Website Audit Checklist: 50+ Checks You Can Do for Free
Updated April 2026 — a complete step-by-step audit covering SEO, performance, security, mobile, accessibility, and content quality
1. What is a website audit and why it matters
A website audit is a systematic review of your site’s technical health, SEO, performance, security, and content quality. Think of it as a medical checkup for your website: it identifies problems before they become critical, reveals optimization opportunities, and gives you a clear roadmap for improvement.
Without regular audits, common problems go unnoticed:
- Broken meta tags after a CMS update — your pages disappear from Google results
- Slow-loading pages from unoptimized images — 53% of mobile users leave after 3 seconds
- Expired SSL certificates — browsers show a scary warning page instead of your content
- Missing alt text on images — you lose accessibility and Google Images traffic
- Mobile usability issues — Google uses mobile-first indexing since 2019
A comprehensive audit covers 6 key areas with a total of 50+ individual checks. Below is the complete checklist you can use for your own site.
2. SEO Audit Checklist (15 checks)
On-page SEO is what determines whether Google can find, understand, and rank your pages. These checks cover the fundamental elements:
| Check | What to verify | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Title tag | Exists, 30–65 characters, contains primary keyword | Critical |
| Meta description | Exists, 70–165 characters, includes call-to-action | High |
| H1 heading | Exactly one H1 per page, matches page topic | Critical |
| Heading hierarchy | H1 → H2 → H3 in logical order, no gaps | High |
| Image alt text | All images have descriptive alt attributes | High |
| Canonical URL | Present and pointing to the correct page | Critical |
| Robots.txt | Exists, allows crawling of important pages | High |
| XML sitemap | Exists, submitted to Google Search Console | High |
| Open Graph tags | og:title, og:description, og:image present | Medium |
| Structured data | JSON-LD schema markup (at minimum Organization) | High |
| Internal links | Key pages reachable in ≤3 clicks from homepage | High |
| Hreflang tags | Present if multi-language site, correct language codes | Medium |
| HTML lang attribute | Correct language code on <html> element | Medium |
| Favicon | Present and loads correctly | Medium |
| Deprecated HTML | No <font>, <center>, or other deprecated tags | Low |
Pro tip: the title tag is the single most important on-page factor. A well-crafted title with your target keyword in the first 30 characters can significantly improve your click-through rate from Google search results.
3. Performance Audit Checklist (10 checks)
Page speed directly affects user experience, conversion rates, and Google rankings. Since 2021, Core Web Vitals are an official ranking factor.
| Check | Target | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Page load time | Under 1 second (server response) | Critical |
| LCP | Under 2.5 seconds | Critical |
| CLS | Under 0.1 | Critical |
| INP | Under 200ms | Critical |
| Page size | Under 1 MB total | High |
| Compression | Gzip or Brotli enabled | High |
| Browser caching | Cache-Control headers for static assets | High |
| Modern image formats | WebP or AVIF instead of PNG/JPEG | High |
| Responsive images | srcset and sizes attributes | Medium |
| Redirect chains | No more than 1 redirect | High |
The easiest performance wins are enabling compression (saves 60–80% of transfer size) and optimizing images (typically the largest page assets).
4. Security Audit Checklist (8 checks)
Security isn’t just about preventing hacks — it directly affects user trust and Google rankings. HTTPS has been a ranking signal since 2014.
| Check | What to verify | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| HTTPS | Site loads on HTTPS, HTTP redirects to HTTPS | Critical |
| SSL certificate | Valid, not expired, >30 days until expiry | Critical |
| HSTS header | Strict-Transport-Security present | High |
| X-Frame-Options | Prevents clickjacking attacks | High |
| Content-Security-Policy | Prevents XSS and data injection | High |
| X-Content-Type-Options | Set to nosniff | Medium |
| Referrer-Policy | Controls information leakage | Medium |
| Mixed content | No HTTP resources on HTTPS pages | Critical |
An expired SSL certificate is one of the most damaging issues: browsers show a full-page warning that prevents visitors from reaching your site.
5. Mobile Usability Checklist (6 checks)
Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version for ranking. Over 60% of web traffic comes from mobile.
- Viewport meta tag — present with width=device-width
- Font size — base font ≥16px
- Tap targets — buttons and links ≥48px × 48px
- Responsive design — CSS media queries adapt layout
- No horizontal scroll — content fits viewport width
- Touch-friendly forms — appropriate input types
6. Content Quality Checklist (7 checks)
- Word count — ≥300 words of meaningful content
- Text-to-HTML ratio — ≥25% visible text vs total HTML
- No placeholder text — no Lorem ipsum or Coming soon
- Readability — Flesch score ≥60
- Unique content — not duplicated from other pages
- Updated dates — current, not outdated content
- Internal linking — links to related pages within your site
7. Accessibility Checklist (6 checks)
- ARIA landmarks — page sections have appropriate roles
- Form labels — all inputs have associated labels
- Keyboard navigation — all interactive elements reachable via Tab
- Color contrast — 4.5:1 ratio for normal text
- Descriptive link text — no "click here" links
- Skip to content — hidden link for keyboard users
8. How to Interpret Audit Scores
| Score | Grade | What it means | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90–100 | A+ | Excellent | Maintain with regular monitoring |
| 80–89 | A | Good — minor issues | Fix warnings, aim for 90+ |
| 60–79 | B | Fair — needs improvement | Prioritize critical issues |
| 40–59 | C | Below average | Start with security, then SEO |
| 0–39 | D/F | Poor | Immediate action needed |
Focus on critical issues first. A site with a score of 65 that fixes 3 critical SEO issues might jump to 82 in a single check.
9. How Often to Audit Your Website
- Weekly: e-commerce, SaaS, frequently updated sites
- Biweekly: blogs, portfolio sites, small businesses
- Monthly: static sites, personal pages
- After every deployment: CI/CD should include an audit step
Automated monitoring catches problems the moment they appear. A weekly automated audit costs minutes of setup and saves hours of debugging.
10. Free Website Audit Tool
Running all 50+ checks manually would take hours. Our free Site Monitor does it in 30 seconds:
- Instant free audit — enter any URL, no sign-up required
- 6 areas covered — SEO, performance, security, mobile, content, accessibility
- Actionable recommendations — each issue comes with a specific fix
- Score tracking — monitor your score over time with trend charts
- Weekly alerts — get notified if something changes
- PDF reports — share professional audit reports with clients
Already audited? Set up automated weekly monitoring to track changes. Also check our SEO Analyzer for 60+ specific on-page SEO checks.