Website Audit Checklist: 7 Sections to Run a Full Health Check

Website Audit Checklist: 7 Sections to Run a Full Health Check#

Most website audit checklists are really just SEO checklists wearing a different name. They cover titles, meta tags and crawl errors, then stop, which leaves out half of what decides whether a site actually earns and keeps customers. This website audit checklist is structured as a full health check across seven sections, so you cover search visibility, performance, trust and the lead-generation layer that most reviews skip.

Use it section by section. Each heading below is a checklist group, and within each one you tick only what the site genuinely has, not what you assume is there. The boxes you cannot tick are the output: on your own site they are a prioritised to-do list, and on a prospect’s site they are the specific, hard-to-ignore findings that make outreach work.

1. Indexing and crawlability#

This section answers the most basic question: can search engines find and read the site. Nothing downstream matters if the answer is no.

• The site appears in a site:example.com search, and the important pages are among the results.
• The rough count of indexed pages roughly matches the number of real pages, with no thousands-of-junk-URLs bloat.
• The robots.txt file does not accidentally block important sections with a stray Disallow.
• Every key page is reachable within a click or two from the homepage, with no orphan pages.
• The XML sitemap exists, lists the canonical pages you want indexed, and is submitted in Search Console.

If a key page is missing from the index, mark that as your highest-priority fix. An unindexed page earns nothing.

2. On-page SEO#

This section checks whether each page is set up to rank for the term it should target. It is a sanity pass, not a deep analysis.

• Each important page has a unique, descriptive title that includes its target term and is not cut off.
• Meta descriptions read like a human wrote them and give a reason to click.
• There is one clear H1 per page that matches the page’s topic.
• Headings form a sensible outline rather than being used for styling.
• Images have descriptive alt text, which helps both accessibility and image search.
• URLs are readable and stable, not strings of parameters.

Duplicate titles, missing titles and placeholder text like “Home | Untitled” are common and quick to fix, and the title tag is still one of the strongest on-page signals.

3. Performance and Core Web Vitals#

Speed is part of the health check because it affects both rankings and conversion. Two free tools cover it.

• The homepage and a key internal page have been run through PageSpeed Insights.
• Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift are in acceptable ranges, especially on mobile.
• Images are sized and compressed, not multi-megabyte originals scaled down in the browser.
• There are no obvious render-blocking scripts delaying the first paint.
• The page does not visibly jump around as it loads.

Read the specific opportunities the tool lists rather than obsessing over the single score, which swings between runs. A second opinion from a tool like GTmetrix and its waterfall view often surfaces what is actually slow.

4. Mobile experience#

Most visitors arrive on a phone, so the mobile pass matters more than the desktop one. Do this on a real device, not the responsive preview.

• Text is readable without zooming or pinching.
• Buttons and links are large enough to tap accurately.
• Nothing overflows the screen, overlaps, or requires horizontal scrolling.
• Forms are usable on a small screen, with the right keyboard for each field.
• The page loads quickly on a normal mobile connection, not just on office wifi.

A site that fights you on mobile leaks both rankings and leads, and you only notice the worst of it on an actual phone.

5. Trust and security#

Capture and follow-up do nothing if a visitor does not trust the business enough to engage. This section checks the signals that build or break that trust.

• The site serves over https with a valid certificate and no browser warnings.
• Reviews or testimonials are visible, ideally near the decision points.
• Case studies, a portfolio, or concrete proof of past work are present for any considered purchase.
• Contact details, including a real address or phone where relevant, are easy to find.
• A privacy policy and any required legal pages exist and are linked.

A missing certificate or hidden social proof reads as neglect, and visitors weigh two options by picking the one that looks more credible.

6. Lead-generation gaps#

This is the section standard audits skip, and the one tied most directly to revenue. It checks whether a site that gets found can actually turn a visitor into a lead.

• There is a lead magnet or free offer, so the only path is not “buy now”.
• A clear contact form is above the fold or one obvious click away.
• A calendar or booking link exists, so warm leads can act after hours.
• A chat option catches visitors with a quick question who would never fill out a form.
• An email newsletter signup turns one-time visitors into contacts you can reach again.
• A retargeting pixel is installed, so bounces are not gone for good.
• There is a clear primary call to action above the fold telling visitors what to do next.

The unticked boxes here are usually the most valuable part of the whole audit, because they name concrete places the site is losing money rather than vague “your SEO needs work” findings.

7. Analytics and tracking#

The final section checks whether the site can even tell you how it is doing. Without measurement, every other fix is a guess.

• An analytics tool is installed and recording sessions on every page.
• Key conversions, such as form submits, calls or bookings, are tracked as events or goals.
• Search Console is verified and collecting query and coverage data.
• There are no duplicate or broken tracking tags inflating or losing data.

Tracking is easy to overlook because the site works fine without it, but you cannot prioritise fixes or prove results to a client if nothing is being measured.

Turning the checklist into action#

Once you have walked all seven sections, you have a score and, more usefully, a list of specific gaps. The priority order is almost always the reverse of instinct: fix capture and conversion before chasing more traffic, because sending visitors to a site that cannot convert them just spends money to fill a leaky bucket faster.

You can run the lead-generation section as an interactive tool rather than from memory. The 12-point website audit scorecard tallies the capture, follow-up, trust and performance gaps and gives a verdict as you tick each box, which makes it easy to hand a prospect their three biggest gaps in plain language. If you prospect at scale, the lead scoring calculator helps you decide which sites are worth auditing first.

For the deeper technical side of this checklist, the technical SEO audit walkthrough expands sections one through three into a full pass, and the free SEO audit guide covers how to read the findings. Run the health check on your own site for a clean to-do list, or on a prospect’s for an outreach email that practically writes itself.