Your website might be doing everything right except the one thing that matters: showing people how to take the next step. If a visitor has to hunt for your phone number, cannot tap it on a phone, or fills out a form that never reaches you, the visit ends without a call.
You can check this yourself in about five minutes.
Short answer: Decide the one next step you want visitors to take, such as call, book, ask for an estimate or visit. Then check that the page has something that supports it, like a tappable phone link or a working form. Finally, test it by hand on a phone, because page code cannot prove the call connects or the message arrives.
Start with one next step
Most local service pages try to offer everything at once: call, text, email, chat, book online, request a quote. That can work, but only if one of them is clearly the main path.
Our free Website Next-Step Check starts by asking you to pick one. In the tool's words, it helps you:
"Find out if your page gives visitors a clear way to call, ask for an estimate, book or visit."
Picking one forces a useful question: if a customer lands on this page on their phone, what do we want them to do first?
What the tool looks for
The tool reads your page code and looks for things that support your chosen next step. From the tool page:
"The tool looks in the page code for things that support your chosen next step, like a phone link or a form. It lists what it found, what it did not find and what it could not check."
A "phone link" is a link that starts with tel:. It is what makes a phone number tappable on a phone. The format is a published internet standard (RFC 3966). A phone number typed as plain text, or shown inside an image, may not be tappable at all.
Here is how each next step usually shows up in a page's code, and what still needs a person to check:
| Next step | What supports it in the code | What you still have to test by hand |
|---|---|---|
| Call | A tel: phone link |
That it is easy to spot on a phone and the call connects |
| Ask for an estimate | A form with the right fields | That a test message arrives where someone reads it |
| Book | A booking link or embedded scheduler | That open times show and a test booking goes through |
| Visit | An address and a directions link | That the map pin and hours are correct |
The tool's own worked example
This is the example on the tool page. It is made up.
| What you enter | Value |
|---|---|
| Next step you chose | Call |
| Page code | A phone link to a made-up number |
| Booking link | None |
| What you get | Value |
|---|---|
| Found | A phone link that can support a call |
| Not proven | That it stands out on a phone, that the call connects, or that you get the message |
The tool's advice from there is simple:
"The page has a phone link, but the tool cannot tell if people notice it or if the call goes through. Try it yourself on a phone."
A fictional example: the number nobody could tap
Pine Hill Electric is a made-up company. Its home page header shows the phone number in large type, but the number is part of the logo image. On a desktop it looks fine. On a phone, tapping it does nothing.
Further down, there is a "Contact Us" form. It works, but it sends messages to an email address the owner set up years ago.
A check of the page code would find the form and report no phone link. That is the clue. A five-minute test on a phone would confirm both problems: the number cannot be tapped, and the form goes somewhere nobody looks.
Neither problem shows up in an analytics report. Visitors just leave.
The 5-minute hand test
Do this on your own phone, not a desktop. Many of your visitors will see the page on a phone, and that is where these problems tend to hide.
- Open the page from a search or ad, the way a customer would.
- Count to five. Can you see how to reach the business without scrolling or zooming?
- Tap the phone number. Does your phone offer to call? Does the call reach a person or a voicemail someone checks the same day?
- Send a test form. Use your own details and write "TEST" in the message. Confirm it arrived and who received it.
- Try the booking link, if you have one. Do open times show? Cancel the test booking afterward.
- Check after hours. What does someone see or hear at 7 p.m. or on a Saturday?
The tool is clear that only a person can finish this part:
"Does a form found on the page mean it works? No. A person has to send a test and confirm it arrived. Do not send real customer requests just to try the tool."
Ways to run the check
You do not have to be technical to use the tool. From the tool page:
"You can start with the walkthrough, paste your page code, or check one public page when that option is on."
- Walkthrough: answer questions about the page yourself.
- Paste page code: right-click the page in a desktop browser, choose "View page source," copy it and paste it in.
- Public link check: an optional mode that checks one public page by its address. If you do not see it on the tool, use one of the first two options.
What the tool does not do
The tool page lists its limits plainly:
"The tool gives no overall score and does not predict calls."
"Page code cannot show how a page looks, whether a form sends, or whether you get the message."
It also checks only the page you give it, not your whole site. Content added by scripts, like some chat widgets and booking tools, may not show up in the code and needs a person to look. Text or code you paste stays in your browser.
After the check: what to fix first
If the check turns up problems, fix them in this order:
- Anything that loses messages, like a form going to an old inbox or a voicemail nobody checks.
- Anything that blocks a phone visitor, like a phone number that cannot be tapped.
- Anything that makes the main next step hard to find, like a call button below three screens of text.
Then check the rest of the path. Our Ad-to-Landing-Page Match Checker checks that your page says what your ads promise. If calls come in but do not turn into customers, the Lead Follow-Up Planner and our post on getting leads but no customers cover what happens next.
Questions owners ask
Does it check my whole website?
No. "It only checks the page you give it." Run it on the pages that matter most, usually your home page and the pages your ads point to.
Do I need a separate contact page?
A contact page helps, but it should not be the only way to reach you. Every service page should make the main next step obvious without a click to another page.
Should I add a chat widget?
Only if someone will answer it quickly during business hours. An unanswered chat can feel worse than no chat at all.
Test your page before you pay to send people to it
Run your most important page through the free Website Next-Step Check, then do the five-minute hand test on your phone. If you are about to start ads, add it to your pre-launch checklist.
If the check shows bigger problems than a quick fix, talk with ThinkDMG. We build and improve websites for local service businesses with the next step designed in from the start. Learn more about our web design services.
