Six tests, ten minutes
A childcare setting website has six jobs. Each has a one-minute test you can run on your own phone as if you were a parent who has never heard of you. The first three are the path from a parent's question to a viewing booked; if any fails, fix it before anything else.
1. Let the parent picture the setting
Test: as a stranger, find a photograph of the room a two-year-old would be in, and one of the outdoor space. Time it.
Pass: a page per room with real photographs, the age range and the ratio, found in under thirty seconds; the garden or outdoor area with its own photos; a day-in-the-life page.
Fail: one exterior shot; stock photos; a gallery of eight thumbnails with no captions.
Fix: a photographer for a half day, or a good phone in daylight with the rooms tidy and consent handled; room pages as records with photos, age range, ratio and key person approach.
2. Answer "how much, and does funding apply"
Test: find the fee for a full day for a toddler and whether your country's funded hours or subsidy can be used. Time it.
Pass: one plain Fees and funding page found in under thirty seconds: sessions, fees, what is included, how funding applies, extras, deposits, notice, how to apply.
Fail: "contact us for fees"; a PDF from two Septembers ago; funding mentioned but not explained.
Fix: a fees and funding page written in plain language, editable by you, matching what Famly or Blossom will invoice.
3. Book a viewing in one tap
Test: without scrolling, tap Book a viewing. Do live slots appear? Book one. Does the confirmation tell you where to park and what to bring?
Pass: a header button on every page to live slots in Bookeo, Acuity or your nursery software; a confirmation with the practical details; a tappable phone number beside the button.
Fail: Book a viewing opens a contact form; the form emails an inbox checked the next afternoon; the number is text you have to copy.
Fix: viewing slots in a booking tool embedded and deep-linked from every page; confirmation and reminder templates written by you.
4. Appear in under two seconds on a phone
Test: private window, mobile data. Load the home page and a room page. Count.
Pass: under two seconds; Core Web Vitals Good on mobile in Search Console.
Fail: blank, then a slider of wellies.
Fix: images sized and compressed, hero prioritised, galleries lazy-loaded, slider removed, decent hosting.
5. Prove inspection, vetting and safeguarding
Test: click the inspection rating. Does the report open? Find how staff are vetted, what qualifications they hold and the ratio in each room. Find the safeguarding policy and who the designated lead is.
Pass: all within a minute; rating linked to the report; an Our team page with qualifications, first aid and vetting; a Safeguarding page with the policy and the lead named.
Fail: a rating logo with no link; "our wonderful, qualified team"; no safeguarding page.
Fix: the rating linked on the home page and every room page; a team page as records; a safeguarding page written from your policy.
6. Know what it produced
Test: ask whoever runs the office how many viewings and waitlist joins came from the website last month.
Pass: the numbers are known, by page, and the enquiry source is recorded in the software.
Fail: "a few, I think."
Fix: events for viewing bookings, waitlist submissions and call taps by page; the source field in Famly or Blossom filled in; a monthly look against occupancy.
By type of setting
A nursery runs all six as written. A holiday club swaps test 1 for "find the programme for the next holiday by day and age, and book a day"; a baby class swaps it for "find the class for a four-month-old and book a trial"; a babysitting service swaps test 3 for "book a sitter for Saturday at seven with the rate shown". The shape is the same.
Scoring
Six of six: the site is working; keep the room photos fresh and check fees each September. Four or five: fix the failures, no rebuild. Three or fewer with 1, 2 or 3 failing: the site is losing families every week to the setting whose site let them book, and each family is years of fees.
Where this sits
This is the launch checklist for every childcare business website we build and the first ten minutes of a diagnosis on an existing one. Most childcare sites we review fail at least three, and the fees and funding page is the fix that stops the phone ringing with the question the site should have answered.