Website Audit Checklist: A 10-Part Guide to Optimize Your Website

A website audit checklist is essential for keeping your site fast, functional, and search-friendly.

Whether you’re managing a small business website or an enterprise platform, regular website audits help you uncover issues that affect performance, SEO, and user experience.

This guide provides a complete website audit checklist to help you identify issues, improve SEO, enhance UX, and ensure your site performs flawlessly across all devices.

What Is A Website Audit?

A website audit is a comprehensive site analysis that assesses performance, speed, technical issues, and user experience.

A necessary component of website maintenance, site audits range from quick scans and fixes to in-depth, site-wide assessments.

Once an audit is complete, a report is generated providing a summary of issues, along with metrics that deliver actionable insights.

As such, scheduling audits is essential when developing a website to ensure its performance isn’t compromised post-launch.

Main Types of Website Audits

Website audit checklists can be categorized into several distinct types, each with its own unique priorities and results.

Here’s a brief overview of the main types of website audits commonly performed:

• General SEO audit: For a general SEO website audit, the approach focuses on specific site optimization and core pages such as the landing page.
• Technical SEO audit: This type of audit focuses on crawlability, indexation, and resolving underlying technical SEO issues.
• Performance audit: Page speed, site load times, and Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS) are evaluated in a performance audit.
• Content SEO audit: For content SEO, blog posts, page titles, and other on-page SEO elements are used to optimize for search engines. This process varies depending on the site’s purpose, with informational websites requiring extensive content auditing.
• UI/UX audit: Site functionality, including design and navigation, is assessed during the user interface/experience audit to optimize user satisfaction.

For a full-scale audit, these and other issues, such as site security, will be combined into an overarching site-wide evaluation.

Related reading: Website management 101.

The Benefits Of A Website Audit

Website audits are crucial for maintaining a healthy online presence, as they help optimize the user experience by identifying issues that create friction.

Other benefits of running an audit on your website include:

• Increasing retention and conversion rates: Whether running an online shopping outlet or a digital marketing firm, audits are vital for retaining and converting visitors. Keyword optimization helps search engines understand why your site deserves a place at the top of search rankings.
• Strengthening your brand: A website with solid performance, impactful design, and valuable information helps build brand reputation with potential customers.
• Reducing long-term costs: Conducting frequent, small-scale audits can save significant money by identifying and resolving minor issues before they escalate. Likewise, data-driven decisions can further refine the audit checklist, providing a more precise roadmap for necessary improvements.

If you’re looking for small-business investors, a robust, highly functional website will give a clear impression of your professionalism.

How To Do a Website Audit: Step-By-Step

While website audits vary depending on the type of businesses and their unique goals, the overarching process shares many similarities.

Here’s a concise overview of the general processes involved when conducting a website audit:

1. Define your priorities and goals: Website audits can cover the complete site or focus on specific contexts, such as user experience or performance. Deciding which aspects to include will determine the overall scope of your audit checklist.
2. Gather website audit tools: Performing an audit requires specific tools; Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, and Semrush are among the most commonly used.
3. Crawl and analyze your site: Once the tools are installed, they’re ready to crawl the website and provide actionable data and metrics.
4. Document key concerns and opportunities: After the site is analyzed, the data can be used to highlight notable issues and opportunities for further improvement.
5. Prioritize and implement fixes: Lastly, fixes and enhancements can be prioritized and implemented, focusing on important pages and content first.

If you’re drafting a small business startup checklist, you can embed your audit checklist into this document for future reference.

Master Website Audit Checklist

Websites can be complex, with multiple factors to consider when conducting an audit to improve performance.

This master website audit checklist covers everything you need for a complete audit of your online presence:

1. Assess The Website’s Performance

Every audit begins with an overarching review of the website, assessing page speed scores and performance across all content.

While this stage varies depending on the website’s layout, it should flag slow loading speeds and other Core Web Vitals.

An excellent tool for this stage is Google PageSpeed Insights, which performs instant scans of URLs added to the system.

2. Analyze & Improve The Site Structure

With the overall performance assessment complete, it’s time to analyze the navigation structure and internal link issues.

Tools for creating site heatmaps and user navigation patterns can help with this stage, along with a general navigation audit.

The best startup websites can serve as a reference for identifying new pages that may advance your business goals.

Combining this information can yield significant structural improvements that strengthen your site’s visibility.

Learn more: How to make a business website.

3. Check On-Page SEO

Once the site-wide analysis is finalized, on-page search engine optimization is used to highlight ways to improve keyword rankings.

Search engine optimization is vital for all online businesses, and many website builders incorporate SEO audit tools into their platforms.

Body text, meta descriptions, and alt tags are all checked via an on-page SEO audit, with AI tools available for optimization.

Once the check is complete, you can conduct new keyword research to address mismatches or overstuffing in your web pages.

4. Review Content Quality & Gaps

Auditing content extends beyond SEO and also covers an assessment of the content quality and relevance to visitors.

Out-of-date information, issues with blog formatting, and the use of poor-quality visual assets must all be addressed during a site audit.

The process is also used to identify how your content ranks against competitors for specific keywords and what new material to consider.

Tools like Ahrefs can help, while Google Analytics remains a powerful tool for evaluating which content delivers the best engagement.

5. Address Technical SEO Issues

A technical website audit evaluates the site and key pages for issues of concern, including 404 page errors and non-indexed pages.

These fixes are vital for improving a website’s ranking performance, ensuring page content is included in search engine results.

Built-in technical SEO audit tools featured in website builders streamline this stage, handling errors in bulk and creating indexed pages for Google.

The process allows for the removal of low-value pages that might be impacting visibility, as well as broken visual assets.

It can also flag the absence of an XML sitemap, which is necessary for helping search engines discover your content.

6. Test The User Experience (UX)

Updating a site’s performance on the backend and improving SEO flows into the overall user experience when visiting the site.

These processes are augmented with a general approach to testing the user experience and deciding how to improve navigation and functionality.

The site’s structure and features should be intuitive, and information should be presented clearly through the site’s design.

A UX audit should draw on user feedback, since this can quickly highlight weaknesses and common pain points.

7. Verify Accessibility & Mobile-Friendliness

Website audits should also evaluate overall accessibility, ensuring content is understandable to all types of visitors.

Accessibility testing includes checking for WCAG compliance, screen reader compatibility, and color contrast to improve legibility.

Websites must also be accessible and functional on different devices, working as intended on mobile devices.

Since Google uses mobile-first indexing, understanding the core features of mobile website design is crucial for visibility.

8. Update Data Analytics & Tracking

Performing audits is an iterative process, with data collection and analysis at the heart of improving results.

It includes evaluating any previously established key performance metrics, such as conversion rates and pages per session.

For e-commerce websites, this can also include analysis of sales data and how it aligns with search engine optimization.

You can extend this stage to incorporate auditing your inventory of analytics tools and developing a consistent implementation approach.

9. Maintain Essential Security Protocols

Website security is crucial for identifying vulnerabilities that could lead to the loss of customer data and other sensitive personal information.

When auditing a site, security measures, such as SSL and TLS certificates, should be updated and maintained.

This stage also involves assessing the effectiveness of firewalls, correctly configuring security headers, and maintaining site backups.

If necessary, stricter access control may be required to ensure role-based permissions and prevent accidental changes.

Likewise, two-factor authentication should be applied to all site users, particularly at the administrative level.

10. Conduct Competitor Analysis

Lastly, a comprehensive audit requires competitor analysis, using the sites of other businesses as benchmarks for performance.

By assessing how competitors design a website, future improvements and new features can be planned effectively.

Factors to look out for include whether the site is mobile-friendly and how visually appealing its design elements are.

Exploring competitor sites will provide insights into the overall user experience and how it links to a social media presence.

Throughout the competitor analysis, note any comparative weaknesses your site has and the steps you can take to address them.

You can also use Google Analytics and other tools to check their performance and use this data for additional benchmarking.

Further reading: How to trademark a name.

Light Website Audit Checklist

While some organizations outsource their website audit, smaller companies often opt to perform the process themselves.

Here’s a light website audit checklist you can follow when conducting a quick internal review:

• Use a site audit tool: There are many excellent tools for audits, covering site-wide reviews, on-page SEO audits, and security checks.
• Apply a website audit template: Once you’ve used an audit tool and gathered data, you can use a website audit template to organize and prioritize actions.
• Fix errors and optimize page speed: Address any issues impacting site speed, bugs, and overall optimization first. If the site needs to be taken offline, use a ‘website under construction’ page to keep visitors informed about upcoming updates.
• Address content and on-page SEO: After addressing site speed and other overarching issues, update on-page SEO for articles and other content to improve search results.
• Check that security protocols are up to date: Security protocols are critical when handling customer data, so ensure that SSL certificates are up to date.

By incorporating findings into an audit checklist, you can refine the process, improve the site’s performance, and increase organic traffic.

Interpreting & Prioritizing Website Audit Reports

A good website audit report provides structured data and issues, from which a clear plan of action can be drafted.

Here’s how you can interpret this information to organize the report’s findings and prioritize which issues to address first:

• Review the report’s overall findings: A review enables precise categorization of its conclusions, covering technical issues, content quality, and other areas. Begin with the report’s executive summary and work down from there, using these high-level findings as a foundation.
• Select actionable insights: Understanding how the data translates into actionable insights ties them directly to broader business goals.
• Prioritize fixes: Once the primary issues are identified, use an impact-effort matrix to prioritize them. High-impact, low-effort fixes should take top priority, with additional fixes scheduled for later on.
• Creates an implementation workflow: Lastly, an implementation workflow is necessary to outline the expected timeframe. For minor fixes, this may be a few hours or days, while a website redesign can take weeks or months.

You can apply these basic steps when conducting a social media audit to optimize your presence on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok.

Most Common Website Auditing Mistakes

Auditing a website involves checking thousands of assets, which can sometimes lead to overlooked factors.

Here are some common website auditing mistakes to be mindful of when evaluating your business website:

• Technical and SEO mistakes: Websites are complicated, and technical issues can include broken links, server errors, non-secure pages, and much more. SEO is similarly complex, with common hreflang mistakes and poor tag use damaging a site’s reputation.
• Site content mistakes: Auditing content quality is as vital as a technical website audit for delivering what visitors expect. Avoid common mistakes, such as overlooking meta descriptions, duplicating content, and failing to address poor-quality media.
• User experience auditing mistakes: Neglecting mobile device optimization and other factors, like internal link structures, can diminish user satisfaction. If possible, the audit’s results should be complemented by direct feedback from your site’s visitors.

A robust approach to checking backlinks and tracking analytics will also minimize the risk of unnecessary mistakes.

The Best Website Audit Tools & Resources

There are many tools for small businesses, including website auditing tools that help streamline the process.

Here are some popular tools and resources with advanced features for comprehensive website auditing:

• Semrush: A widely-used tool for comprehensive site audits, Semrush includes advanced tools for identifying and fixing issues across all web pages.
• Ahrefs: Another popular site audit tool, Ahrefs uses artificial intelligence for SEO website audits, with a focus on marketers.
• Screaming Frog: Available as a free tool or paid version, Screaming Frog crawls sites to optimize content for search engine results pages.
• Google Search Console/Google Analytics: Google’s free tools are indispensable for website audit checklists, providing insights into the necessary measures to improve visibility.

As with other small business automation tools, these significantly speed up the process of working through a technical and SEO audit checklist.

Read this next: Website launch checklist.

Frequently Asked Questions About Website Audits

Website audits can be complicated, but these answers to FAQs clarify a few additional noteworthy points:

How often should you audit a website?

The frequency of audits varies depending on the site’s complexity, but the bare minimum is to audit a website at least annually.

For business websites in fast-paced sectors, more frequent audits are necessary to maintain the highest standards.

What are the most important metrics in a website audit?

Website audits provide a range of metrics, with performance and speed-based metrics among the most important.

You can also use Google Analytics for small businesses to track core metrics about your site’s traffic and visitor behavior.

How much does a website audit cost?

The cost of auditing a website can range from $500 to over $5,000, depending on the site’s scope and the complexity of its features.

This price is also influenced by the level of analysis and technical issues that need to be addressed, which may require specialist expertise.

How long does a website audit take?

As with costs, audit durations span a broad range, from a few hours for a basic scan to several weeks for a site overhaul.

For a comprehensive audit, the process may take over a month, particularly when assessing low-quality content and many errors.

Summary

Planning and performing a website audit doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right tools and best practices, you can keep every step on track.

By following the website audit checklist in this guide, you’ll improve user experience, strengthen SEO, and uncover new growth opportunities.

As your site expands, continue updating your audit to reflect new content and performance goals.