Website Audit Checklist

How to run this audit

Set aside an hour, open a spreadsheet and keep your phone nearby. The time per area below is our estimate. For each area, give yourself green if everything passes, amber if something minor fails, and red if something blocks customers or Google. Write down the date and the scores, because the first audit is your baseline.

This audit asks whether the basics work. For redirects, canonical tags and speed in depth, use the technical SEO checklist afterwards.

1. Indexing

Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. Your home page, your main service pages and your contact page should all appear. Then search for the name of your main service plus site:yourdomain.com.

• Green: every key page appears.
• Amber: one or two minor pages are missing.
• Red: a service page or the home page is missing. Check for a leftover noindex tag or a robots.txt block first, and use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to see why.

2. Search visibility

Open the Performance report in Search Console. Look at the Queries and Pages tabs for the last three months. Google reports clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, and what you see for any single search varies by person, place and device.

• Green: your top queries include words customers would use for your service, not only your business name.
• Amber: you get impressions for the right words but few clicks. The title or opening answer likely needs work.
• Red: almost every query is your own name, or there are no impressions at all.

If you have no Search Console data, verify the site today and come back in a few weeks.

3. Page quality

Pick your three most valuable pages. Give each one a point for every item below.

1. The title names the service and, where it matters, the place, and no other page shares it.
2. The first paragraph answers what the visitor came for.
3. The page has specific detail that a competitor would not copy: process, people, limits, prices or ranges.
4. There is real proof, such as genuine reviews, qualifications or photos.
5. There is one clear next step.
6. Images have descriptive alt text and the page reads well on a phone.

Score: 5 or 6 is green, 3 or 4 amber, 0 to 2 red. Google's Starter Guide asks for unique, clear titles, original and helpful content and descriptive alt text, so these points follow its advice.

4. Contact paths

Pick up your phone, open your home page and a service page, and time yourself.

• Can you call with one tap?
• Does the contact form submit, and does a confirmation appear?
• Are your address, hours and a map easy to find?
• If you use WhatsApp or chat, does it open correctly?
• Does the same content appear on the phone as on a computer? Google indexes the mobile version, so missing text there can hurt you.

Green if all pass in ten seconds. Amber if one fails. Red if a visitor cannot contact you from a service page without hunting. Fix reds here before anything else on this list, because traffic that cannot reach you is wasted.

5. Local details

Use a table like this and fill it in for each place your business is listed. This one is illustrative.

Mismatches are red if they involve hours, phone or address, and amber if they involve small name differences. Google lists complete, accurate details among the ways to improve local results. The Business Profile checklist tells you how to correct them.

6. Measurement

• Is the site verified in Search Console, in every version of the address you use?
• Do you record calls, forms and messages somewhere, even by hand?
• Do you ask new customers how they found you?

Green if all three are yes. Amber if you track enquiries but not their source. Red if you cannot tell how many enquiries the site produces.

Scoring and what to fix first

Fix in this order, and stop when you run out of time.

1. Anything that keeps key pages out of Google. Nothing else works until they are in.
2. Anything that stops a visitor contacting you.
3. Weak key pages. Improve one page per week.
4. Local mismatches.
5. Measurement gaps.
6. Everything else.

An illustrative scorecard shows the result.

The fix list writes itself: local hours first because they are quick, then the phone link, then the service page rebuild.

When to bring in help

Bring in help if you cannot explain a red score, if indexing is red and the cause is not obvious, or if you are about to rebuild the site. A paid review should give you more than this checklist does. Our guide to what a real SEO audit includes shows what to expect, and you can ask us for an audit or read about our SEO service. Whatever you decide, set a reminder to run this checklist again in three months and compare the scores.