A website audit checklist for small businesses.

Introduction

A useful website audit ends with a short list of fixes in a sensible order. Start with five pages: the homepage, your main service page, a work or proof page, About, and Contact. Record each problem, its URL, the effect on a visitor, and the next action. This checklist helps you separate a broken customer journey from a cosmetic improvement.

1. Explain the business from the first screen

Open the homepage as if a friend had sent you the link without context. Can you name the service, the audience, and the next step? Ask someone outside the business to do the same. Write down their actual interpretation before explaining what the page was meant to communicate.

Check that each service page answers the questions your team hears before a quote: what is included, what the customer needs to provide, and how to get started. For an Ennis or Ellis County business, describe the real service area where it helps someone assess fit. Flag old offers, dates, or examples for review.

2. Complete the main task on a phone

Use your own phone to find a service, open a project, and reach the inquiry form. Check whether the menu is understandable, the text is comfortable to read, and buttons remain reachable when a banner or chat widget appears. Rotate the screen and check for sideways scrolling.

Use a keyboard on a computer as well. You should be able to see which control has focus and move through the form in a logical order. W3C’s accessible forms guidance explains why associated labels, instructions, and feedback matter. Automated checks are a starting point; they do not replace trying the task.

3. Test the form all the way to its destination

Submit an inquiry clearly marked as a test. Verify that it is saved or received where the team expects it, and check any customer confirmation. A success message on the page is only one part of the process. If someone must copy the submission into another tool, record that step too.

Try an empty required field and a mistyped email address. Check that the error is understandable and that valid information remains available to correct. Confirm who owns follow-up and what happens when that person is away. These observations often produce a more useful action than a new homepage animation.

4. Check search access and page descriptions

Inspect the key URLs in Search Console, review their titles, and check that the intended pages appear in the sitemap. Each title should describe its own page. Confirm that links from navigation and related pages reach the final URL instead of a missing page or an unnecessary chain of redirects.

If a page is absent from Google, follow our indexing troubleshooting guide before changing the design. For a basic security check, confirm that public pages use HTTPS without browser warnings. A public website review is not a penetration test or a complete security assessment.

5. Measure a few representative pages

Run the homepage and an important service page through PageSpeed Insights. Save the URLs, date, and main findings. Look for a large first-screen image, expensive embeds, or a layout that shifts while loading. Use the report to identify a question your developer can investigate.

Google’s PageSpeed documentation distinguishes simulated lab tests from historical real-user data. Do not treat one score as a complete verdict. Pair it with the phone test and read our mobile website speed guide for the next checks.

6. Turn the findings into a repair order

Put unavailable pages, lost inquiries, and blocked public content first. Next, address confusing service descriptions, difficult mobile controls, and performance problems on important pages. Leave optional visual polish until the main journey works. Assign each item an owner and a clear way to confirm it is fixed.

Zavila Studio offers a $150 Website Audit for up to five public pages. It covers SEO and indexing, security basics, speed, mobile accessibility, forms, and the visitor journey, with a prioritized report. Implementation is quoted separately, so the findings can guide a focused repair or a larger project.