button hidden under a sticky header, text running off the screen and fields that are hard to reach with the keyboard open.
On a service site, the task could be finding your hours and reaching the contact form. On a product site, try choosing an option and reaching the order summary. Use your payment provider’s test environment for a payment test. Razorpay’s test and live mode guide.
Minutes 6–7. Check links, images and a missing page
Follow the links people depend on, including contact, prices, policies and recent posts. Load the key pages once with a fresh browser session so cached images do not hide a missing file. A blank image or a button that goes to the wrong page is a concrete fix you can hand to a developer.
Try a made-up page address. It should return HTTP 404. A friendly error page can still show your navigation and a link home. The status is visible in the browser’s Network panel if you want to confirm it.
Minutes 8–10. Check the crawl setup
Open your robots.txt and sitemap. Verify that the sitemap lists the public pages you want discovered, and open two or three of those URLs. Check that the listing points to the final HTTPS addresses. A page title and a short, accurate description help you spot when a new page still has copied metadata from an old template.
If you own the site in Google Search Console, inspect one important URL there. The inspection report is where you can check Google’s indexing information and run a live test. A sitemap is a discovery aid, and Search Console is the place to check what happened after discovery. Google’s guide to using Search Console.
Minutes 11–15. Look at speed and record the fix
Open the homepage and the most important next page on a real phone. Watch for a large image that delays the main content, or a layout that shifts as you try to tap. If you run a mobile performance tool, keep its results separate from what you observed on the phone. A test from one location is one observation.
Finish by writing one fix, the affected URL and how you will verify it. “Make the site faster” is hard to act on. “The hero image takes most of the transfer on the service page. Compress it, then compare before and after on the same device” gives you a testable task.
What the check found on this site
On 6 November 2026, the homepage, blog and both published posts returned HTTP 200. The sitemap, RSS feed and ten checked assets responded, and Hostinger showed an active certificate. The HTTPS www homepage also returned 200 and pointed to the main domain in its canonical tag. That made a permanent redirect a small cleanup, behind any issue that would stop someone using the site. The mobile performance tool rate-limited the check, so mobile speed stayed open in the notes. This site’s sitemap · RSS feed.
Run the same checks after your next change. Save the URLs you tested so the second check is quicker. If you are still planning the site, start by deciding which pages will carry that customer journey. What pages a small business website needs.