Website Audit Checklist for Small Businesses

You don't need a $5,000 agency audit to know if your small business website is healthy. This checklist covers everything that actually matters, and you can run it yourself in about an hour.

Print it, work through it, fix what's broken.

Phase 1: Speed and Performance (15 minutes)

✅ Run a free audit

Go to RateMySite.io or PageSpeed Insights. Test on mobile — that's where 70% of your traffic comes from.

Targets:

• Performance score: 80+ (excellent), 60+ (acceptable)
• LCP: under 2.5 seconds
• CLS: under 0.1
• INP: under 200ms

✅ Check your loading time on a real phone

Open your site on your phone, not your laptop. Time how long until the main content appears. If it's over 4 seconds, you have a real problem.

✅ Confirm images are optimized

If your audit shows "Properly size images" or "Serve images in next-gen formats" warnings, your images are likely 5–10× larger than they need to be. See how images affect website speed.

✅ Check hosting performance (TTFB)

Time to First Byte should be under 600ms. If it's over 1 second, your host or theme is too slow. See how hosting affects website performance.

Phase 2: Mobile and Usability (10 minutes)

✅ Tap targets are big enough

Buttons, links, and form fields should be at least 48×48 pixels and have enough space between them. Try tapping every CTA on your phone — if you misfire, your customers will too.

✅ Text is readable without zooming

Body text should be at least 16px. If you're squinting, so are your customers.

✅ Forms work on mobile

Fill out your contact form on your phone. Does the keyboard come up correctly for each field? Does the submit button work? Does it auto-zoom annoyingly?

✅ Phone number is clickable

<a href="tel:+15555551234">(555) 555-1234</a>

Mobile users should be able to tap your number to call you directly.

✅ Address is mappable

If you have a physical location, link your address to Google Maps:

<a href="https://maps.google.com/?q=123+Main+St">123 Main St</a>

Phase 3: SEO Basics (15 minutes)

✅ Every page has a unique title

Under 60 characters. Should include the page topic and your brand:

• ✅ "Plumbing Services in Austin | Acme Plumbing"
• ❌ "Home"

✅ Every page has a meta description

Under 160 characters. Should convince someone to click.

✅ Your business name is consistent

Across your site, Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Facebook. Inconsistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) hurts local SEO.

✅ You have a Google Business Profile

google.com/business. Free. Critical for local search. Verified profile with photos, hours, and reviews.

✅ Schema markup is in place

At minimum, add LocalBusiness schema:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Acme Plumbing",
  "telephone": "+15555551234",
  "address": { ... }
}
</script>

✅ Sitemap submitted to Search Console

Sign up for Google Search Console, verify your site, submit your sitemap. This is how you'll know if Google is having trouble indexing your pages.

✅ Robots.txt is sane

Your yoursite.com/robots.txt should exist and not be blocking important pages. The common mistake: a developer leaves a "block everything" robots.txt in production.

See how to improve your website SEO score for more.

Phase 4: Trust and Conversion (10 minutes)

✅ HTTPS everywhere

Your site URL should start with https://. If it's http://, you need an SSL certificate — most hosts provide free ones from Let's Encrypt.

✅ Contact info is visible

Phone number and email in the header or footer of every page. Don't make customers hunt.

✅ Hours and location are obvious

For local businesses, your hours and address should be visible without scrolling on the homepage.

✅ Real testimonials or reviews

Social proof is the highest-leverage thing on a small business site. Even 3-5 short customer quotes with first names and photos makes a difference. Linking to your Google reviews is even better.

✅ A clear, single primary call-to-action

"Get a Quote", "Book Now", "Call Today" — one obvious next step on every page. If you have 8 different CTAs, you have none.

✅ Privacy policy and terms

Required by law in most jurisdictions (GDPR, CCPA). Use a free generator like termly.io or iubenda.com.

Phase 5: Accessibility (10 minutes)

✅ Run the audit

Lighthouse Accessibility score should be 95+. See website accessibility score explained.

✅ Every image has alt text

For SEO and screen reader users. Decorative images: alt="". Meaningful images: descriptive text.

✅ Color contrast is sufficient

Light gray text on white is hard to read. Use WebAIM's Contrast Checker. Body text needs 4.5:1 ratio.

✅ Forms have labels

Every input field needs a visible label, not just a placeholder. Placeholders disappear when typing and are inaccessible.

Phase 6: Security and Maintenance (10 minutes)

✅ Software is up to date

WordPress, plugins, themes — all current versions. Outdated WordPress is the #1 hacking vector for small business sites.

✅ You have backups

Daily automatic backups stored off-server. If your host doesn't include this, add UpdraftPlus (WordPress) or a service like Jetpack Backup.

✅ Domain is set to auto-renew

Lost domains are devastating. Set auto-renew and verify your credit card on file is current.

✅ Admin login is protected

• Strong unique password (use a password manager)
• Two-factor authentication enabled
• Default username changed from "admin"
• Limit login attempts (Wordfence, Limit Login Attempts plugin)

✅ No broken links

Run a free check at brokenlinkcheck.com or use Google Search Console's coverage report.

Phase 7: Analytics and Tracking (5 minutes)

✅ Analytics installed

Google Analytics 4 or a privacy-friendly alternative (Plausible, Fathom). Verify it's working by checking real-time reports.

✅ Goals/conversions configured

You should know: how many people contacted you this month? Without conversion tracking, you're flying blind.

✅ Search Console set up

Track which queries bring people to your site. Free, essential.

How to use this checklist

1. Make a copy (print or duplicate digitally).
2. Run through it once. Tick everything that passes.
3. Prioritize what's failing. Speed and mobile usually go first.
4. Fix one thing at a time. Don't try to solve everything in one session.
5. Re-audit quarterly. Catch regressions before customers do.

Quick wins if you're starting from zero

If most of this is failing, do these five things first:

1. Run a free PageSpeed audit and fix the top 3 image issues
2. Add HTTPS if you don't have it
3. Set up Google Business Profile and Google Search Console
4. Add a real phone number tel: link to your header
5. Add LocalBusiness schema markup

That alone fixes 70% of small business website problems.

The bottom line

Your website is your most important salesperson. A 60-minute self-audit catches the issues costing you customers — slow load times, broken contact forms, missing SEO basics. Run it quarterly, fix what's broken, and don't pay an agency for things you can do yourself in an afternoon.

For specific deep dives: how to improve your PageSpeed Insights score, how to improve your website SEO score.