Six tests, ten minutes
Do this on your phone, away from the office wifi, standing outside. That is where your customers are. Score each test pass or fail and fix in the order the failures come.
1. Send a photograph of damage in under a minute
The test: find the quote form, photograph something, attach it, and submit. Time it from opening the site.
Pass: under sixty seconds, with the registration and postcode captured and no failed upload.
Fail: a contact form with a message box, or an upload that silently rejects a phone-camera file.
The fix: a purpose-built quote form. Photo first, then registration, postcode, claiming yes or no, and a mobile number. Resize images in the browser before upload.
2. Find out whether to claim
The test: pretend you do not know how glass insurance works. Can the site tell you.
Pass: an insurance page naming insurers, saying whether you bill direct, explaining excess, and stating that the driver can usually choose their own fitter.
Fail: the word "insurance" appearing once in a services list.
The fix: build the page, write it as short questions and answers, and link it from beside the quote button.
3. Learn the chip repair price without asking
The test: look for a number.
Pass: the chip repair price is stated, with a plain note that replacements are quoted from the registration and photograph.
Fail: "competitive prices", or a price only available by telephone.
The fix: state the one price you can state. It buys credibility for the quotes you cannot.
4. Appear in under two seconds
The test: on mobile data, not wifi. Count until the form or the main heading is usable.
Pass: under two seconds.
Fail: a hero video, a slider, a chat bubble, or a booking script loading on every page.
The fix: one compressed image, no slider, chat off, and the booking tool loaded only when the button is tapped.
5. Answer the ADAS question
The test: search your own site for recalibration.
Pass: a page in plain words explaining what recalibration is, whether you do it in-house, and whether it is in the price.
Fail: nothing, or a technical paragraph aimed at other fitters.
The fix: write it for the driver. Two hundred words is enough, and it will out-rank longer pages because it answers the actual question.
6. Tell a driver in each town you serve that you serve it
The test: search for a windscreen fitter in the second and third towns on your patch. Does your site have anything to land on.
Pass: a real page per area with response time and travel conditions.
Fail: one location page naming your own town only, or forty generated pages that are the same text with a name swapped.
The fix: four to eight genuine area pages, each with something true and local in it.
Scoring
Six passes and your site is doing its job; spend on advertising instead of rebuilding. Four or five, fix the failures and leave the rest. Three or fewer and the structure is wrong, and patching will cost more over two years than rebuilding once.
Where this sits
Our auto glass websites are built to pass all six at a fixed price. The version of this checklist for the wider trade is on the automotive page. Run the six tests on your competitors too. Most of them fail four.