Six tests, ten minutes
A training business website has six jobs. Each has a test you can run on your own phone between classes. Do them on mobile data in a private window, as a stranger would, and time yourself. The first two are the route from an owner's question to a place in your diary.
1. Say when the next course starts
Test: find the start date, time, venue and price of the next puppy course, and how many places are left.
Pass: all five visible in under thirty seconds, from a timetable that updates itself.
Fail: "contact us for dates", a PDF, a paragraph that says classes run regularly, or a list whose last entry was three months ago.
Fix: a live class timetable from TeamUp, Bookeo or Acuity, listing each course with start date, day and time, venue, the age or ability it suits, block price and places remaining. When a course is full, a waiting list form in the same place that takes a name, an email and the dog's age.
2. Book the right thing in one tap
Test: from the home page, book a place on a course. Then go back and book a behaviour consult. Count taps for each.
Pass: a Book button in the header on every page, and each service deep linked so the class page opens class registration and the behaviour page opens the consult, with the right service already selected. Two or three taps each.
Fail: Book hidden in a menu, one generic contact form for both, or a link that drops the owner on a platform page where they have to search for your business again.
Fix: deep links per service, a tappable phone number beside the button, and the whole flow tested inside the Instagram in app browser, which is where a lot of new owners start.
3. Separate the puppy owner from the behaviour client
Test: open the home page and imagine you own a two year old rescue that lunges at other dogs. How long before you find something addressed to you.
Pass: two clear routes on the first screen, one for classes and courses, one for behaviour help, each leading to its own page with its own prices and its own booking.
Fail: one services page listing everything, with behaviour work as the fourth bullet under photographs of puppies.
Fix: split the routes at the top level. This is a structural change rather than a design one, and on most training sites it is the single biggest improvement available.
4. Explain your methods and your qualifications
Test: find out how you train and what qualifies you to do it, without reading a life story first.
Pass: a methods and qualifications page. Your approach in plain words, the assessments and qualifications behind it written out rather than abbreviated, the professional bodies you belong to, and what a session actually looks like from arrival to end.
Fail: "we use kind, effective methods" and a row of unexplained logos.
Fix: write the page as if a sceptical owner who has already read three articles about training approaches is reading it, because they have. Say what you do, say what you do not do, and say why. This page wins the clients you want and saves you the arguments you do not.
5. Collect the history before the consult
Test: book a behaviour consult as a stranger. Does anything ask you about the dog.
Pass: an intake questionnaire attached to the booking, covering the dog and age, how long they have had him, the behaviour and when it happens, what has been tried, the vet's details and consent to contact them, and any bite history. A plain note about when a vet referral is needed first.
Fail: a name, an email and a free text box, so the first three emails of every case are you asking basic questions.
Fix: intake forms per service in Acuity, booking questions in Bookeo, registration questions in TeamUp, or a form on the site that submits before the slot is confirmed. Whichever route, the history should arrive with the booking rather than after it.
6. Price everything you sell
Test: find the price of a block of six classes, a one to one session, a behaviour assessment and a follow up.
Pass: all four stated, current, and matching what you actually charge.
Fail: "prices on request", one number for everything, or a page you last edited two price rises ago.
Fix: prices held as editable records so you can change them yourself, covering class blocks, single sessions, behaviour assessments, follow ups, packages and online consults where you offer them. Where a case genuinely needs assessing first, publish the assessment price and say what follow ups cost.
Scoring
Six passes and your site is doing its job. Four or five and you are losing enquiries at a specific point you can now name. Three or fewer and the site is a brochure that happens to have your phone number on it, and your evenings are where the missing bookings go.
Do them in order. One and two are the funnel, three is the structure that feeds it, and four to six are what turns a visitor who is interested into a visitor who books.
Where this sits
All six are standard in a dog training and behaviour website as we build it, and the same checklist logic runs through our other pet business websites, where prices, booking with pet details and a first visit page do the same job for groomers and daycares. What each package includes is on pricing. Run the six now, write down which ones failed, and fix them in the order above.