A self-assessment for nursery owners and childcare leaders. Find out where your website is helping and where it is losing families.
Before any family visits your nursery, before they speak to a member of staff, before they read your Ofsted report, they form an opinion from your website. That opinion shapes everything that follows.
A website that builds confidence makes the rest of the enquiry process easier. A website that creates doubt makes every subsequent interaction start from a deficit. Families who arrive at a visit already uncertain are harder to convert, even with excellent childcare.
This assessment helps you identify exactly where your website is working and where it might be costing you families.
Work through each of the five areas below. For each one, note honestly whether your website passes or has a problem. Be a prospective parent, not a nursery manager. Look at what a family who has never visited you would see.
At the end, count how many areas have problems. That number tells you how urgent the work is.
Each area represents a key stage in the parent's research journey. A problem in any one of them can cause a family to disengage.
Does it look trustworthy in 5 seconds?
Clear, professional layout that loads quickly. A single, compelling statement about what the nursery offers. Real photography visible immediately. A clear way to take the next step.
Dated design that signals neglect. Slow loading, especially on mobile. No clear headline. Stock photography. Immediately confusing navigation or multiple competing calls to action.
Can parents find what they need quickly?
Ages and sessions clearly visible without searching. Fees either stated or clearly signposted. Location, hours, and term dates easy to find. Information written for parents, not for ofsted.
No fees information anywhere on the site. Information buried in PDFs. Key details require multiple clicks to find. Policy language used where plain English should be.
Photos, reviews, accreditations visible?
Real photography of the actual nursery, rooms, outdoor space, and team. Google review rating visible or linked. Ofsted outcome displayed. Any relevant accreditations or awards shown.
Only stock photography used. No reviews visible or linked. Ofsted result hidden or absent. The only evidence of quality is the nursery's own claims about itself.
Is it easy to get in touch or book a visit?
A clear call to action on the homepage. Contact form that works. Phone number visible without scrolling. A logical next step for interested parents. Confirmation that an enquiry has been received.
Contact form hidden in a separate page. No phone number visible on mobile. Broken or missing form. No clear indication of what happens after enquiring. Multiple steps before reaching a human.
Does it work well on a phone?
Site loads in under 3 seconds on mobile. Text is readable without zooming. Images load correctly and do not overflow. Navigation works with a thumb. Contact options are tap-friendly. The overall experience on a phone is as good as on a desktop.
Slow loading on mobile connections. Text too small to read. Images that do not resize properly. Navigation that requires precise tapping. Contact forms that are hard to complete on a small screen. A site clearly designed for desktop only.
If you found one problem, it is worth addressing but unlikely to be costing you significant enquiry volume on its own.
If you found two problems, there is a pattern. Families doing their research are likely hitting more than one friction point. Each one reduces the probability they will reach out.
If you found three or more problems, your website is very likely costing you enquiries. The gaps between the quality of your childcare and what families see online are significant enough that families are choosing other settings, not because those settings are better, but because they appear more trustworthy.
A self-assessment is a starting point. It identifies the obvious gaps but cannot tell you the relative priority of each issue, what is causing them, or what the most cost-effective fixes are.
A Studio Kaiso website review gives you an outside perspective from people who understand both childcare and what families look for online. We will look at your specific situation and give you a clear, prioritised set of recommendations.
No jargon. No upselling. Just a clear view of what your website is doing well, what it is not, and where to focus your attention first.
We will look at your nursery's online presence and tell you exactly where it is helping families say yes and where it is getting in the way.