First five seconds
- The page says what the business does without forcing a visitor to decode it.
- The strongest next step is visible without scrolling forever.
- The business feels current enough to trust before the visitor reads every word.
Cleanup checklist
A practical website cleanup checklist before the project gets bigger.
Before you buy a redesign or keep ignoring the site, check the places that usually make a good business feel weaker online than it is in real life.
Before the redesign
Most website cleanup starts with the same visible leaks.
This checklist is the calm version of a first read: the places I check before deciding whether a site needs a light cleanup, a clearer service structure, a redesign, or ongoing care.
I read the public site like a visitor, find the trust leaks, and suggest the smallest honest first move.
The goal is not to make you perform a perfect brief. The goal is to make the first move obvious.
Use this when
- The business is good, but the website feels old or hard to send.
- You are not sure whether you need cleanup, redesign, or maintenance.
- The site has grown into one long page with no clear search-friendly structure.
- People can technically contact you, but the path feels buried or weak.
Checklist
Check the obvious weak spots first.
The first pass is usually clarity, mobile contact, proof placement, stale pages, and upkeep.
Service structure
- Important services have their own clear rooms instead of hiding inside one long page.
- Page titles use words customers actually search for.
- The site answers what you do, who it helps, and what to do next.
Phone and contact path
- Phone, email, or request links are easy to find on mobile.
- The contact page says what to send first.
- There is no awkward dead end after a visitor decides they are interested.
Proof placement
- Photos, examples, reviews, or project evidence are near the claims they support.
- The best proof is not buried where only the owner knows it exists.
- Trust details make the business feel more real, not more cluttered.
Stale-page cleanup
- Old announcements, broken links, outdated service descriptions, and half-finished pages are not quietly weakening the site.
- The site map matches the business now, not what somebody guessed years ago.
- Low-value pages are merged, redirected, or rewritten instead of left to rot.
Ownership after launch
- Somebody knows who updates the site when the business changes.
- Hosting, publishing, backups, and small edits are handled instead of drifting.
- The site has a maintenance path, not just a launch day.
What this tells you
The checklist should reveal the right lane.
- If only a few pieces are weak, cleanup may be enough.
- If every page fights the visitor, redesign may be cleaner.
- If the site is mostly fine but stale, ongoing care may be the missing piece.
- If you cannot tell, send the site and start with a first read.
Send the site. Get the first read.
Send the site and I will tell you what I would fix first.
If it fits, we build. If not, you still leave with a clearer read.
Keep moving