Six tests, ten minutes
A coaching or therapy website has six jobs, one for each of the things a client needs before they book. Each has a one-minute test on your own phone. The first three are the path from a reader to a booked first session; if any fails, fix it before anything else.
1. Say exactly who you help
Test: open the home page. Within ten seconds, can you point to a sentence that names a specific situation a client might be in?
Pass: a list of situations or issues, each linking to its own page, headed in the client's words.
Fail: "helping you live your best life"; a single Services page; a philosophy paragraph.
Fix: a page per situation: who it is for, what it feels like, what changes, how you work with it. Start with the three you see most.
2. State the price
Test: find what a session or package costs. Time it.
Pass: a Prices page and the price beside every Book button, with what is included and the cancellation policy.
Fail: "book a free call to discuss investment"; "prices on application".
Fix: publish them. Sessions, packages, what each includes. The client who can afford it books with confidence; the one who cannot does not book the call.
3. Book the first session in one tap
Test: tap Book. Count the taps to a confirmed discovery call or first session. Note whether you were asked anything useful on the way.
Pass: booking embedded from Acuity, Calendly, Paperbell, CoachAccountable or Practice Better, with a short intake form, the price shown, payment taken where the session is paid, and a confirmation explaining how the video link arrives.
Fail: a contact form; a bare calendar on another site; "email me to arrange".
Fix: embed the tool with the right appointment type pre-selected on each page, intake in its flow, and the price beside the button.
4. Show credentials that can be checked
Test: find your accreditation body and level, your training, your memberships and your insurance. Click through to a register.
Pass: all within a minute, on the About page and in a line on every service page, with a plain sentence on what each covers.
Fail: a badge in the footer; "fully qualified"; nothing.
Fix: a credentials section with body, level, hours, memberships, insurance and supervision, linked to registers where they exist.
5. Explain the session, online and in person
Test: find out what happens in a first session, how long it lasts, which video platform you use and where the room is.
Pass: a How it works page covering all four, with what the client needs for an online session and what to expect on arrival for an in-person one.
Fail: "sessions available online and in person" and nothing else.
Fix: write the page. For hypnotherapists include what hypnosis feels like and that the client stays aware; for doulas what you do and do not do; for relationship therapists whether one partner can come first.
6. Keep the claims within the rules
Test: read the home page and one service page as if you were an advertising regulator or a sceptical GP. Mark every sentence that promises an outcome, mentions a medical condition, or uses the words cure, treat, guaranteed or proven.
Pass: the copy describes what you help clients work on and what typically changes, in careful language, with testimonials only where your body and country permit them.
Fail: "cure anxiety"; "guaranteed to stop smoking"; health outcome testimonials where they are restricted.
Fix: rewrite the marked sentences. Check your professional body's advertising guidance. Ask for a review when you add a new issue page.
Scoring
Six of six: the site is working; add situation pages for the next issues you want more of and keep the prices current. Four or five: fix the failures, no rebuild. Three or fewer with 1, 2 or 3 failing: the site is losing first sessions every week, and the fixes cost less than one client.
Where this sits
This is the launch checklist for every coaching practice website we build and the first ten minutes of a diagnosis on an existing one. Most coaching and therapy sites fail at least three, and the situation pages are the fix that changes the practice.