homepage-audit

---
name: homepage-audit
description: Rebuilds the first screen of your website, the part a stranger sees on a phone before scrolling, so that it answers what kind of place this is, where it is, when it is open and how to book, with nothing covering it and nothing on it you cannot evidence. Use when the site gets visits and no bookings, before you pay anyone to redesign it, or when you have never once looked at your own homepage on a phone from a cold start.
---

# Make the first screen answer the four questions a stranger arrives with

You give this the address of your site, a photograph or screen recording of your own homepage taken on a phone, and your Companies House details. You get back a list of everything visible on the first screen before anyone scrolls, scored against the four questions a first-time visitor is actually asking, every obstruction named, every unevidenced claim struck, the footer identity details the law requires checked off, and a rebuilt first screen written as a numbered running order you can hand to whoever maintains the site. It does not redesign anything, it does not touch colours or fonts, and it will not write a claim you cannot prove.

## What it does

1. **Capture the first screen on a real phone from a cold start, and write down only what you can actually see.** Not a desktop browser narrowed down, and not the site you already have open with the cookie banner dismissed weeks ago. A private window, a real handset, mobile data rather than the venue wifi. Screenshot it, then list every element visible before a single scroll: logo, navigation, headline, image, button, banner, popup, chat bubble. That list is the audit. Everything after this step is judged against it, because the thing you designed and the thing that arrives on a stranger's phone are different objects, and only one of them is being looked at.

2. **Judge the list against the four questions a first-time visitor arrives with, and nothing else.** What kind of place is this. Where is it. When is it open. How do I book or order. Mark each question answered or not answered from the screenshot alone, without scrolling and without clicking. Nielsen Norman Group's eyetracking analysis of more than 130,000 fixations found that "users spent about 57% of their page-viewing time above the fold. 74% of the viewing time was spent in the first two screenfuls", and that within the first screen "more than 65% of the viewing time above the fold was concentrated in the top half of the viewport". You do not get the benefit of the doubt further down. A question not answered on the first screen is a question the visitor answers by leaving.

3. **Count every element that obstructs the first screen, then decide which ones actually have to be there.** Cookie consent, newsletter signup, app prompt, age gate, chat bubble, promotional overlay, a video that plays itself. Google's guidance is direct: "Don't obscure the entire page with interstitials" and "Don't redirect the user to a separate page for their consent or input", and it recommends that instead of full page interstitials you "use banners that take up only a small fraction of the screen to grab your users' attention". A consent banner you are obliged to show still belongs at banner height along one edge, not across the middle on top of the booking button. Two overlays at once is not a design decision, it is nobody having looked.

4. **Put exactly one primary action on the first screen and demote everything else to a link.** Book a table, order, call, check availability, whichever one you actually want. A venue that puts four equally weighted buttons on the first screen is asking a stranger to choose before they have any information. The same eyetracking work concludes that you should "reserve the top of the page for high-priority content: key business and user goals" and "keep major CTAs above the fold". One button that looks like a button, big enough for a thumb, labelled with what happens next. Not "Learn more", not "Discover", and not a booking link hidden inside a hamburger menu where it cannot be seen at all.

5. **Check that the first screen still works when the images do not load.** Turn images off, or throttle the connection, and look again. A headline set inside a photograph disappears completely. Google's page experience guidance asks owners to self-assess whether "your pages have good Core Web Vitals", whether "your content display well on mobile devices", and whether the page "is designed so visitors can easily distinguish the main content from other content on your page". If the name of the venue, the town and the booking button exist only inside a picture, then on a slow connection in a car park your homepage is a blank screen with a spinner on it. All four answers must exist as real selectable text.

6. **Strike every word on the first screen that is about you rather than about them.** "Established 1987", "passionate about food", "a dining experience", "welcome to our website" are all about the business. "Open until 11 tonight", "two minutes from the station", "Sunday roast from 12" are about the visitor. Go through the list and mark each phrase inward or outward, then check that each outward one is true today rather than true in general. This is not a tone preference. The visitor arrived with a task, the screen either helps with the task or delays it, and a delay on a phone in one hand is the same thing as a refusal.

7. **Test every claim on the first screen against the substantiation rule and strike the ones with no document behind them.** CAP Code rule 3.7 requires that "before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation". Rule 3.2 keeps obvious exaggeration lawful, so a joke survives and a checkable local boast does not. Best in town, award-winning, the area's favourite, voted number one, locally sourced: each needs a certificate, an invoice or a published result you can put your hand on today. Rule 3.11 adds that marketing communications "must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product". Strike them, do not soften them.

8. **Check the footer carries the business identity the law requires, because most independent venues' footers do not.** Where the business is a limited company, regulation 25 of the Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 requires disclosure on "its websites" of the part of the United Kingdom in which the company is registered, "the company's registered number" and "the address of the company's registered office". Separately, regulation 6 of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 requires the name, the geographic address, and contact details "which make it possible to contact him rapidly and communicate with him in a direct and effective manner", and where prices are quoted they "shall be indicated clearly and unambiguously and, in particular, shall indicate whether they are inclusive of tax". Tick each item or record it as missing.

9. **Write the rebuilt first screen as a numbered running order, then reshoot the phone screenshot to prove it.** Element one to element six, in order, with the exact words for each and a note of what was removed and why. Hand that to whoever maintains the site. When it is live, take the same cold-start phone screenshot again and put the before and after side by side. The audit is not finished when the list is written, it is finished when the second screenshot shows all four questions answered without scrolling. Date both screenshots and record the handset, because the next person who changes the theme will undo half of it and nobody will notice for a year.

## Then it checks

1. The screenshot the audit is built on was taken on a real phone, in a private window, from a cold start, and its date and handset are recorded, with no desktop screenshot standing in for it.
2. Each of the four visitor questions is marked answered or not answered against that screenshot alone, and every question marked answered quotes the exact visible words that answer it.
3. Every obstruction on the first screen is listed with a decision of keep, shrink to a banner or remove, and any obstruction kept names the legal reason it is kept.
4. Exactly one primary action is named for the first screen, it is reachable without opening a menu, and its label says what happens when it is pressed.
5. Every claim on the first screen is either matched to a named evidence document with its date, or struck under rule 3.7, with none kept subject to a caveat.
6. The footer check lists each required identity item as present or missing by name, and nothing is recorded as present without the actual company number, registered office address and registered nation written down.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never state a conversion rate, a bounce rate or an industry benchmark for this venue. No published figure exists for a single independent hospitality business, the numbers in circulation come from agencies selling redesigns, and an owner who sets a target from a borrowed number will conclude a working homepage is broken.
- Never write a claim onto the first screen that is not evidenced today. The first screen is the part of the advertisement most people read and the part least often checked, and a superlative that was true three years ago is a complaint waiting to be typed.
- Never remove a cookie consent banner, a required age gate or any other legally mandated element in the name of conversion. Shrink it, move it to one edge, stop it covering the booking button, and leave it in place.
- Never treat a desktop screenshot as evidence about the first screen. The fold that decides this is the one on the phone in the visitor's hand, and it is a fraction of the height the page was designed against.
- Never redesign the site. This produces a running order and replacement words, not a theme, a palette or a font, and an audit that turns into a redesign is an audit nobody implements.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own opening hours, prices and evidence before it goes live, for their accountant or company secretary to confirm the registered company details, and for their solicitor or trade body to check any comparative or superlative claim. It applies published rules and published usability research to a page as it stands. It is not a ruling that the page complies with anything.

## Built from
- Therese Fessenden, Nielsen Norman Group, "Scrolling and Attention", https://www.nngroup.com/articles/scrolling-and-attention/, published 15 April 2018, read 16 September 2026: the 57% and 74% viewing-time findings and the "reserve the top of the page for high-priority content" and "keep major CTAs above the fold" implications, in steps 2 and 4.
- Google, "Avoid intrusive interstitials and dialogs", Google Search Central, https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/avoid-intrusive-interstitials, last updated 10 December 2025, read 16 September 2026: the banner-instead-of-interstitial recommendation and the two named mistakes, which is the whole of step 3.
- Google, "Understanding page experience in Google Search results", Google Search Central, https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/page-experience, last updated 10 December 2025, read 16 September 2026: the self-assessment questions used as the test in step 5.
- Committee of Advertising Practice, CAP Code (Edition 12), Section 3 "Misleading advertising", https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/03.html, no publication date shown on the page, read 16 September 2026: rule 3.7 substantiation, rule 3.2 puffery and rule 3.11 exaggeration in step 7, and rule 3.4's list of information that must accompany a quoted price, used in step 8.
- The Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015, SI 2015/17, regulation 25, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/17/regulation/25, read 16 September 2026: the three company particulars that must appear on a company's websites, in step 8.
- The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, SI 2002/2013, regulation 6, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2013/regulation/6/made, read 16 September 2026: the name, geographic address, rapid-contact and price-clarity duties in step 8.

# homepage-audit

## You are given
The public address of one UK hospitality business website. A cold-start screenshot of its homepage taken on a named phone handset in a private window, with the date, the handset model and the viewport height recorded. The saved HTML of the homepage as served, and the list of image files it loads. An element list already written by Claude naming every item visible on the first screen before any scroll, in top to bottom order. Claude's judgement for each of the four visitor questions, marked answered or not answered with the exact visible words quoted. Claude's decision for each obstruction: keep, shrink or remove, with the legal reason where it is kept. Claude's list of claims found on the first screen, each marked kept or struck with the rule cited. The evidence documents behind any kept claim, with their dates. The business's Companies House particulars: registered name, company number, registered office address and the part of the United Kingdom of registration. The rebuilt running order, if one has been supplied.

## Produce
Write into a `./homepage-audit-output/` folder:

1. `first-screen-elements.csv` with these columns in this order: `element_ref`, `order_top_to_bottom`, `element_type`, `visible_text_verbatim`, `is_real_text`, `pixel_height`, `percent_of_first_screen`, `obstructs_content`, `decision`. `element_ref` is E001 upward. `element_type` is exactly one of `logo`, `navigation`, `headline`, `body text`, `image`, `video`, `button`, `link`, `consent banner`, `promotional overlay`, `chat widget`, `age gate`, `other`. `is_real_text` is `yes`, `no` or `not applicable`. `decision` is exactly one of `keep`, `shrink to banner`, `remove`, `move below fold`, `no decision supplied`.
2. `four-questions.csv` with columns: `question`, `answered_on_first_screen`, `answering_text_verbatim`, `answering_element_ref`, `is_real_text`, `requires_scroll`, `requires_click`. Exactly four rows, `question` being `what kind of place`, `where is it`, `when is it open`, `how do I book`. `answered_on_first_screen` is `yes` or `no`. Any row marked `yes` with an empty `answering_text_verbatim` is listed in `gaps.md`.
3. `obstructions.csv` with columns: `element_ref`, `obstruction_type`, `percent_of_first_screen_covered`, `covers_primary_action`, `legally_required`, `legal_reason_supplied`, `decision`, `google_guidance_cited`. `obstruction_type` is exactly one of `full page interstitial`, `partial dialog`, `sticky banner`, `chat bubble`, `autoplaying video`, `age gate`, `other`. `legally_required` is `yes` or `no`, and any `yes` with an empty `legal_reason_supplied` goes to `gaps.md`.
4. `claims.csv` with columns: `claim_ref`, `claim_text_verbatim`, `element_ref`, `claim_type`, `evidence_supplied`, `evidence_source_file`, `evidence_date`, `status`, `rule_cited`. `claim_ref` is C001 upward. `claim_type` is exactly one of `superlative`, `award or accolade`, `provenance`, `price`, `availability`, `date or timing`, `number`, `puffery`. `status` is exactly `kept` or `struck`, and every `struck` row carries a non-empty `rule_cited`.
5. `identity-footer.csv` with columns: `requirement`, `source_cited`, `present_on_site`, `value_found_verbatim`, `page_found_on`. One row per requirement: `registered nation`, `company registered number`, `registered office address`, `trading name`, `geographic address`, `rapid contact detail`, `email address`, `price tax inclusivity statement`. `present_on_site` is `yes` or `no`, and no row is marked `yes` without a non-empty `value_found_verbatim`.
6. `running-order.md` - the rebuilt first screen as a numbered list, one line per element, copied verbatim from the supplied running order with the exact words for each element and, underneath, a numbered list of what was removed and the reason recorded for each removal. Written empty if no running order was supplied.
7. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of: any of the four questions with no verdict; any question marked answered with no quoted text; any element with no decision; any obstruction marked legally required with no reason; any claim marked kept with no evidence file and date; any identity requirement marked present with no value; any element whose text exists only inside an image; and whether a second, post-change screenshot has been supplied.

## Rules
- Codex measures, records and checks. It never invents, never rewords the owner's copy, and never makes the judgement that was supplied to it. Whether a question is answered, whether a claim is evidenced and what the rebuilt screen should say are all decisions that arrive with the input.
- Never write a new headline, button label or piece of copy. Where a running order is missing, `running-order.md` is written empty and the fact is listed in `gaps.md`.
- Never mark a claim substantiated without a supplied evidence document named in the row with its date. A claim with `evidence_supplied` of `no` cannot have `status` of `kept`.
- Never record an identity requirement as present from an assumption. The actual company number, registered office address and registered nation must appear verbatim in the row, read from the served page.
- Never write a conversion rate, a bounce rate, a click-through rate, an industry average or any benchmark figure into any file. No such figure exists for a single independent UK venue and none is to be recorded.
- Never propose removing a consent banner, an age gate or any element recorded as legally required. The only decisions available for such an element are `keep` and `shrink to banner`.
- Percentages of the first screen are computed from the recorded viewport height and the measured element heights, not estimated, and the viewport height used is written at the top of `first-screen-elements.csv` as a comment row.
- `is_real_text` is determined from the served HTML, not from the screenshot. Text that appears only inside an image file is recorded as `no` and listed in `gaps.md`.
- Every quoted string is copied exactly, including punctuation, capitalisation and any emoji.
- Use British English, GBP and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write, and any supplied text containing one is recorded verbatim and flagged in `gaps.md`.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own hours, prices and evidence, and for their accountant and solicitor to check the company details and any superlative claim. It applies supplied rules to a page as it stands and is not a ruling that the page complies.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written and the row count of each CSV. The viewport height used and the handset and date of the screenshot the audit is based on. How many of the four questions are answered on the first screen without scrolling or clicking, and which are not. The number of elements on the first screen, the number of obstructions, the total percentage of the first screen they cover, and whether any covers the primary action. The number of claims kept and struck, with the rule cited for each struck claim. Each identity requirement marked missing, by name. The number of first-screen elements whose text exists only inside an image. Whether a post-change screenshot was supplied. And the `gaps.md` item count.