You don't need a design degree to spot a website that's about to cause you problems. Most of the issues that come back to bite a small business after launch are visible in the mockup, if you know where to look. Here are the five questions worth asking before you sign off on anything.
1. Can you actually read it on your phone?
Pull up the design on your own phone, not just the laptop comp. Then read the homepage out loud. If your eyes drift, the text is too small. If you have to pinch-zoom, the layout broke. If a CTA button is below the fold and you missed it, the conversion path is unclear.
Sixty to eighty percent of your visitors will be on a phone. The mobile view isn't the consolation prize, it's the main event. If the designer only showed you the desktop comp, ask for the mobile.
2. Is it obvious what you want the visitor to do?
Stare at the homepage for three seconds, then look away. What did you remember? What button do you remember? If the answer is "I don't know" or "everything," the design has too many priorities.
A good small-business homepage points at one main action: book a call, request a quote, see the menu, get directions. Everything else should support that. If the page is asking visitors to do five things at once, none of them will get done.
3. Does the brand feel like the rest of your business?
Print out the design and put it next to a business card, a vehicle wrap, a flyer, your storefront photo. Does it look like the same company? Or does the website feel like it belongs to someone else?
Consistency builds trust. If the website uses three fonts that nothing else uses, or a color palette that doesn't show up anywhere offline, the visitor is going to feel something is off without knowing why. That feeling costs you bookings.
4. Is the type a sane size and color?
Body text should be at least 16 pixels on desktop, 16 to 18 on mobile. Lower than that and older buyers will give up. Gray text on a gray background reads as "we don't want you to read this." Black text on white is fine. Almost-black on almost-white is also fine. Light gray on white is not.
Also check headlines. If they're slanted, fancy, all-caps, and tiny, you have a logo masquerading as a sentence. Headlines need to be readable first, stylish second.
5. Does the site work for someone using a screen reader or keyboard?
This is the one most small-business owners skip, but it matters more every year. About one in seven adults has a disability that affects how they use a website. Color contrast that's too low, images missing descriptions, forms that can't be filled out with a keyboard, all of it filters out customers and increasingly creates legal exposure.
You don't need to audit this yourself. Ask the designer: "Does the site meet WCAG AA?" If the answer is yes, ask for proof. If the answer is "what?", that's your answer.
The sign-off itself
One last move: before you approve, share the comp with a customer, a family member who isn't in your industry, and your most opinionated friend. Ask them what the business does and what the page wants them to click. If they get either one wrong, the design isn't ready, no matter how pretty it looks. Need a second opinion on a design you've already received? We'll take a look.
