A lot of what goes wrong on a florist's website is words and settings you can change yourself, in the same editor you use to add a new bouquet. Photo descriptions, your own sign-up pop-up, opening hours, delivery charges, your same-day order-by time and your phone number are usually in that group. How the checkout is built, and similar platform settings, belong with your website provider.
This guide covers the five fixes most shops can make on a quiet afternoon, and how to hand everything else to your web designer in one clear message.
Check Which Fixes Are Yours First
Log in to your website editor and look at what it lets you change: product photos, page text, the footer, any pop-up or banner apps. Start with the information you know is yours to maintain, such as your opening hours and product descriptions. If a setting isn't there, it is probably on the platform side.
Our free Florist Website Checker does the first part for you. Type in your website address for a quick check of your homepage. Confirm the site is yours to open the full report. It covers seven areas, including Florist Essentials and Ordering & Checkout, and marks problems on screenshots of your site on a computer and a phone where they can be shown.
Most of the results come from measuring your pages, such as how much of a phone screen a pop-up covers or which photos on your homepage have no description. An AI also reads the pages for a second opinion. Anything it spots is marked as an AI review (opinion) in the report, and counts for less than a measured result. If a measurement says otherwise, the measurement wins.
Each finding comes with a suggested fix. Where the checker can't tell who makes a change, the advice says "you or your website provider can". Changes that sit on the platform itself are gathered in a section called Things Your Website Provider Can Help With, ready to forward.
Write Descriptions For Your Product Photos
Every photo on your site can carry a short text description, often called alt text. Screen readers read it out to customers who can't see the image, and Google uses it to understand what the photo shows. A file name such as "IMG_4021.jpg" tells them nothing.
Most website editors have an alt text box in each image's settings. Open a product, click its photo and look for "alt text", "alternative text" or "describe this image".
Write what a customer would see, in plain words:
- Weak: "bouquet1", "flowers", "DSC_0042"
- Better: "Pink rose and lily hand-tied bouquet in kraft paper"
- For sympathy work: "White lily and rose funeral spray with green foliage"
Keep it to one line. Skip "photo of", and don't stuff in your town name or "best florist".
Purely decorative images, such as a leaf border or a background pattern, should have an empty description. If your editor has a "decorative" tick box, use it. A blank box doesn't always do the same job, because some editors fill it with the file name instead. On your homepage, the checker only counts an empty description against a large photo, and it treats a file name as no description at all.
With a big range, start with your bestsellers and sympathy work. For taking the photos themselves, our guide to flower photography for florists covers lighting and backgrounds on a phone.
Tame Your Own Pop-Ups
A sign-up box offering 10% off a first order can be useful. The trouble starts when it fills a phone screen the moment the homepage opens, before a customer has seen a single bouquet. They have to hunt for a small close button before they can start shopping.
The checker measures how much of a phone screen a pop-up covers as your homepage opens. A pop-up that covers much of the phone screen is flagged. The report also notes a cookie notice sitting on top, since that means two boxes to close.
If you added the pop-up yourself through an app or plugin, you can usually change it there. Look in its settings for:
- Layout. Switch from a full-screen box to a small bar along the top or bottom.
- Timing. Show it after someone has scrolled, or after they've looked at a couple of pages.
- Pages. If the tool lets you choose, leave it off your product pages and checkout.
Then open your homepage on your phone in a private window. Some sign-up tools wait a few seconds before they open, so give it a moment.
Your cookie notice is a different case. Most cookie tools offer a "bar" option along the bottom. If you switch to a bar, keep the same choices on it, with Reject as easy to find as Accept, and check the change with whoever advises you on data protection. What the notice asks customers is a privacy question too, so take that to them as well.
Keep Your Opening Hours The Same Everywhere
A customer coming in to collect flowers needs to know when you're open.
Two problems turn up often. Sometimes the hours aren't visible on the site at all, or sit only in the page code for Google. Other times they disagree, with "Saturday 9am - 5pm" in the top banner and "9am to 4pm Saturday" in the footer, left over from a change nobody finished. The full check reads your homepage, contact, about, delivery and FAQ pages and flags both.
To fix it:
- Pick one set of hours and write them down, including any day you close early.
- Put them in your footer and on your contact page.
- Search your site for every other place they appear, such as the banner, FAQ and delivery page, and make the wording match.
- Check your Google Business Profile shows the same hours. Our guide to getting more Google reviews covers filling in your profile properly.
If you open by appointment only, say that instead of listing hours. And take down holiday notices once they've passed. The checker reads dated notices on your homepage and flags one whose dates have gone, such as a "Closed 22 to 27 September" banner still up in October.
Make Delivery Charges And Cut-Off Times Easy To Find
The first question from someone ordering for today is "can you still get it there?" The second is "how much is delivery?" Both answers should be easy to find before the basket.
Show Your Same-Day Order-By Time
If you offer same-day delivery, say when the order-by time is, near the top of your homepage. "Order by 1pm for same-day delivery, Monday to Saturday" is clear. "Same-day delivery available" on its own leaves the customer guessing, and the checker flags same-day delivery that's mentioned with no order-by time on the pages it reads. It looks for the time on your homepage, category and product pages, including a bar along the top of every page. A time that only appears on your delivery page counts for less in the report, because customers ordering from the homepage or a product page may never see it.
Type Your Delivery Charges as Text
Link to your delivery information from your menu or footer, and show at least your standard charge in text. A delivery price list saved as a picture is hard to use. Customers can't search it for their town, Google is unlikely to read it, and a screen reader only gets whatever description is attached. The checker can't read the prices from it either, and the report will say your charges are in a picture.
As an illustrative example, a short delivery section might read:
Local delivery within 5 miles: 6.95. Order by 1pm Monday to Saturday for same-day delivery. Funeral orders: please give us 24 hours' notice.
Those figures are illustrative; read the charge in your own currency. Use your own, and quote the same ones on every page. The full check compares delivery prices and times across pages, so "Local delivery 6.95" on the delivery page and "Local delivery 7.50" in the FAQ can show up as a mismatch. If you're not sure what to charge in the first place, our guide to whether flower delivery is profitable and the Delivery Profitability Calculator, included in the Plus plan, start from your own costs.
One related fix is usually not yours. Whether the date box on your product page stops offering today once your order-by time has passed depends on how the checkout is built. If the checker finds today can still be picked after your cut-off, add it to your list for your provider.
Put Your Contact Details Where Customers Look
If customers ring you for sympathy orders or anything for today, check four things:
- Your number is near the top. On a computer, a customer should see it without scrolling. The checker looks for it in the header and first screen.
- It dials when tapped. On your phone, tap every number on your homepage. A call link with the number missing opens a blank dial screen, which the checker flags.
- It's the same number everywhere. Your site, your footer and your Google listing should all give the same number and address.
- Your address is there if you have a shop. Put your street address and postcode on your contact page. If you work from a private studio, say how collection works instead.
Brief Your Web Designer On The Rest
Some fixes need someone with access to the platform, such as how the checkout is put together or a certificate warning. A message like "our website feels slow and checkout is confusing" is hard for a provider to act on. Send a list of the specific problems with screenshots instead.
From your full report in the Florist Website Checker, you have two ways to send it:
- Share a link. Press Share with your web designer to make a read-only link. Anyone with it can read the report for up to 30 days, but they can't change anything or check the site again. It stops working sooner if you change who can see the report.
- Print or save as PDF. The standard printout has your scores, the Fix These First list and each area's main issues with how to fix them. Tick Include technical detail for your web designer to add the measurements behind each finding, the marked-up screenshots and Google's speed test. It runs to many more pages, so it's best sent as a PDF rather than printed.
What to Put in Your Message
Keep it short and specific. Something like:
Hi, I've run a check on our website and here's the report: [link]. Could you look at the items under "Things Your Website Provider Can Help With" and let me know which you can change and roughly what each would cost? I've already updated our photo descriptions, opening hours and delivery details myself.
A cost per item lets you decide what to do now and what can wait until after peak.
Check Again After You've Made Changes
Once your edits are live, run the full check again with the Check again button and compare. The report keeps a score history once a site has been checked more than once, so you can see which changes moved things. Plans And Billing explains how many full checks your plan includes.
Common Questions
What is alt text on a florist website?
It's a short written description attached to each photo, such as "Pink rose and lily hand-tied bouquet in kraft paper". Screen readers read it out, and Google uses it to understand the image. Most website editors have an alt text box in each image's settings.
Can I change my own pop-ups and cookie notice?
If you added a pop-up through an app or plugin, its settings usually let you change the layout and timing. A cookie notice's layout is often a setting too, but its choices and wording are a privacy question. Keep Reject as easy to find as Accept, and check any change with whoever advises you on data protection.
Where should a florist put their opening hours on a website?
In the footer and on your contact page, with the same wording anywhere else they appear. Keep them matching your Google Business Profile, and remove holiday notices once the dates have passed.
How do I share a website report with my web designer?
In the Florist Website Checker's full report, press Share with your web designer to make a read-only link that lasts up to 30 days, or save the report as a PDF with the technical detail included.
Is the Florist Website Checker free?
The quick check is free and needs no account. The full report opens once you sign in and confirm the site is yours. See Plans And Billing for which plans include it.
