Website audit checklist.

The most common reason businesses spend money on website redesigns is the wrong reason — the site looks dated. But most sites lose customers not because of how they look, but because of specific things that are not working. A slow page, a broken form, a missing call to action. Visible in a checklist; invisible to anyone who hasn't looked.

Run these 10 checks before spending anything. If three or more reveal a problem, you almost certainly do not need a full redesign — you need targeted fixes. They cost a fraction of the price.

§ 01 — Does your homepage load in under 3 seconds on mobile?

Go to PageSpeed Insights (free, no account needed) and enter your homepage URL. Look at the mobile score. Anything under 70 is a real problem. Anything over 90 is good. Between 70 and 90, check the specific issues it flags.

A slow site loses visitors before they read a word. If a page takes more than 3 seconds to load on a phone, roughly half your mobile visitors are gone before they see what you do. This is the highest-leverage fix on the list.

§ 02 — Can people find you in Google?

Search your full business name in Google. Your site should appear on the first page. If it doesn't, either Google hasn't indexed it properly, or your page title and meta description need work.

Also try searching the problem you solve: "website designer Seattle" or "HVAC company Portland" or whatever fits your business. If you're not on the first two pages for your own location and category, you are invisible to anyone who hasn't heard of you.

§ 03 — Is there one clear next step above the fold?

Open your homepage on your phone. Without scrolling, count the number of things you're asked to do. If there are more than two, there are too many. If there are zero, that's the whole problem.

A visitor should see one obvious next step in the first screen: call this number, fill out this form, book a consultation. More than two options creates hesitation. None means they leave.

§ 04 — Do your contact forms and phone links work?

Test every contact form on your site by submitting it as a real customer would. Send yourself a test inquiry. Open the page on your phone and tap every phone number — phone links should open your dialer immediately.

Broken contact paths are the most common silent revenue killer. The customer tried to reach you. The form submitted but went nowhere. The phone number was typed wrong. You never knew.

§ 05 — Does your page title describe what you do?

Open your site in a browser and look at the tab label. Does it say what you do and who for? Titles like "Home" or your business name alone are wasted space. A title like "Residential HVAC Repair — Portland, OR" tells Google and the visitor exactly what page this is.

This also applies to your services pages, your about page, and your contact page. Every indexed page should have a unique title that describes the specific content on that page.

§ 06 — Does your site look right on a phone?

Hold your phone and browse your own site as a new customer would. Look for: text that overflows off the screen, buttons too small to tap reliably, images that are cut off or distorted, menus that don't open or close, and forms with inputs that are hard to type into.

More than half of all web traffic is mobile. A site that doesn't work on a phone is not a full site.

§ 07 — Do your images load in reasonable time?

Run your homepage URL through Pingdom Website Speed Test (free). Look at the waterfall chart and find your largest images. Anything over 500KB is worth compressing. A hero image that is 3MB is costing you real load time on every page view.

Most image compression is a one-time fix. You compress the images, re-upload them, and the problem is gone for years.

§ 08 — Are there broken links on your key pages?

Check your homepage, your services page, and your contact page manually: click every link and confirm it lands where it should. For a deeper check, paste your URL into the free Dead Link Checker.

Broken links lower your search ranking and frustrate visitors. If a customer clicks a service link and gets a 404, they assume the business is unreliable and leave.

§ 09 — Does your description match how customers search for you?

What words do your customers use when they describe the problem you solve? Ask yourself what someone would type into Google at the moment they realize they need what you offer. If those words are not on your homepage in plain language, Google cannot match you to that search.

This doesn't mean stuffing keywords into your text. It means writing the way your customers talk. "We help small restaurants automate their ordering process" is better than "enterprise-grade SaaS solutions for the food-service vertical."

§ 10 — Does your site answer the first question new customers ask?

What is the first thing a new customer wants to know before they call or submit a form? Price range? How the process works? Who you work with? What a typical project looks like? If that information is not on your site, you are losing leads to competitors who answered it.

Call three past customers and ask what they wanted to know before they reached out. Build your homepage around those answers.

What to do with the results

Score yourself: how many of the 10 checks revealed a real problem?

• 0–2 issues: Your site is in reasonable shape. Focus on content and conversion copy.
• 3–5 issues: There are specific, fixable problems. Start with items 4 (contact forms) and 1 (load speed) — those have the fastest ROI.
• 6+ issues: The site needs systematic attention. A professional audit with a fix plan is likely cheaper than trial-and-error fixes.

Common questions

How long does it take to run this website audit checklist?

Most businesses can work through all 10 checks in under an hour using a laptop and a phone. Some checks, like testing your contact forms and clicking phone links, take two minutes. Others, like reviewing your page titles and descriptions, may take a bit longer depending on how many pages your site has.

Do I need technical knowledge to audit my own website?

No. All 10 checks use either free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or Pingdom, or just your own browser and phone. There is no code to read or write. If you can browse a website, you can run this checklist.

What is the difference between a website audit and a website redesign?

An audit finds the specific things that are not working. A redesign replaces the site. Most businesses that think they need a redesign actually need targeted fixes — which cost a fraction of the price. Running this checklist first tells you which one you actually need.

How often should I audit my website?

Run this checklist any time you notice a drop in calls or web leads. For proactive maintenance, once every six months is a reasonable cadence. After any significant change to your site — new pages, redesign, or a change in services — run it again.

What should I fix first if I find problems?

Fix in this order: (1) broken contact paths — forms or phone links that don't work, (2) mobile load speed — anything that makes the page slow on a phone, (3) search visibility — your page title and description, (4) missing or unclear call to action, (5) everything else. Broken contact paths are the most common reason businesses lose leads without knowing it.