Website Audit Checklist: The 8 Categories Every Business Should Check

You don't need to be a developer to audit your own website. You just need to know what to look for. Here's the same 8-category checklist we use at NexGen Nurture, broken down into specific items you can check today.

1. Technical & Accessibility

This is the foundation. If the technical layer is broken, nothing else matters.

• ☐ Site loads on HTTPS (look for the padlock in the browser)
• ☐ Site loads correctly on mobile (test on your phone — every page)
• ☐ Has a viewport meta tag for mobile responsiveness
• ☐ Images have alt text (right-click an image, inspect, look for alt="...")
• ☐ Buttons and links are clearly distinguishable
• ☐ No broken links (run a free crawler like Broken Link Checker)
• ☐ Color contrast meets WCAG AA standards
• ☐ Has a 404 page that doesn't dead-end the visitor

2. Performance

Speed kills — but the wrong way.

• ☐ PageSpeed score above 70 on mobile (test at pagespeed.web.dev)
• ☐ Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds
• ☐ Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1
• ☐ Images are properly compressed and sized
• ☐ No render-blocking JavaScript or CSS
• ☐ Browser caching enabled
• ☐ Using a CDN (Cloudflare, Fastly, Akamai)

3. SEO

Can search engines actually find and rank you?

• ☐ Every page has a unique <title> tag (50-60 characters)
• ☐ Every page has a meta description (140-160 characters)
• ☐ Each page has exactly one H1 tag
• ☐ Heading hierarchy makes sense (H1 → H2 → H3, no skipping)
• ☐ XML sitemap exists at /sitemap.xml
• ☐ robots.txt exists and isn't blocking everything
• ☐ Site is verified in Google Search Console
• ☐ No duplicate content issues
• ☐ Canonical tags set correctly
• ☐ Internal linking between related pages

4. AEO (AI Visibility)

Will AI tools recommend you?

• ☐ Has Organization schema with full business details
• ☐ Has LocalBusiness schema (if applicable) with address and hours
• ☐ Has FAQPage schema with real questions and answers
• ☐ Has Service or Product schema for what you sell
• ☐ Has Person schema for the founder/key team
• ☐ Test your site at Google Rich Results Test
• ☐ Ask ChatGPT about your business — does it know you?

5. Local Presence

For local businesses, this category often matters more than traditional SEO.

• ☐ Google Business Profile claimed and complete
• ☐ Business name, address, phone (NAP) consistent everywhere
• ☐ Address listed on website (not just in a footer image)
• ☐ Service area pages for each city/region you serve
• ☐ Phone number is click-to-call on mobile
• ☐ Listed on key directories (Yelp, BBB, industry-specific)
• ☐ Google Business Profile reviews — at least some, ideally responded to

6. Social Presence

• ☐ Active on at least one platform relevant to your audience
• ☐ Social profiles linked from website (in footer at minimum)
• ☐ Open Graph tags so links preview nicely when shared
• ☐ Twitter Card tags configured
• ☐ Recent activity (don't link to a profile you abandoned in 2022)

7. Tracking & Analytics

You can't improve what you don't measure.

• ☐ Google Analytics 4 installed and firing
• ☐ Google Tag Manager (optional but recommended)
• ☐ Conversion goals defined (form submits, calls, purchases)
• ☐ Search Console connected to Google Analytics
• ☐ At least one heat-mapping tool (Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity)
• ☐ You actually look at the data at least monthly

8. Conversion

Visitors are great. Customers are better.

• ☐ Clear value proposition above the fold
• ☐ Primary CTA visible without scrolling
• ☐ Contact information easy to find on every page
• ☐ Trust signals visible (testimonials, reviews, certifications, guarantees)
• ☐ Forms are short and ask only for what's necessary
• ☐ Privacy policy and terms linked in footer
• ☐ No more than 2-3 pop-ups (and none that block content)
• ☐ Mobile experience is as smooth as desktop

The shortcut

If checking 70+ items by hand sounds exhausting — it is. That's why we built our free website audit tool. It runs through all 8 categories in under 60 seconds and gives you a prioritized list of issues with severity rankings.

Either way, knowing what to check is the first step. You can't fix problems you don't know about.