The eighteen checks, in full
The actual checklist, not a summary. Every test we run on a prospective site is listed below, grouped the way we report findings. Nothing here is a trade secret: check most of these yourself before you ever email us.
Accessibility
WCAG 2.2 AA is the floor. These four catch most of what gets missed.
Text contrast
Body text at least 4.5:1 against its background, large text (24px+, or 19px bold) at least 3:1, checked on every colour pair in use.
Keyboard access
Every link, button and form field reachable by tab, with a visible focus outline at every stop. No mouse-only interactions.
Heading structure
One H1 per page, headings in logical order, and real landmarks (nav, main, footer): what a screen reader relies on to navigate.
Motion and zoom
Reduced-motion respected throughout. Usable at 200% browser zoom and at 320px width.
Privacy and tracking
What the site tells other companies about the person reading it, without them knowing.
Font loading
Whether fonts are self-hosted or pulled from a CDN like Google Fonts, which logs the visitor's IP on every load.
Analytics
Whether Google Analytics or similar is present, profiling what the visitor read and how long they stayed.
Advertising pixels
Whether a Meta Pixel or similar is loaded: the mechanism that lets a visitor be retargeted after reading about their own mental health.
Cookie banner
Whether one is present, and why. Needing a cookie banner usually means a tracking decision was already made upstream.
Advertising wording
What the ASA and CAP publish, checked against the copy on the page.
Treatment claims
Whether the site claims to "treat" or "cure" a condition needing medical supervision: a published restriction most practitioners have never seen.
Outcome guarantees
Whether the copy promises a result or a timeframe. Therapy's outcomes vary by person; the wording should too.
Comparative claims
Whether the site claims to be better than another named or implied practitioner: not allowed, however mildly phrased.
Performance
Measured on a throttled mobile connection, because that's what most visitors are actually using.
Mobile load speed
Largest Contentful Paint under roughly 2.5 seconds on mobile: the point the main content becomes visible.
Layout stability
Whether content jumps while the page loads: images or fonts arriving late and shoving text out from under a waiting thumb.
Lighthouse mobile score
Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices and SEO, run on mobile. Our own builds are held to 95+.
Trust, legal content, and safety
The parts of a site that only get noticed when they're missing.
Privacy notice
Present, plain English, and says what's collected, why, how long it's kept, and how to have it deleted.
ICO registration
Whether the practitioner needs to be registered as a data controller, and whether that number appears on the site.
Crisis line
A calm, permanent line on every page (999, NHS 111, Samaritans on 116 123), not a popup on just the contact page.
Enquiry form data
Whether the form asks for more than a name and a way to reply: date of birth, GP details or a diagnosis field should never be collected.
A short, specific report, not a sales call
Each of the eighteen comes back pass or fail, with the specific finding named, not a vague score. Sent whether or not you ever work with us.