How to run this
Pick up your phone, turn off the wifi so you are on mobile data, and open your own site as if you had never seen it. Each test below takes under a minute. Mark each one pass or fail and be strict, because a parent comparing three tabs will be.
1. Vetting and first aid, stated
The test: from the home page, find out what checks your sitters have been through. Time it.
Pass: a page that says what you do, in order. Identity confirmed. References taken up and actually spoken to. Background checking appropriate to where you operate, named accurately for your country and framed as what you do rather than as legal advice. Paediatric first aid, with how recent it is. A line about what you can show a parent on request.
Fail: the words "fully vetted" and nothing else. Or worse, images of certificates. Never publish certificate images or reference numbers; describe the check and offer to show the document when you meet.
Fix: write it once, in plain language, and apply the same wording to every sitter. This is the page that justifies your rate, so it deserves an afternoon.
2. Rates and surcharges, plain
The test: find your hourly rate without clicking into a form.
Pass: hourly rate, minimum booking length, the rate after a stated late hour, the short-notice surcharge, bank holiday treatment, and how travel is handled. Six lines, on a page called Rates, with the headline number repeated on the home page.
Fail: "contact us for a quote", or a range so wide it tells a parent nothing, or a membership sign-up standing between the visitor and any number at all.
Fix: publish the numbers as editable records rather than typing them into a paragraph, so that next January you change them in one place. Do not hide the surcharges. A stated surcharge is accepted; a surprise one is a complaint.
3. Online booking that collects what you need
The test: book yourself for next Saturday from seven until midnight, two children, on your phone.
Pass: date, start and end time, number of children and their ages, address, and a notes field that prompts for allergies, bedtime routine and pets. It works in one hand, it does not ask you to create an account first, and it confirms something at the end.
Fail: a contact form. A calendar built for a one-hour haircut. A booking route that throws you onto a hosted page with none of your reassurance around it.
Fix: Acuity or Bookeo embedded on your own page, or a custom request form with a stated reply window that you meet. What it collects matters more than which one you pick.
4. Sitter profiles, where you offer them
The test: can a parent see who might turn up.
Pass: where parents can choose, each sitter has a first name, a photograph used with their written consent, areas covered, age groups they are comfortable with, first aid status, and two or three human lines. Where sitters are matched by hand, the site says so and explains how the matching works.
Fail: a page of stock photographs of strangers holding toddlers. Full names and addresses of sitters, which is a privacy problem you do not want.
Fix: hold sitters as records so adding the seventh takes two minutes, and keep the vetting fields on the record so nothing goes stale silently.
5. A last-minute route
The test: it is four o'clock and you need a sitter tonight. Find the route.
Pass: a visible short-notice section with the surcharge stated, a cut-off time, how quickly you reply, and a phone number that is tappable on a phone.
Fail: nothing, so the parent rings the next service. Or an urgent route with no surcharge stated, which turns into an awkward conversation later.
Fix: give it its own section on the home page and its own page, and be honest about what you can and cannot do at short notice. Saying no clearly is better than not answering.
6. Areas, policies and reviews
The test: find out whether you cover the parent's village, what happens if they cancel, and what other parents say.
Pass: areas named as real places with any travel charge stated. Cancellation, illness, late return and payment terms written plainly. Safeguarding described in ordinary language. A few parent reviews near the booking button, first names only, no children named or pictured.
Fail: "we cover the local area". No cancellation policy, which means every cancellation is negotiated from scratch. Testimonials on a page nobody opens.
Fix: one areas page, one policies page, and reviews moved next to the buttons where the decision happens.
Scoring
Six passes is a site doing its job. Four or five and you are losing bookings you never hear about. Three or fewer and the phone is doing work the site should be doing, which is why your evenings are spent quoting rates.
Where this sits
The six above are the standard build for a babysitting service website, and the same checklist thinking runs through the other childcare and family websites. What each package covers is on pricing. Run the six tests on your phone this evening and fix the first one that fails.