Website Audit Checklist: 15 Essential Checks to Run

A website audit checklist keeps you from missing the obvious. Work through the 15 checks below in an afternoon and you will have found most of what holds a small business site back. Tick them off, note what fails and fix the highest-impact items first.

Want a faster start? A website grader runs most of these checks automatically and ranks the fixes for you.

Search basics (checks 1 to 5)

1. Every page has a unique title under about 60 characters, with the main topic near the start.
2. Every page has a meta description that earns the click. See how to write a meta description.
3. One H1 per page, with H2 and H3 headings in a logical order.
4. Images have descriptive alt text, which helps accessibility and search.
5. A sitemap and robots file exist, and they do not block pages you want found. Google's sitemap overview explains how they work.

Speed (checks 6 to 7)

1. Pages load quickly on mobile. Images are compressed and sized correctly.
2. No heavy scripts you do not need. Remove unused plugins and trackers. Our guide on how to improve website speed shows how.

Mobile (check 8)

1. The site works on a phone. Text is readable without zooming, buttons are easy to tap and nothing scrolls sideways.

Security (checks 9 to 10)

1. Everything loads over HTTPS and HTTP redirects to it.
2. The certificate is valid and not close to expiry.

Content and experience (checks 11 to 13)

1. Each page has a clear purpose and answers a real customer question.
2. Calls to action are obvious: call, book, buy or ask for a quote.
3. Contact details are easy to find and match your Google listing exactly.

Your Google listing (checks 14 to 15)

1. Your Business Profile is complete, with category, hours, photos and description. See the local SEO checklist.
2. You respond to reviews and ask happy customers for new ones.

How to use this website audit checklist

• Score each item pass, partly or fail.
• Fix every fail that takes under 30 minutes today.
• Schedule the rest, starting with speed and mobile.
• Repeat the website audit checklist monthly, or after any site change, as explained in why an SEO monitor habit works.

Checklist or grader?

Doing it by hand teaches you a lot, but it is slow and easy to get wrong. A grader checks the same ground in about 15 seconds and shows how many points each fix is worth. Seeing a finished report helps too, so read our SEO audit example.

How to score each item on your website audit checklist

Use three marks so the list turns into a plan: pass (fine as it is), partly (works but could be better) and fail (missing or broken). Then sort the fails by how quickly you can fix them. Quick fails, such as a missing description or an oversized image, go first. A website audit checklist is only useful if you act on the result.

Common findings when you run a website audit checklist

• Titles and descriptions copied from a template, so every page looks the same in Google.
• Images saved straight from a camera or stock site at full size.
• A contact page with no address, or an address that differs from the Google listing.
• No obvious button to call, book or buy on the phone layout.
• Old plugins and scripts nobody remembers installing.

How often to repeat it

Run this website audit checklist in full once, then use a shorter version monthly: titles, speed, mobile, security and your listing. Repeat the full list after a redesign, a change of platform or any large update. A regular routine is the heart of an SEO monitor habit.

Tools that make the work faster

You can check many items by hand: view the page on your phone, look at the browser's padlock, read your own titles in Google. Other items, such as page weight and missing alt text across dozens of pages, are quicker with a scanner. The website grader runs the same checks in seconds and shows what each fix is worth.

What to do when the website audit checklist is long

Do not try to fix everything in a day. Choose the three fails that affect customers most, usually speed, mobile and your Google listing, and do those this week. Re-run the website audit checklist next month and tick off the next three. Steady progress beats a burst of effort that fades.

Further reading

For specifics on the biggest items, see how to improve website speed and how to improve website SEO.

Rather than tick 15 boxes yourself, run the free scan and get your first fixes straight away. And if you want a person to do the work, ask for a free quote.