A website that was perfectly fine in 2021 can be quietly losing business in 2026. Phones got faster and people got less patient. Search engines started summarising answers before anyone clicks. Privacy and accessibility rules stopped being optional for many organizations.
Here is the checklist we use when we review a client’s site. You do not need every item on day one, but each missing one costs you something, whether it is visitors, trust or legal exposure.
Contents6 sections
Speed and mobile
Most of your visitors are on a phone, often on mobile data. Google measures real-world speed with three signals called Core Web Vitals, and they are a good proxy for how the site feels.
- The main content appears within about two and a half seconds on a phone.
- Taps and clicks respond without a noticeable delay.
- Nothing jumps around while the page loads.
- Images are compressed and served in modern formats.
- Phone numbers are tappable and buttons are large enough for a thumb.
Accessibility
In Ontario, private and non-profit organizations with 50 or more employees must make their public websites meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA under the AODA. Smaller businesses are not covered by that requirement, but the same practices make a site easier for everyone, including older customers and people reading in bright sunlight.
The basics are not exotic: enough colour contrast, descriptive alt text on images, a site you can navigate with a keyboard, captions on video and headings that follow a logical order. Building them in from the start costs far less than retrofitting later.
Privacy, consent and language
- A plain-language privacy policy that explains what you collect and why, in line with PIPEDA.
- A cookie consent banner that actually controls tracking, which matters most for visitors from Quebec under Law 25.
- Unticked, optional consent checkboxes wherever a form adds people to an email list, as CASL requires.
- French content if you sell to customers in Quebec, where the Charter of the French Language, strengthened by Bill 96, applies to commercial websites.
None of this needs to be heavy. It needs to be accurate, and it needs someone to keep it that way as tools change.
Search and AI readiness
Each page should have a unique title and description, one clear main heading and content that answers a real question. For local businesses that means a page for every core service and every major area, linked to your Google Business Profile.
Add structured data for your business and FAQs, submit a sitemap to Google Search Console, and write answers in plain language. The same clarity that helps a customer skim a page also helps AI summaries quote it correctly.
Trust signals
Strangers decide quickly whether you are real and reliable. Real photos of your team and your work beat stock images every time. Reviews with names and dates, licences and memberships, warranties, a physical address with a map and at least a price range for common jobs all answer the silent question: can I trust these people with my money?
For Ontario trades, details such as WSIB coverage and a written warranty are worth stating plainly. They are exactly what careful customers look for.
Lead capture and follow-up
- A call button and a short quote form visible on every screen of a phone.
- Online booking where it makes sense.
- A thank-you page or message that says what happens next and when.
- Every enquiry flowing into one inbox or CRM, with its source recorded.
- Conversion tracking for forms and calls, so you know what works.
Score your site honestly against these six sections. If more than a few items are missing, a focused round of fixes usually beats a full rebuild. When a rebuild is the right call, our website design team builds every item on this list in from the start.
