The 2-minute phone test for your website

Most homeowners look you up on a phone. A slow or hard website loses them before they call. A 2-minute test you can run tonight.

A homeowner finds you on Google. Before they call, many of them open your website on their phone. What they see in the next few seconds decides if they call you or the next shop.

Homeowners check your website

• In a 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults, 54% said that after they read good reviews of a business, they check its website. ^[1]
• In a 2025 survey of 1,040 US homeowners, 96% said they expect a user-friendly, professional website. 80% said online booking is part of how they choose a pro. ^[2]

Both surveys ask people what they do. They do not watch what people do. But both say the same thing: your website is part of the first impression.

Slow costs you visitors

• Google says that when a page takes 3 seconds to load instead of 1 second, the chance that a visitor leaves goes up by 32%. ^[3]
• A study paid for by Google and run by Deloitte looked at 37 large brand websites and more than 30 million visits. When the sites got 0.1 seconds faster on every page, lead-generation sites saw 21.6% more visitors reach the form they submit. ^[4]

What this does not prove: the Deloitte study looked at big brands, not small home-service shops, and Google paid for it. The 32% figure comes from Google's own research from 2017. But no study we know of shows that a slower site helps.

The 2-minute phone test

Do this on your own phone. Turn Wi-Fi off, so you see what a customer on the road sees.

1. Search your business name on Google. Tap your website. Count the seconds until you can read the page.
2. Tap your phone number. Does it start a call? If your number is only in a picture, a phone cannot dial it.
3. Find the form or the "book" button. Can you see it without scrolling far? Fill it in with your own name and send it.
4. Check the details. Are your hours, your service area and your services correct? Is the year at the bottom of the page this year?
5. Check your speed for free. Google's free PageSpeed Insights tool tests any web address and lists what makes the page slow. ^[5]

If any step was hard for you, it is hard for your customers too.