The 10 Point Website Audit I Run Before Any Redesign
Before rebuilding anything, find out what is already working and what is quietly leaking customers.
Redesigning without auditing is how businesses lose the rankings and conversions they already had. Here is the checklist I work through first.
1. Purpose. What is the single most valuable action a visitor can take, and is it obvious on every page?
2. Mobile experience. Open every key page on a real phone. Broken layouts and tiny tap targets cost more sales than anything else.
3. Speed. Measure load time and Core Web Vitals on mobile, not just desktop.
4. Content clarity. Can a stranger tell what you do, who you serve and where you operate within ten seconds?
5. Trust signals. Photos, reviews, credentials, addresses, phone numbers, policies. Missing trust is missing revenue.
6. Contact paths. Forms that actually deliver, phone numbers that are tappable, and a response process behind them.
7. SEO basics. Page titles, meta descriptions, one clear heading per page, image alt text, sitemap and indexing.
8. Analytics. If nothing is being measured, no decision after launch can be based on evidence.
9. Security and updates. Old plugins, expired certificates and missing backups are incidents waiting to happen.
10. What is already working. Keep the pages, URLs and messages that already bring in traffic and enquiries, and rebuild around them.
