Are you a working professional? If yes, the first task given to you will be to audit a website. You need to check its performance and find areas that need improvement.

That’s why it is important to learn how to audit a website.

I will explain everything in this article, including:

1. What is a website audit?
2. How to audit a website?
3. What to do after conducting a website audit?
4. Website audit checklist
5. Website audit tools
6. Conclusion

Continue reading till the end to understand it step by step.

What is a Website Audit?

A website audit is a health check for your website. It helps you find SEO, technical setup, design, and content issues.

An SEO audit helps you spot errors that need fixing. Once you fix them, search engines can find and show your website more easily to users.

First, your website will rank for keywords. Then, you will start getting relevant organic traffic. This can also lead to business conversions over time.

How to audit a website?

To audit a website, you can do it manually or use tools. Many advanced tools make this process easier for you.

What you need to do is copy the link to your website and paste it onto the tool. Then just run a scan, and boom! The tool scans your site and generates a report for you. Depending on how big your site is, this could take anywhere from 10-20 min.

The report highlights errors and warnings. Fixing these issues on a priority basis is important to keep your website optimized.

What to do after conducting a website audit?

Once the website audit is done, create a checklist of errors and warnings. Fix the errors first, as they directly affect your website’s performance. Then, work on the warnings one by one.

Having rectified the fixes, recheck them for the proper resolution. In such a way, your website will remain optimally well for search engines and offer a smooth user experience.

Website Audit Checklist

An audit of a website is an audit of the different areas that affect the SEO and performance of the website and user experience. Here is the complete checklist to help you appropriately analyze your website.

1. SEO Audit
2. Technical Audit
3. Content Audit
4. UX & Design Audit
5. Analytics & Tracking

1. SEO Audit

• Check if your website is indexed on Google (Use “site:yourwebsite.com” in Google Search).
• Ensure proper keyword usage in titles, meta descriptions, headings, and content.
• Check backlinks: Quality, relevancy, and number of referring domains.
• Optimize internal linking for better crawlability.
• Fix broken links and redirect errors (404, 301, 302).
• Verify XML sitemap is submitted in Google Search Console.
• Ensure robots.txt is properly configured to allow search engines to crawl important pages.

2. Technical Audit

Test website speed using Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix.

Measure Core Web Vitals:

• First Contentful Paint (FCP) – Time taken for the first visual element to appear.
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – Time taken for the main content to load.
• Total Blocking Time (TBT) – Time scripts block interaction.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – Visual stability of the page.
• Speed Index – Overall loading speed perception.

Best Practices for Improving Core Web Vitals:

• FCP: Optimize images, enable lazy loading, and use a fast server response time.
• LCP: Minimize large elements, use a content delivery network (CDN), and remove render-blocking resources.
• TBT: Reduce JavaScript execution time and defer unused scripts.
• CLS: Set proper size attributes for images and avoid dynamic content shifts.
• Speed Index: Use efficient coding practices and optimize server performance.

• Ensure the website is mobile-friendly (Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test).
• Check the SSL certificate (HTTPS) for security.
• Fix crawl errors in Google Search Console.

Learn and fix page indexing errors in the Google search console.

3. Content Audit

• Ensure content is original and valuable to users.
• Check for duplicate content using Copyscape or Screaming Frog.
• Optimize images with proper compression and alt text.
• Use structured data (Schema Markup) for better search visibility.
• Make sure all pages have meta titles and descriptions.

4. UX & Design Audit

• Test website navigation for ease of use.
• Ensure proper color contrast and readable fonts.
• Fix broken buttons, links, and forms.
• Optimize page layout for a seamless user experience.

5. Analytics & Tracking

• Set up Google Analytics to track website traffic.
• Configure Google Search Console for monitoring search performance.
• Use Google Tag Manager to manage tracking codes without editing website code.
• Use Heatmaps (Hotjar, Crazy Egg) to analyze user behavior.

Following this checklist will help your website rank better and provide a smooth user experience.

Website Audit Tools

Tools that help you conduct a website audit make it easier to improve the factors mentioned in the checklist. Here are 10 powerful website audit tools:

• Google Search Console – Monitors search performance and detects indexing issues.
• Google Analytics – Monitors website traffic and user interactions.
• Google PageSpeed Insights – Measures website speed and provides optimization suggestions.
• GTmetrix – Analyzes website performance and suggests speed improvements.
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider – Crawls websites to find broken links, duplicate content, and SEO issues.
• Ahrefs Site Audit – Checks technical SEO issues and backlink quality.
• SEMrush Site Audit – Provides in-depth SEO analysis and fixes.
• Moz Pro Site Crawl – Identifies technical and on-page SEO problems.
• Hotjar – Uses heatmaps to track user behavior and improve UX.
• Google Tag Manager – Manages tracking codes without modifying website code.

Conclusion

That wraps up everything about auditing a website, identifying errors, and fixing them. Hope this article helped you understand website audits and how to fix errors. Start auditing your website today and make it better for both users and search engines.