What is a website audit?
A website audit is a structured review of how well your website works for visitors, search engines and AI tools. A good audit doesn't just list problems. It tells you which ones matter, why, and what to do about them.
What should a website audit include?
Many tools only check one area. A complete audit covers six:
- Website health: is the site up, does it respond quickly, is the SSL certificate valid, and are there broken pages or redirect chains?
- Performance: Core Web Vitals, page weight, image sizes and render-blocking scripts. See Core Web Vitals explained.
- SEO: titles, meta descriptions, headings, sitemap, robots.txt, canonical tags and structured data. See the technical SEO checklist.
- GEO (AI search readiness): can AI crawlers access the site, is there an llms.txt file, and is content easy to quote? See what is GEO.
- Security: HTTPS, security headers, exposed software versions, and SPF and DMARC for email. See the website security checklist.
- Accessibility: alt text, colour contrast, form labels and keyboard access. See how to check accessibility.
How to prioritise website fixes
A first audit can produce dozens of findings. Don't try to fix them in the order they're listed. Score each one on two things, impact and effort, and work in this order:
- Critical and quick: site-breaking problems you can fix in minutes, such as an expiring certificate, a robots.txt that blocks Google or a missing title tag.
- High impact, moderate effort: compressing large images, adding structured data, fixing broken links.
- Quick wins with smaller impact: security headers, Open Graph tags, alt text.
- Larger projects: theme rebuilds, hosting migrations or major accessibility rework. Plan these deliberately.
How long does a website audit take?
An automated audit takes a few minutes. A manual audit by a consultant can take days. The practical approach is to run an automated audit first to find the obvious issues, then spend human time on the judgement calls such as content quality, messaging and user journeys.
How often should I audit my website?
Run a full audit at least quarterly, and immediately after a redesign, platform migration or major plugin update. Between audits, ongoing monitoring catches problems like downtime, an expiring SSL certificate or a sudden speed drop before your visitors do.
Free vs paid website audit tools
Free tools are good enough to find and fix the most common problems on most small business websites. Paid tools add scheduled monitoring, multiple sites, history over time, competitor comparisons and white-label reports, which matter more for growing businesses and agencies.
Ready to see where your site stands? Run a free website audit and get a prioritised list of fixes in a few minutes.
Frequently asked questions
How do I audit my website for free?
Enter your URL into a free website audit tool such as Pagelyt. It checks health, speed, SEO, AI search readiness, security and accessibility, and gives you a prioritised list of fixes.
What is the difference between an SEO audit and a website audit?
An SEO audit focuses on search rankings: crawling, indexing and on-page tags. A full website audit also covers performance, security, accessibility, uptime and AI search readiness.
How often should a website be audited?
At least every three months, and after any redesign, migration or major update. Continuous monitoring is recommended for business-critical sites.
Which website issues should I fix first?
Fix critical issues that are quick to resolve first, such as an expiring SSL certificate or pages blocked from search engines. Then move to high-impact fixes like image compression and broken links.
Can I audit a competitor's website?
Yes. Public checks like speed, SEO tags, security headers and accessibility can be run on any public website, which makes competitor comparisons a useful way to find opportunities.