Six checks, one handset, ten minutes
Take the site off clinic Wi-Fi: mobile data, private tab, your own handset. Each check below is something a parent physically does before deciding who to contact. Note which ones fail rather than how many; they are not worth the same.
1. Book an assessment, do not enquire about one
The test: starting at the home page, take a first assessment all the way to a confirmed time without ringing anybody.
Pass: real availability appears, the assessment holds its own longer slot, and an intake form follows it.
Fail: a contact form promising a call back, or one slot length for assessments and follow-ups.
The fix: embed availability from the practice software you already pay for, with assessment and therapy as separate types and intake sent in advance.
2. Find the page for one concern
The test: you are the parent of a three-year-old who is not putting words together. Count the taps from the home page to a page about that.
Pass: one tap, to a page written in the words the parent would use.
Fail: three taps, or a services page where every area is one bullet.
The fix: a page for each area you take on — late talkers, speech sounds, stammering, language, feeding, communication for autistic children — titled the way a parent would describe it.
3. Read the assessment page as somebody who has never had one
The test: hand the assessment page to a friend outside healthcare and ask four things: how long it takes, whether the parent stays in the room, what arrives at the end, and what happens next.
Pass: all four are answered on the page, in the order they happen.
Fail: they answer one, usually the length, and guess the rest.
The fix: write the visit as a sequence, then the report, then what follows. This page removes the call you take most often.
4. Get a number without speaking to anybody
The test: using nothing but the site, find what a first assessment costs and what a block of therapy costs.
Pass: both stated on a page reachable from the menu, with school or home visit fees where you do them.
Fail: fees on request, or a price that only appears once a form has been submitted.
The fix: state the assessment fee, the session fee, the block price and the visit fee. Families are weighing your number against a wait already quoted to them.
5. Find out who would actually see the child
The test: try to learn the name of the therapist who would run the assessment and what registration they hold.
Pass: a profile per therapist with qualifications, registration and the areas they specialise in.
Fail: a team page of first names, or no named person anywhere on the site.
The fix: one profile per therapist. Registered therapists work inside their professional body's advertising code, and in Australia regulated practitioners cannot use testimonials at all — so registration and stated specialism carry the trust reviews carry elsewhere. Check what applies where you practise.
6. Arrive as an adult rather than a parent
The test: open the site as somebody looking for help after a stroke, with a voice problem, or with a lifelong stammer.
Pass: an adult section with its own pages, reachable without reading past children's content.
Fail: one line halfway down a paediatric page saying adults are seen too.
The fix: if adult work is part of the practice, give it its own section — different search, different reader. If it is not, say so plainly and save both of you the enquiry.
Scoring
Which checks failed matters more than the total. Checks 2 and 3 decide whether anybody stays long enough to care about the rest. Checks 1 and 4 decide whether a persuaded family can act tonight. Check 5 does the work testimonials are not always allowed to do. Check 6 is the caseload you never hear about, because those callers assumed the answer was no.
Where this sits
Our speech therapy websites are built to pass all six at a fixed price. For the same list ordered by cost of failure, read why your speech therapy site gets no bookings. For what the build itself costs, see what a speech therapy website costs.