It is broader than a technical SEO review and shorter per item, so you can finish it in an afternoon. Each check says what to look for and what a fail means. Where a deeper treatment exists, such as the technical SEO audit checklist, the item links out instead of repeating it. You can work through the list by hand, or let a Marketing Audit cover the checks that software can read from a public page.
How to use this website health check
Open your homepage and your single most important landing page in two tabs, plus a phone. Go through the checks in order, mark each pass, fail or unsure, and write the page address next to every fail. Skip nothing because it seems minor. A missing title tag takes a minute to fix, and finding it takes the same minute.
Some checks need your logins, such as Search Console or analytics. Those are yours to do by hand. Others can be read from the public page, and a free website audit tool or a trial run of an automated one can handle them. Either way, finish with a ranked list: broken tracking and blocked indexing first, small copy fixes last.
Indexing and basics: checks 1 to 5
Check 1: the site loads at one address. Type the http, https, www and non-www versions of your domain. Each should end at a single https address in one redirect. If two versions load separately, search engines see duplicate sites.
Check 2: no accidental noindex. View the page source of your key pages and search for noindex. Staging settings sometimes reach the live site. Check 3: robots.txt does not block pages you want found. Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt and read each Disallow line.
Check 4: an XML sitemap exists and lists only live, indexable pages. Open it and spot check a few URLs for errors or redirects. Check 5: your important pages appear in Google. Search site:yourdomain.com and compare the result against the pages you care about. A big gap points to an indexing problem, and the guide above explains how to dig into it.
On-page checks for your site audit: checks 6 to 10
Check 6: every page has a unique title tag that names what the page is about, in a length that does not get cut off in results, roughly 60 characters. Check 7: each page has a meta description written for a human, roughly 155 characters, with a reason to click. Descriptions do not change rankings directly, but they shape whether people click.
Check 8: one H1 per page that matches the page topic, with subheadings in a logical order. Check 9: your main pages say plainly what you offer, for whom and where, in the first screen. If a stranger cannot tell in five seconds, a search engine and a prospective customer will struggle too.
Check 10: images have descriptive file names and alt text, and links between your pages use meaningful anchor text. A Whole-Site Crawl lists missing titles, duplicate headings and thin pages across up to 100 pages, which is faster than opening each page. If you audit a larger site, check a sample of each page template, because a fault in a template repeats on every page that uses it. Blog posts, product pages and service pages usually each have their own template, so a sample of three or four per type is enough to spot a pattern.
Tracking checks: checks 11 to 15
Check 11: your analytics tag loads once on every page. Two copies double count, and none means you are blind. Check 12: Google Tag Manager, if you use it, loads on all pages with the right container. Check 13: each ad platform you pay has its pixel or tag in place, with no duplicates.
Check 14: your conversions are defined and fire. Submit a test enquiry or purchase and watch for the event in your analytics debug view. A form that works for the visitor can still fail to send the event. Check 15: campaign links carry UTM parameters, and your consent banner behaves as you expect, since it can block tags on some pages.
A Tracking Health Check reads your public pages for tags, duplicates and key events. It does not log in to your accounts, so confirm anything it flags in your own analytics. The ads side of measurement has its own list in the Google Ads audit checklist, which covers account settings this checklist leaves out.
Speed and mobile website analyzer checks: checks 16 to 19
Check 16: test your main pages on mobile with Google PageSpeed Insights. The widely published Core Web Vitals thresholds are Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1. Note the numbers, because you need them for comparison later.
Check 17: page weight. Heavy pages mostly come from oversized images, so compare the display size of each image with the file you upload. Check 18: scripts. Count the third party scripts on your key pages, such as chat widgets, trackers and fonts. Each one adds delay, and some of them nobody remembers installing.
Check 19: the mobile layout works with a thumb. Text is readable without zooming, buttons are not crowded together, pop ups do not cover the whole screen and the phone number is tap to call. Open the site on a real phone, because a narrowed browser window does not behave the same way.
Trust and security checks: checks 20 to 22
Check 20: the SSL certificate is valid and its expiry date is not close. Click the padlock in the browser, or use a certificate checker. Check 21: no mixed content. A secure page that loads an image or script over plain http can lose its padlock or trigger a warning. Browsers report this in the developer console.
Check 22: the trust basics a visitor looks for. A real business address or contact details, a privacy policy, clear terms for any sale and reviews or proof that you can show truthfully. A visitor deciding whether to share an email address looks for these before anything else. If you sell to businesses, add the details a buyer needs to justify the purchase, such as who you work with and how a project starts. The Security and SSL Check covers the technical part of this group, including redirects and security headers, but the content side is a human judgement.
Conversion basics: checks 23 to 25
Check 23: one clear next step on every important page. A page with five competing buttons converts worse than a page with one obvious action. Check 24: forms ask only for what you need. Each extra field gives people a reason to quit, so cut anything you do not use in the follow up.
Check 25: the path after the click works end to end. Test the thank you page, the confirmation email and the notification that reaches your team. Many sites lose leads after the form, in a mail setting nobody has looked at in two years. The landing page conversion checklist guide goes deeper on page design if the basics pass. Also look at how the page reads aloud to a colleague: if they cannot say what you want them to do, a visitor will not know either.
What to do with the results
Sort the fails into three piles. The first holds anything that blocks traffic or distorts data: noindex, a broken redirect, missing or duplicated tags, an expired certificate. Fix these before spending a cent, since every ad click sent to a broken page is money that cannot be recovered. Write the fix next to each item, name an owner and set a date, even a rough one. The second holds items that cost you conversions, such as slow mobile pages and unclear calls to action. The third holds polish.
Broken links come up under several checks, and they deserve their own pass. The post on finding broken links on your website shows how to do it. If you already have a report from a tool, how to read an SEO audit report explains how to separate the findings that matter from the noise.
An audit is a snapshot, and sites change after every plugin update and every new page. Re-run the high risk checks regularly, or hand the weekly part to weekly monitoring. For your next step, pick the three pages that receive the most traffic, run checks 1, 2, 11 and 16 on them today, and write down every fail with its page address. If you would like software to take the first pass, the free 7-day trial includes 1 credit, enough for one Marketing Audit on your homepage.
Frequently asked questions
What should a website audit include?
A website audit should cover indexing and crawl basics, on-page elements such as titles and headings, tracking setup, page speed and mobile use, security and trust signals, and conversion basics such as forms and calls to action. The goal is to find faults that waste marketing spend before you increase it.
Is there a free website audit?
Yes, in a few forms. Google PageSpeed Insights and Search Console are free and cover speed and indexing. Many tools offer a limited free run. Dynamic Growth has a 7-day free trial with 1 credit, which covers a first Marketing Audit. A free run shows only part of the picture.
How often should I audit my website?
Run the full checklist before any large campaign, after a redesign or migration, and at least twice a year otherwise. Check the high risk items more often: tracking tags, indexing settings and the main conversion path. Weekly automated checks catch changes made between full audits.
What is the difference between a website audit and an SEO audit?
An SEO audit focuses on search visibility: crawling, indexing, titles, links and content. A website audit has a wider scope. It adds tracking, speed, trust, security and conversion basics, so it answers whether the site is ready for marketing spend as well as whether it can rank.
Can a tool replace a manual website audit?
A tool can read public pages quickly and spot missing tags, titles, redirects and slow pages. It cannot test your forms, judge your messaging or see inside your analytics account. Use software for the first pass and a person to confirm findings and decide priorities.