Your website is live. It looks fine. Nobody has complained. But is it actually working? For most professional practices, the answer is: you have no idea — because you've never measured it against the metrics that matter.
The Five-Minute Audit
You can evaluate 80% of your website's effectiveness in five minutes with free tools. Here's the framework we use when auditing a prospective client's site.
1. Speed (Google PageSpeed Insights)
Go to pagespeed.web.dev and enter your URL. You'll get a score from 0-100 for both mobile and desktop. Here's what the numbers mean:
- 90-100: Excellent. Your site loads fast and Google rewards you for it.
- 50-89: Needs work. You're losing visitors and rankings to slower load times.
- Below 50: Critical. Your site is actively hurting your practice. Every second of load time costs you roughly 7% of conversions.
Pay special attention to Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — this measures when the main content becomes visible. Under 2.5 seconds is good. Over 4 seconds is poor.
Most template-based practice websites score between 30-60 on mobile. Our sites consistently score 95+.
2. Mobile Experience
Open your website on your phone. Not your new iPhone — borrow someone's older Android if you can. Now answer honestly:
- Does the navigation work smoothly? Can you reach every page?
- Is the text readable without zooming?
- Can you tap the phone number and have it call?
- Does the contact form work? Try submitting it.
- Do images load quickly or do you see blank spaces?
Over 60% of your potential patients and clients are visiting your site on a phone. If any of the above fail, you're losing business you'll never know about.
3. SEO Fundamentals
Google your practice name. Then Google your service + city (e.g., "family dentist Austin TX"). Check these things:
- Do you appear on page 1 for your own name? If not, something is seriously wrong.
- Do you appear for service + city searches? If not, your SEO foundations are missing.
- Does your Google Business Profile show up? Is it complete, with current hours and photos?
- Do you have individual pages for each service? A single "Services" page listing everything won't rank for anything specific.
4. Conversion Elements
Visit your site as if you were a prospective patient or client who found you through Google. Ask:
- Is the phone number visible without scrolling? It should be in the header, clickable on mobile.
- Is there a clear call-to-action above the fold? "Book Appointment," "Free Consultation," "Call Now" — something specific.
- Can you find the contact form in under 10 seconds? If it takes hunting, you're losing leads.
- Are there trust signals visible? Reviews, credentials, years in practice, awards.
- Is the address and hours easy to find?
The average visitor decides whether to stay or leave within 3 seconds. If your value proposition isn't immediately clear, they're gone.
5. Content Quality
Read your own website with fresh eyes:
- Is the content specific to your practice? Or could it describe any practice in any city?
- When was it last updated? A blog with the last post from 2022 signals neglect.
- Are there real photos? Stock photos of smiling people in lab coats don't build trust. Real photos of your office, team, and work do.
- Does each service have its own page? Dedicated service pages rank better and convert better than a single list.
What Good Looks Like
For reference, here's what we build for every Bindingstone client:
- PageSpeed score: 95+ on both mobile and desktop
- Load time: under 1.5 seconds
- Mobile-first design that works on every device
- Individual pages for every service and service area
- Click-to-call phone number in the header
- Contact form on every page
- LocalBusiness schema markup for Google
- Real content, updated regularly
What to Do Next
If your site scored poorly on any of these five areas, the fix isn't a tweak — it's usually a rebuild. Band-aids on a slow, poorly structured website rarely work. The foundation matters.
Get in touch and we'll run a full audit of your current site — free, no obligation. We'll show you exactly what's working, what's not, and what it would take to fix it.