Six tests, ten minutes, one phone
Use a phone, not the clinic desktop, on mobile data, in a private window so nothing is cached. Each test is something a patient here genuinely does, late at night, having already read two other clinics. Note which tests fail rather than how many.
1. Find a number, then what it is a number of
The test: from the home page, reach your published results and read them at phone size without pinching to zoom.
Pass: your figures appear in your regulator's format, and beside each one you can see what it is a proportion of and which age band it covers. In the UK the HFEA sets that format; elsewhere your own regulator does.
Fail: one large percentage standing alone, or a presentation that reads more favourably than the published national figures.
The fix: rebuild the results as a table your team can update when new data lands, laid out so the context cannot be stripped while editing.
2. Price one treatment from the outside
The test: pick a treatment you offer — IVF, ICSI, IUI, egg freezing, donor treatment — and work out from the site alone what it costs.
Pass: that treatment has a page naming what the fee covers, what is billed separately, what medication adds, and how payment can be arranged.
Fail: a figure that turns out to be a starting point, or nothing until you make contact.
The fix: one page per treatment, carrying inclusions, extras and a medication estimate. Patients here build spreadsheets, and a figure that cannot go in one cannot be compared.
3. Book a consultation at a bus stop
The test: try to book an initial consultation one-handed, standing up, on mobile data.
Pass: real availability appears, the initial consultation is its own appointment type at its own length, and a phone number sits on the same screen for anyone who would rather speak.
Fail: a general enquiry form promising a call back, or a widget that loads after the page has been abandoned.
The fix: availability from whichever system you run, the consultation as its own appointment type, a sensitively worded intake form sent ahead, and the phone route beside it.
4. Search a consultant by name
The test: type one consultant's full name into Google, on the phone.
Pass: your own profile page comes back, carrying registration, training and areas of focus.
Fail: a directory entry, a biography from a hospital they left, or nothing.
The fix: a profile page per consultant on your own domain. People here choose a clinician as much as a clinic.
5. Look for the service you do not lead with
The test: whichever of menopause, gynaecology, contraception or well-woman checks you offer, try to reach it from the phone menu.
Pass: a page of its own, written for the person searching for that.
Fail: a clause inside a paragraph about something else, or a bullet on a combined services page.
The fix: one page per service you provide. Each is a separate search by a reader not thinking about fertility.
6. Read your own footer
The test: scroll to the bottom of any page, looking for the clinic's licence and registration details.
Pass: displayed where your country requires, legible, on every page rather than one.
Fail: buried on an About page, inside a downloadable PDF, or missing.
The fix: put them in the footer template so no page publishes without them.
Scoring
Six from six is unusual; which ones failed matters more than how many. Test 1 comes first whatever else is broken: this audience checks it before reading anything, and it is the only one with a compliance dimension. Test 2 decides whether you make the shortlist. Test 3 decides whether a convinced patient can act tonight. Tests 4, 5 and 6 are trust — individually small, together the reason a patient books elsewhere.
Where this sits
Our fertility clinic websites are built to pass all six, quoted after a call from the packages on the pricing page. For the same six ordered by what each failure costs, read why your fertility clinic website gets no bookings. For the build, see what a fertility clinic website costs.