Six tests, ten minutes
A baby class website has six jobs. Each has a test you can run on your own phone between sessions. Do them on mobile data in a private window, as a parent who has never heard of you would. The first three are the route from a parent's question to a name on your register.
1. Place a five month old
Test: find the class a five month old should attend. Time yourself.
Pass: age bands as the top level of the site, ranges stated in months, the developmental focus of each band explained in a sentence or two, found in under thirty seconds.
Fail: one timetable of class names and times, or ages described only as babies and toddlers, or nothing at all until a parent messages you.
Fix: a page per band, each holding its range, its focus, the sessions it runs, its price and its own booking button, with a clear line about what happens when a baby moves up mid-term. Hold the bands as editable records so you can rename or split one without a developer.
2. Book a trial in one tap
Test: without scrolling, tap Book a trial. Is the band and venue already chosen? Can you finish without messaging anyone?
Pass: one tap into ClassForKids, Bookeo, TeamUp or Sawyer, band and venue pre-selected, the baby's date of birth captured in the flow, trial priced separately from the term.
Fail: Book hidden in a menu, a general contact form, a line inviting you to get in touch about a taster, or a platform page where the parent has to search for your business again.
Fix: a trial button in the header on every page and at the top of every band page, deep-linked per band and venue, tested inside the Instagram in-app browser as well as Safari. Keep term enrolment as a separate route so neither one buries the other.
3. State the money and the dates
Test: find the term price, the number of sessions in a term, the term start date, and what happens if you miss a week.
Pass: all four in one place beside the booking button, current for the term you are actually selling.
Fail: prices on request, last term's dates, or a price that disagrees with what the platform charges at checkout.
Fix: hold term dates and prices as records you edit yourself, set them in the booking platform first and write the website from the platform, and put a reminder in the calendar to check them a fortnight before every enrolment opens.
4. Answer the first-class questions
Test: find out where to park, where the buggies go, whether you can feed during the class, what to bring, and what happens if the baby cries throughout.
Pass: a first-class page covering all of it plainly, plus what to wear, whether a sibling or a grandparent can come, what happens if you arrive late, and the photography policy.
Fail: nothing, or a cheerful line saying to come along and enjoy.
Fix: write the page from your own inbox. Pull the last thirty messages parents sent you before their first class and answer every recurring one. Link it from every band page and from the booking confirmation.
5. Show the venue and the leader
Test: find the door to use at your busiest venue, and find out what training you hold.
Pass: a page per venue with map, parking and whether it is free, the entrance, steps or step-free access, buggy storage and changing facilities. Leader profiles with training, first aid, insurance and the background checks your team hold. Real photos from a real class, with written consent from the parents whose babies appear.
Fail: one address in the footer and stock photography of a baby on a white background.
Fix: photograph each hall on a class morning, including the car park and the door. It takes an hour and it removes a week of messages.
6. Fill the next term, and know that you did
Test: think of a class that filled last term. What did the site do with the parents who could not get in? And can you say how many trials the site produced last month?
Pass: a waitlist connected to the platform on every full class, and trial bookings, enrolments and enquiries recorded by page, band and venue.
Fail: a full class shows as full with no way to leave a name, and nobody can say what the site produced.
Fix: turn the platform's waitlist on and surface it on the band page, then add events for trial clicks, enrolment clicks and form submissions by page and venue. Ten minutes looking at it once a month, and a proper look the week after each enrolment closes.
Scoring
Six out of six and the site is doing its job. Keep the term dates, prices and photos current and add a band page when you add a band.
Four or five: fix the failures individually, no rebuild needed.
Three or fewer, with tests one, two or three among the failures: the site is losing parents every week to the provider in the next town whose site said which class a five month old goes in.
Where this sits
This is the launch checklist for every baby class business website we build, and the first ten minutes of a diagnosis on one you already have. The same six jobs, in different forms, sit behind the wider childcare and family websites we make. For a baby class business, test one is the one that empties the inbox fastest.