Somewhere on your website right now, something is probably broken — a form that silently fails, an image that never compressed, a page that takes six seconds to load on a phone.
Most small business owners only find out when a customer mentions it, or when leads quietly dry up with no obvious cause. Running your own audit first, before you ever call a developer, changes the entire conversation: instead of "our website feels off," you can hand over a specific, prioritized list of what's actually wrong. That gets you a faster, cheaper, and more accurate quote — and it means you're not paying a developer's hourly rate just to find the problems a checklist could have found for free. Here are 20 things to check, organized by priority.
Speed and Foundation
Core Web Vitals
Google's current "good" thresholds are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) under 200 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) below 0.1. Check your real numbers for free in Google Search Console or PageSpeed Insights — these are a confirmed ranking factor, not just a nice-to-have.
Mobile responsiveness
Over 60% of website traffic now comes from mobile devices, and Google indexes sites based on their mobile version first. Test your actual site on an actual phone, on a slower connection, not just by resizing a desktop browser window.
HTTPS and mixed content
Confirm every page loads securely with no "not secure" warning, and check for mixed content — secure pages that still load an image or script over an insecure connection, which browsers flag and some block outright.
Broken links and 404 pages
Crawl your own site with a free tool and note every dead internal link, missing image, and 404 error. Each one is a small dead end for both visitors and search engine crawlers.
Technical SEO & Crawlability
| Checklist Item | Why It Matters | Quick Check |
|---|---|---|
| 5. Title tags & meta descriptions | The title tag is the strongest single ranking signal a page controls — a generic default gives Google nothing to match against real searches | Confirm every page has a unique, descriptive title, not a platform default like "Home" |
| 6. XML sitemap & robots.txt | These files tell search engines, and increasingly AI crawlers, what to index and what to skip | Confirm a sitemap exists and submit it in Google Search Console; check robots.txt isn't accidentally blocking important pages |
| 7. Canonical URLs | Many sites are unintentionally accessible at www and non-www, http and https, with and without trailing slashes — creating duplicate versions of the same page | Confirm only one version is canonical and the rest 301 redirect to it |
| 8. Schema markup | Structured data helps search engines and AI answer engines like ChatGPT and Gemini understand and cite your content accurately | Check for basic schema (business info, reviews, products) using Google's Rich Results Test |
| 9. Image alt text & file size | Alt text helps accessibility and image search visibility; oversized images are one of the most common causes of a failing LCP score | Spot-check key pages for missing alt text and images over 200KB that haven't been compressed |
| 10. URL structure & internal linking | Short, descriptive URLs and strong internal linking concentrate authority on the pages that actually generate leads | Check that key pages are reachable within three clicks from the homepage, and look for orphan pages with no internal links |
This is the layer most owners never look at directly, and where a developer's time is often best spent — but documenting what you find first still saves real hours on the invoice.
Content, UX & Conversion
11. Clear calls-to-action
Every key page should make it obvious what you want a visitor to do next — call, book, buy, or contact — without making them hunt for it.
12. Consistent contact information
Your business name, address, and phone number should match exactly across your website, Google Business Profile, and any directory listings — inconsistency quietly hurts local search visibility.
13. Content freshness and targeting
Check for outdated pricing, old promotions, or a copyright year still stuck a few years in the past, and confirm your key pages actually target the terms customers search for.
14. Analytics and tracking
Confirm Google Analytics 4 and Search Console are both installed and actually reporting data. Without them, every other item on this list becomes a guess instead of a measurement.
15. Basic accessibility
Check for readable color contrast, keyboard navigation, and descriptive link text. Accessibility has become an active enforcement environment, and it also simply widens who can use your site.
16. Forms that actually work
Submit every contact and quote form yourself and confirm the email actually arrives. A silently broken form can quietly cost leads for months before anyone notices.
Pro tip: A self-run audit using a checklist like this takes roughly an hour for a small site. Do it, write down exactly what you find, and hand that list to a developer — you'll get a far more accurate quote than describing the problem as "the site feels slow."
Signs You Need a Developer Now
17. Your site isn't indexed in Google
Search "site:yourdomain.com" — if key pages don't show up, something structural is blocking indexing and needs expert attention immediately.
18. Browser security warnings
A "not secure" or certificate error warning actively drives visitors away and signals a fundamental setup issue that shouldn't wait.
19. The site genuinely fails on mobile
If navigation is unusable, text is unreadable, or buttons are unclickable on a phone, this isn't a minor polish item — it's turning away the majority of your traffic.
20. No update or backup plan
Outdated CMS software and plugins are one of the most common ways small business sites get compromised. If you can't say when it was last backed up or updated, that's your answer.
The Bottom Line
A website audit isn't a single event — it's a structured way of finding out exactly what's broken before you pay someone else to find it for you. Work through this list, note what fails, and prioritize by impact: security and mobile usability first, technical SEO and Core Web Vitals next, content and polish last.
The businesses that treat this as a quarterly habit, not a one-time fire drill, are the ones that catch small problems before they become lost leads. Choose accordingly.
