You already pay for a website. Is it doing anything?

Five minutes, your own phone.

Do them in order. Each one is a fact you can see, not an opinion anybody has to sell you.

1. Open it on your phone.

   Not a laptop. A phone, held one-handed, on mobile data rather than the office wifi. Most of your customers are standing in a shop or sitting in a truck when they look you up. Time how long it takes to load, then try to tap your phone number.

   Fail looks likePinching to read. A number you can't tap to dial. A menu that covers the page. Anything slower than about three seconds.

2. Read the address bar on an inner page.

   Tap through to your About or Services page and look at the web address itself. It should say something like /about or /hydraulic-repair.

   Fail looks likeyoursite.ca/page-3 · /blank-4 · /index_2.html — a template nobody renamed. Google reads those addresses, and so does every AI assistant now answering “who does this near me.”

3. Search what you actually do, plus your town — in a private window.

   Not your business name; anyone searching that has already found you. Search the job: “hydraulic cylinder repair regina”, “wedding venue regina”, “custom cakes regina”. Use a private or incognito window — your own browser history flatters you badly here.

   Fail looks likeYou're not on the first page, or the only thing on it with your name is a directory listing rather than your own site.

4. Try to do business with yourself at nine at night.

   Count the clicks from your home page to a finished order, a submitted quote request, or a booked date. Then ask what happens to that at 9pm on a Sunday, when your phone is off.

   Fail looks like“Call for pricing.” “Email us.” A phone number and nothing else. That's a business card, not a website — and the customer with a card in their hand goes to whoever will take the order tonight.

5. Read your own footer.

   Scroll to the very bottom of your home page and read every word down there.

   Fail looks likeA company name that isn't yours — a theme name, a builder's credit, a template brand. If it's on your page, a customer can read it too.

6. Check the site against itself.

   The founding year in your header against the one in the slider. The hours on your site against the hours on your Google listing. Then click the email address in your own footer and see whether a message to it actually arrives.

   Fail looks likeTwo different years on one page. Hours that disagree with Google. An email address on a domain that no longer loads — which means mail people send you may be going nowhere at all.

7. Find out who actually owns your domain.

   Your web address is the one asset you can't rebuild. Look it up: CIRA's WHOIS for a .ca, ICANN Lookup for anything else. Business registrations usually show a registrant name; personal ones are kept private, so if it comes back redacted or you're unsure, do the real test instead — ask your provider, in writing, for the registrar login.

   Fail looks likeA registrant that isn't your business. Or a request for the login that takes more than a day to answer. If you can't get to the account, you're renting your own front door.

Five questions to ask whoever builds your site.

Ask them of your current provider, of the next person who quotes you — and of us. The answers should be immediate and in writing. How long someone takes to answer question one tells you most of what you need to know.

• Is the domain registered in my name?
  Not “managed for you” — registered to your business, with you on the account and able to move it without permission.
  OURS: Yes. In your name; we manage it with your permission; registration billed at cost.
• Do I own the site and every word on it?
  Every page, image and line of copy — including anything a writer or designer produced for you.
  OURS: Yes. Outright, in writing on the quote.
• If I leave, do I leave with all of it — working and documented?
  Not a zip file of images. The working site, the content, the domain, and enough documentation for the next person to pick it up.
  OURS: Yes — complete, organised, no charge.
• What's the term, the notice period, and what happens the day I stop paying?
  Does the site go dark? Does the domain lapse? Is there an auto-renewal you have to catch in a window?
  OURS: Care and Growth are monthly, 30 days' notice. The Works is a 12-month commitment — because we build the site for nothing down, so leaving early makes the unused share of the $2,400 build payable. The site still goes with you either way, because it's yours.
• How long does a change take — and how long did the last one actually take?
  Everyone answers the first half the same way. The second half is a fact rather than a promise, and you already know the answer. The real test: it's the day before a job starts, a price is wrong on your own website, and you need it changed this afternoon. Who do you phone, and do they pick up?
  OURS: content changes are two business days on Care, next business day on Growth. A quote comes back in two business days. Email or phone gets a person inside one business day. And there is no ticket queue — you're talking to the man who does the work, because there is only one of us.