2026 Small-Business Website Checklist: SSL, Mobile, and Speed

You don't need to be technical to check whether your website is in good shape. Three things cover a lot of ground: security (SSL), how it looks on a phone, and how fast it loads. You can check all three in about half an hour, for free.

I'm Taylor Pace, a Richmond, VA web designer in business since 2017. These are the checks I'd run first, and what to do if something fails.

Part 1: SSL (the padlock)

SSL (technically TLS, though everyone says SSL) encrypts the connection between your visitor and your website. You can see it in the address bar: a padlock and a web address starting with https://. Without it, browsers may show a "Not secure" warning, and that's not a good first impression, especially if you take contact forms, payments, or logins.

Check it:

• ☐ Type your address starting with http:// (not https). Does it automatically switch to https://? It should.
• ☐ Click the padlock. Does the browser say the connection is secure, with no warnings?
• ☐ Try both yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com. Both should work and end up in the same place.
• ☐ Browse a few pages, especially ones with forms or images. Does any page show a warning? That can mean an old image or script is still loading over plain http ("mixed content").
• ☐ Note when your certificate renews, or confirm that your host renews it automatically. An expired certificate puts a full-page warning in front of visitors.

If it fails: Contact your host or web designer. If you're on Squarespace, SSL is included, and you can check and adjust the setting in your site's settings. If a site isn't redirecting properly, it's usually a settings fix, not a rebuild.

Part 2: Mobile

Search engines and visitors both expect a site to work on a phone. Don't just shrink the desktop version. The experience has to make sense on a small screen.

Check it, on your own phone:

• ☐ Can you read the text without zooming?
• ☐ Can you tap buttons and menu items easily, without hitting the wrong thing?
• ☐ Does the menu open and close properly?
• ☐ Is your phone number tappable, so a visitor can call you with one touch?
• ☐ Does your contact form work on a phone? Fill it out and submit it, then check that you received it.
• ☐ Do images fit the screen, with no sideways scrolling?

Then ask a friend who has never seen your site to find your hours and phone number. Watching someone else use it tells you a lot.

If it fails: Older sites often weren't built for mobile. If your site looks broken on a phone, that's a good sign it's time for a redesign.

Part 3: Speed

People are impatient, and a slow site loses visitors. Speed depends on many things: image sizes, the number of scripts, your hosting, and the design itself.

Check it:

• ☐ Run your homepage through Google PageSpeed Insights (free, at pagespeed.web.dev). It tests mobile and desktop and lists what's slowing the page down.
• ☐ Test more than the homepage; try a photo-heavy page too.
• ☐ Look at the largest images. Photos straight off a phone or camera are often far bigger than they need to be.
• ☐ Count the extras: video embeds, chat widgets, pop-ups, and tracking scripts all add weight. Keep the ones that earn their place.

If it's slow: The most common easy fixes are resizing and compressing images, removing unused add-ons, and trimming heavy pages. Use the report as a to-do list, not a grade.

A few more quick checks

While you're at it:

• ☐ Contact info is correct on the site, in the footer, and on your Google Business Profile.
• ☐ Your Google Business Profile is complete with hours, phone, and website link.
• ☐ Every page has a clear page title and description. Search for your business name and see how it appears.
• ☐ Forms deliver to an inbox someone checks.
• ☐ Old content is gone: expired offers, past events, former staff.
• ☐ You know who owns your domain and logins, and that they're stored somewhere safe.
• ☐ Someone is responsible for updates.

How to use this list

Print it, go through it with your phone in hand, and write down what fails. Then fix the quick ones first: the redirect, a few oversized photos, a wrong phone number. Anything that needs real work goes on a short list you can bring to your web designer.

Get a Free Website Audit

If you'd rather have someone else run the checks, I'll do it. I'll review your site's security, mobile experience, and speed, and send you plain-English notes on what to fix first. No cold calls, no pressure.

Request your Free Website Audit →

You can also call me at (804) 426-1226 or email taylorpace@gmail.com.

— Taylor Pace, Richmond, VA

Website Checklist for PTAs and Booster Clubs

PTAs and booster clubs run on volunteers, and volunteers change. Officers rotate out, kids graduate, and the person who "knew how the website worked" moves on. That's why a school group's website has different needs from a regular business site.

I'm Taylor Pace, a Richmond, VA web designer in business since 2017. I've built sites for Tuckahoe Elementary & Middle PTA and for the Douglas S. Freeman athletic boosters, and this checklist reflects that work. Use it to check your own site or to plan a new one.

1. Start with the people who visit

Think about who uses your site: parents looking for a date or a sign-up link, new families figuring out how to join, sponsors, and volunteers. If the site answers their questions quickly, it's working.

2. The basics checklist

Essentials every PTA or booster site should have:

• A clear name and purpose. Which school or team you support, and what the group does, in a sentence or two.
• Contact information. A real email address people can reach, ideally a role-based one such as president@ or info@, not a personal inbox.
• A calendar of upcoming events. Keep it current, and remove events that have passed.
• How to join or volunteer. Make it easy to find and easy to act on.
• How to give or pay. Membership dues, spirit wear, fundraiser donations, or sponsorships: whichever you use, make the path obvious.
• Meeting information. When and where you meet, and where families can read minutes or announcements.
• Officer or board list, if your group wants to share it. Check with your members first about what they're comfortable having public.

Nice to have:

• A page for sponsors or business supporters.
• Photos from events (check your school's photo policies first, especially for images of students).
• A simple news or updates section.
• A link to the school's own site.

3. Keep it current, because that's where most sites fail

An out-of-date site hurts you more than a plain one. Before each school year, I'd suggest:

• Reviewing every page for last year's dates, names, and links.
• Updating the officer list.
• Testing every form and payment button yourself.
• Removing events that have passed.

Put it on someone's calendar. A recurring reminder works better than good intentions.

4. Plan for turnover

This is the most important item on the list. Ask yourself:

• Who owns the domain name and website account? It should belong to the organization, registered under an email the group controls, not one volunteer's personal account.
• Where are the logins stored, and does more than one person know?
• Is there a handoff plan when officers change?
• Can a non-technical volunteer update it? I build on Squarespace partly for this reason: updating text, photos, and events is something most people can learn without coding.

If the answer to any of these is "I'm not sure," fix that first.

5. Make it work on a phone

Most parents will check your site on their phones, often standing in a parking lot or waiting in a pickup line. Open your site on your own phone and try to find the next event, the volunteer sign-up, and the contact email. If that's frustrating, it's frustrating for everyone else too.

6. Think about privacy

Be careful with anything involving children or personal information:

• Don't post student names or photos without checking your school's and group's policies.
• Don't publish personal phone numbers or home addresses.
• Keep member lists and sensitive documents off public pages.

7. Make payments and sign-ups simple

If you collect money or sign-ups online, test the process start to finish as a first-time parent would. Is it obvious what you're paying for? Does the buyer get a confirmation? Does the right volunteer get notified?

Common mistakes

• Too much on the homepage. Pick the three or four things people need most and lead with them.
• Old PDFs as the main way of sharing information. They're hard to read on phones and easy to forget to update. Put key information directly on the page.
• No one in charge. Name a website volunteer, and a backup.
• Treating the site as a one-time project. A website needs a little regular attention to stay useful.

Where to go from here

You don't need a big budget or a complicated site. You need the right information, kept up to date, in a place that more than one person can manage.

If you'd like help figuring out what your group's site needs, I'll review it for free.

Get a Free Website Audit

Send me your PTA or booster club site and I'll go through it with this checklist. You'll get straightforward notes on what's working and what to fix first, with no pressure.

Request your Free Website Audit →

You can also call me at (804) 426-1226 or email taylorpace@gmail.com.

— Taylor Pace, Richmond, VA

Does Your Volunteer Fire Company Need a New Website?

If you're on the board of a volunteer fire company, or just the person who ended up in charge of "the website," you've probably wondered whether yours is good enough. Maybe it was built years ago and nobody has logged in since.

I'm Taylor Pace, a web designer in Richmond, Virginia. I've been building websites since 2017, including for community organizations like school PTAs and athletic boosters. I haven't seen your site, so I can't tell you whether yours needs replacing. But I can tell you what I'd look at, and how to decide.

What your website is actually for

A fire company website doesn't need to be fancy. It needs to do a handful of jobs well:

1. Tell people who you are and who you serve. Your company name, the area you cover, and a short history or about section.
2. Make clear that the website is not for emergencies. If someone lands on your site in a crisis, the first thing they should see is a plain line telling them to call 911. Put it where nobody can miss it.
3. Recruit volunteers. If you need new members, your site should say so, explain what's involved, and give people an easy way to ask questions or apply.
4. Support fundraising. Many volunteer companies depend on community support. Visitors should be able to find out how to give, and what upcoming events or drives are happening.
5. Share news and events. Training nights, community events, fire prevention tips, and station updates all belong in one findable place.
6. Give contact information. A non-emergency phone number or email, a mailing address, and a map or directions to the station.

If your site does those six things clearly, it's doing its job. If it doesn't, that's the gap to close.

Signs it might be time for a new site

Here are the warning signs I'd look for:

• It looks wrong on a phone. Pull it up on your own phone. If you have to pinch and zoom to read it, that's a problem. Most people will look at it on their phones.
• Your browser says "Not secure." A site without HTTPS (the padlock in the address bar) makes visitors uneasy, especially if you ask for donations or applications.
• The information is out of date. Old events, a former chief listed as current, an expired phone number. Wrong information is worse than none.
• Nobody knows how to update it. If changing one line means calling someone who may not answer, the site will go stale.
• You don't know who controls it. If you can't say who owns the domain name or has the login, sort that out first. It's easy to fix now and painful to fix later.
• Visitors can't find the basics. If the volunteer page, donation info, or contact details take more than a click or two to find, people give up.

If a few of these sound familiar, a refresh is worth considering. Some don't need a full rebuild; updating content and fixing a few settings may get you most of the way there.

Build it so volunteers can maintain it

Volunteer boards turn over. The person who set up the website may not be around in three years. So whatever you choose, ask these questions:

• Can a non-technical person update it? I build on Squarespace, which lets people edit text, photos, and events without writing code.
• Is the account owned by the organization, not by one person's personal email?
• Is there a written list of logins kept somewhere the board can access?
• Is there someone to call when something breaks?

A simple site that gets updated beats an impressive one that gets abandoned.

Keep it simple

Histories, apparatus lists, and photo albums are nice, but start with the essentials: a clean homepage, a volunteer page, a way to give, an events calendar, and contact information. Add more later.

What I'd suggest as a next step

Before you spend any money, do three things:

1. Look at your site on your phone, and ask someone outside the company to find your phone number, the volunteer information, and how to donate.
2. Find out who owns your domain and website account.
3. Make a list of what's out of date.

That will tell you whether you need a quick cleanup or a new site. If you'd like a second set of eyes, I'm happy to look.

Get a Free Website Audit

I offer a free audit of your current site. I'll go through what's working, what isn't, and what I'd fix first, and I'll tell you honestly whether you need a new site or just some updates.

Request your Free Website Audit →

You can also reach me directly at (804) 426-1226 or taylorpace@gmail.com.

— Taylor Pace, Richmond, VA