“I only wanted to know when you’re open”
In September we opened 50 websites of small businesses in German-speaking Switzerland in the phone view. On each one we looked for one specific piece of information. What’s for lunch today? When is the flower shop open? What does a driving lesson cost? On 17 websites we had the answer within seconds. On the other 33 we couldn’t find it.
We only counted what a second, independent check confirmed. In half of the first “no opening hours” reports, our checking script was wrong. The hours were in an image, in English, or behind the cookie banner. Those cases are not among the 33.
Write your opening hours as text
13 of the 33 websites gave no opening hours. Often it said “by appointment”, without a single weekday. One contact page said “We’re here for you!” and gave no hours. A flower shop only gave its lunch break.
Put days and times as plain text on the home page or the contact page. If you only work by appointment, add when people can reach you. Opening hours in an image have to be zoomed in on a phone.
Open your own address on your phone
Eight websites didn’t load at all. A bakery’s security certificate had expired, and every phone showed only a security warning. Behind one pizzeria’s address there was only an empty directory listing. A hairdresser linked a page on Google that no longer exists.
Now and then, open your website through the links on Google and local.ch. That’s where your customers click too.
Tap every button once
Four websites had a dead link in an important place. At one restaurant, “Lunch menu” led to an error page because the file on the server was spelled differently from the link. A driving school’s “See prices” button also led to an error page. Twice the booking itself was stuck. The table reservation link pointed to an address that no longer exists, and an ordering system rejected every time slot.
Open your website on your phone and tap menu, prices, booking and contact. Check after each tap that you get somewhere.
Make your number tappable
On two websites the phone number was shown in large type. Tapping it did nothing, so it had to be copied by hand. A dental practice’s home page was a single image with no phone number. The image had been exported from PowerPoint in 2011.
Check your listing on local.ch and Google
Three times the listing didn’t match the website. The directory gave a different company name than the website, or the address redirected to another company’s site. Customers then can’t tell whether they’ve found the right business.
We picked 50 websites from local.ch. They came from 13 trades, from restaurants to driving schools. We checked each one with a question a customer would ask. A second check with a different tool confirmed every finding. We name no one.