Before a care home website goes live, confirm the information, permissions, enquiry routes and launch responsibilities. This twenty-point checklist gives your nominated contact and website provider a practical review structure. Use it alongside your agreed project scope; it is not a regulatory or accessibility certification.

Choose one person to gather feedback and identify who can approve publication. Review the preview before launch, keep requested changes in one consolidated list and resolve outstanding factual questions. The home approves its information and permissions; the website provider handles the design and technical work included in the agreement.

Confirm the business information and content

• Confirm the home’s identity. Check the trading name, business details, address and contact hours against approved information. Use consistent wording wherever those details appear.
• Check service descriptions. Confirm that care types, facilities and accessibility information accurately reflect the service you provide. Make the route for discussing individual needs clear.
• Review the page structure. Check that every agreed page exists, has a useful purpose and can be reached through sensible navigation. Resolve missing or duplicated information.
• Approve the wording. Ask the responsible contact to review team information, the care philosophy and practical details. Replace placeholder text before the final approval.
• Confirm contact destinations. Check the public telephone number, email address and enquiry recipient. Make sure the relevant team knows what the website asks visitors to do.

Approve facts, imagery and publication permissions

• Approve photographs and videos. Confirm permission to publish each asset and that it represents the home appropriately. Remove material that has not been approved for website use.
• Check reviews and testimonials. Confirm permission, wording and attribution before publishing. Avoid claims about customer or resident experiences that you cannot substantiate.
• Verify care-related statements. Have the nominated approver confirm factual and regulatory information. Website design does not verify a service’s care quality or suitability.
• Check inspection references. Link to the correct service information and reflect its current rating or unrated status accurately. Do not reuse another location’s inspection details.
• Review privacy information. Confirm that published information matches the forms and tracking tools actually enabled. Agree how confidential enquiries will be directed to an appropriate secure route.

Test the experience on devices and enquiry routes

• Review desktop and mobile layouts. Read key pages on a computer and phone. Check headings, images, menus and buttons without assuming the desktop view covers every device.
• Follow important navigation paths. Start at the homepage and find service information, contact details and visit arrangements. Check links, including links to external information.
• Check readability and keyboard use. Review text contrast, meaningful headings, labelled form fields and visible focus. Confirm important controls can be reached and operated with a keyboard.
• Test the enquiry form. Agree an appropriate test with the recipient, submit it and confirm delivery. Check required fields, confirmation messages and who handles an enquiry after receipt.
• Check telephone links and page loading. Confirm call links use the correct number and that key pages load without obvious errors. Ask the provider to investigate unexpected delays or broken elements.

Agree launch, handover and ongoing responsibility

• Confirm the domain arrangements. Check who owns and can authorise changes to the domain. Arrange any necessary access securely; do not send passwords through an enquiry form.
• Approve the launch plan. Confirm the agreed publication date, remaining dependencies and who can give final approval. Allow for required content, access and approvals before relying on a target timeline.
• Check the agreed technical setup. Ask the provider to confirm HTTPS, relevant redirects and the SEO or analytics items included in scope. Do not assume every package includes the same features.
• Review handover and ownership. Confirm the access and information you will receive, when ownership transfers and any separate ongoing terms. Record who can request future changes.
• Assign ongoing upkeep. Agree who maintains content, software, security and backups, whether independently or through an agreed service. Set a practical routine for checking that information and enquiry routes remain current.

What should happen after the checks?

Record any outstanding items, who owns them and whether they affect publication. Confirm that the final approved version is the one scheduled for launch, then repeat essential link and enquiry checks on the live website. Substantial extra features or pages should be agreed separately rather than becoming an unclear last-minute expectation.

For inspection context, the CQC explains its ratings and why some services have no rating. Families also use conversations and visits: the NHS care homes guide describes the wider research involved in choosing care. Keep those decisions distinct from a website launch review.

Read our complete website journey for the project sequence, or compare website packages and ongoing options. If you are planning a new site or redesign, discuss your scope with WaveBNB Pro before committing to a launch date.

Two WaveBNB Pro planning resources are now live: a step-by-step website journey and an editable cost-benefit calculator. They help care home teams understand the work involved in a website project and explore its costs before deciding what to do next.

Choosing a website package raises practical questions. What happens after payment? Which materials will the home need to supply? When can the team review the pages? What would need to improve for the investment to make sense? The new resources bring these questions together in one place.

See the website journey, from first conversation to handover

The How It Works page sets out fourteen steps across six phases. It explains the initial conversation, package selection, payment, onboarding, design, preview, refinements, approval, launch and handover. Each stage distinguishes what the care home supplies from what WaveBNB handles.

A preparation checklist helps teams organise business information, branding, approved content, domain arrangements and final feedback. Target timelines remain subject to the agreed scope and begin after the required materials, access and approvals are received.

Explore a first-year cost-benefit scenario

The website cost-benefit page compares a quality website, a poor website and no website. Its calculator lets you change build costs, monthly running costs, other costs, unrecoverable VAT and an occupancy scenario.

The model uses contribution after additional care-delivery costs, rather than treating the full weekly care fee as a benefit. It counts additional occupied resident-weeks against a baseline. The starting figures are illustrative assumptions, not sector averages, predicted results or a promise of enquiries or admissions.

Use the resources before agreeing your project scope

Read the journey with the person who will coordinate your project, then use your own costs and operational information in the calculator. Consider care suitability, available capacity, safe staffing and how your team follows up enquiries. The tools support a discussion; they cannot decide whether a website investment is appropriate for your home.

You can also browse the illustrative live demos and compare published packages and terms. If you would like to discuss your current website and priorities, tell us about your project. We agree the scope, timing and commercial details before payment.

A good care home website helps families understand the care you provide, check reliable information and contact the right person. It combines accurate content, a readable mobile experience and clear enquiry routes, supported by regular upkeep. Appearance matters, but it should serve those practical needs.

For a care home owner or registered manager, the useful question is not simply whether the website looks modern. It is whether the site gives a family a clear, accurate introduction to your home and supports the conversations your team needs to have. These are the foundations to review before choosing a redesign.

Does the website explain who your home can support?

Describe your care services, setting and facilities in plain language. Help readers distinguish the support you provide from services outside your scope. Explain the next steps for discussing individual needs, rather than suggesting that a website description can determine whether a placement is suitable.

Useful details may include accommodation, daily life, visiting arrangements, accessibility and how to arrange an initial conversation. Check each statement with the person responsible for that information. If circumstances change, agree who will update the relevant pages. Clear information is more useful than a long list of broad promises.

Can families find the information they need?

Organise navigation around familiar questions: what care is available, what the home is like, who runs it and how to get in touch. Give each important service enough explanation to make sense on its own. Avoid forcing readers to search through one long page or download a brochure to find basic contact details.

The NHS guide to care homes describes several ways to research a home, including its website, telephone conversations and visits. Your site should support that wider research. It should make the next conversation easier, while recognising that families need to assess much more than an online presentation.

Does the mobile experience work comfortably?

Open the website on a phone and follow the same route a prospective family might take. Can you read the words without zooming? Is the menu understandable? Can you reach the relevant service page and find the telephone number? Do photographs fit their space without hiding important information?

A considered experience also accounts for different abilities and devices. Use descriptive headings, readable contrast, meaningful link text and clearly labelled forms. Check keyboard navigation and visible focus. These choices help people understand and operate the website; they are more valuable than animation that distracts from the task.

Is there an appropriate route to an enquiry?

Offer a clear way to call, ask a question or arrange a visit. State what the enquiry is for and direct it to someone who can respond. Test form delivery and telephone links, then confirm the team knows how enquiries will be handled. A polished form has little practical value if messages reach an unattended inbox.

Ask only for information appropriate to an initial business or care-home enquiry. Avoid inviting confidential resident or health records through a general website form. Explain the appropriate next step when a more detailed discussion is required. Your privacy information should match the forms and tracking tools actually in use.

Are images, statements and inspection links accurate?

Use photographs that represent the home appropriately and have the necessary publication permissions. Apply the same care to reviews, testimonials, videos and descriptions of the team. A nominated approver should confirm facts and care-related statements before publication. Attractive presentation cannot substitute for accuracy.

Link to the correct inspection information where relevant. The CQC explains how its ratings and scores work, including why some services do not have a rating. Reflect the actual status of your service and keep links current. Website quality does not establish the quality or suitability of care.

Can the website stay useful after launch?

Plan for hosting, security, software updates, backups and content changes. Agree who owns the domain, who can authorise access and who maintains the site. A website-only purchase and an ongoing marketing programme have different scopes; compare the full arrangements in your website package terms.

For search visibility, useful content, clear internal links and a crawlable site are sound foundations. They do not guarantee rankings, AI citations or enquiries. Review enquiry quality, visits and appropriate admissions alongside availability, staffing, referrals and seasonality. If your current site already works well, targeted improvements may be enough.

To make the next step concrete, explore our illustrative website demos, read how a website project works or use the cost-benefit calculator with your own assumptions. Start with the problem you want to solve, then agree a proportionate scope.