Every time a new client asks me to look at their website, I run the same basic audit. It takes about 30 minutes, requires no fancy tools, and catches 90% of the problems I see on small business sites.
I've done this enough times that I figured I'd just share the checklist. You can run it yourself. If you find problems you can't fix, at least you'll know what to tell whoever does fix them.
Why Bother With an Audit?
Here's the thing: most small business owners haven't looked at their own website on a phone in months. Or checked if the contact form actually sends anywhere. Or noticed that their "About" page still says "Coming Soon" from 2019.
Your website is like a storefront that's open 24/7 whether you're paying attention or not. A quick audit tells you if the lights are on, the door's unlocked, and there's no giant "CLOSED" sign you forgot to take down.
1. Mobile Responsiveness (5 minutes)
Over 62% of all website traffic now comes from phones. If your site looks broken on mobile, you're losing more than half your potential customers before they even see what you do.
What to check:
- Pull up your site on your actual phone (not just shrinking your browser window)
- Can you read the text without zooming?
- Do buttons and links have enough space to tap without hitting the wrong thing?
- Does the menu work? Can you actually navigate?
- Do images load or are there broken image boxes?
Red flags: Horizontal scrolling, text that requires pinch-to-zoom, buttons too small to tap, menu items overlapping.
2. Page Speed (5 minutes)
53% of mobile visitors leave if your site takes more than 3 seconds to load. That's not patience issues. That's normal human behavior in 2025.
Every additional second of load time costs you about 7% in conversions. If you're an e-commerce site doing $10,000/month, a 2-second improvement could be worth $1,400/month.
How to test:
- Go to PageSpeed Insights (free Google tool)
- Enter your homepage URL
- Look at the Mobile score (that's what matters most)
What the numbers mean:
- 90-100: Great. Don't touch it.
- 50-89: Decent but room for improvement
- 0-49: Your site is probably hemorrhaging visitors
Google considers anything under 2.5 seconds for main content to be "good." The average site loads in about 1.9 seconds on mobile, so that's your benchmark.
3. SSL Certificate (2 minutes)
This is the padlock in the browser bar. If your site doesn't have it, browsers literally warn visitors that your site is "Not Secure." Not a great first impression.
87.6% of websites now have valid SSL certificates. If you're in the remaining 12.4%, you look either sketchy or outdated. Neither is good for business.
How to check:
- Go to your website
- Look at the address bar. Is there a padlock? Does the URL start with https:// (not http://)?
- Click the padlock to make sure the certificate is valid and not expired
If it's missing: Your hosting provider should offer free SSL through Let's Encrypt. If they're charging you $100+ for an SSL certificate, that's a red flag about your hosting provider. (I wrote about this exact issue a while back.)
4. Contact Information (5 minutes)
You'd be surprised how many business websites make it hard to actually contact the business. Phone numbers that don't work. Contact forms that go to abandoned email addresses. No physical address for a local business.
What to verify:
- Phone number: Call it. Does it ring? Does someone answer or is voicemail set up?
- Email/Contact form: Send a test message. Did it arrive?
- Physical address: Is it correct? Does it match your Google Business Profile?
- Hours: Are they current? Did you forget to update them after COVID?
Pro tip: Check your contact form submissions folder. I've seen businesses with 6 months of leads sitting unread because the form was sending to spam.
5. Analytics Setup (5 minutes)
If you don't know how many people visit your site, where they come from, or what pages they look at, you're flying blind. It's like running a store without ever counting customers.
What to check:
- Log into Google Analytics (if you have it)
- Is data actually being collected? Check the Realtime report - if someone's on your site right now, you should see them
- When was the last data recorded? If it stopped months ago, something broke
If you don't have analytics: Set up Google Analytics 4. It's free. Your website person can do this in about 15 minutes, or you can follow Google's setup wizard yourself. (I wrote a quick GA4 migration guide if you're still on the old Universal Analytics.)
Basic questions your analytics should answer:
- How many people visited this month?
- What pages do they look at most?
- Where are they coming from (Google, social media, direct)?
- How long do they stay?
6. Broken Links and Outdated Content (8 minutes)
Nothing says "nobody's home" like clicking a link and getting a 404 error. Or landing on a page that says "Summer 2022 Special!"
Quick link check:
- Go to Broken Link Checker (free)
- Enter your website URL
- Let it scan (takes a few minutes)
- Fix or remove any broken links it finds
Content to review:
- Homepage: Does it still describe what you actually do?
- About page: Any outdated info? Team members who left?
- Services/Products: Are prices current? Services you no longer offer?
- Blog: Any posts referencing "this year" that are now 3 years old?
- Footer: Is the copyright year current? (Small thing, but signals attention to detail)
The 30-Minute Audit Checklist
Here's the condensed version you can print or screenshot:
Mobile (5 min)
- [ ] Site works on your actual phone
- [ ] Text readable without zooming
- [ ] Buttons/links are tappable
- [ ] Menu navigation works
Speed (5 min)
- [ ] PageSpeed Insights mobile score above 50
- [ ] Main content loads under 2.5 seconds
SSL (2 min)
- [ ] Padlock shows in browser
- [ ] URL starts with https://
- [ ] Certificate isn't expired
Contact Info (5 min)
- [ ] Phone number works
- [ ] Contact form sends emails
- [ ] Address is correct
- [ ] Hours are current
Analytics (5 min)
- [ ] Google Analytics is installed
- [ ] Data is being collected
- [ ] You can see recent visitors
Links & Content (8 min)
- [ ] No broken links (use checker tool)
- [ ] No outdated promotions or dates
- [ ] Copyright year is current
- [ ] Team/about info is accurate
What To Do With The Results
If everything passes: Great. Set a calendar reminder to run this again in 6 months.
If you found issues:
- Small stuff (outdated content, copyright year): Fix it yourself or have your website person do it. Should take an hour tops.
- Medium stuff (broken contact form, missing analytics): Slightly more technical. Might need help but shouldn't be expensive.
- Big stuff (terrible mobile experience, no SSL, PageSpeed under 30): Time for a real conversation about whether your current site is salvageable or needs a rebuild. If you're on sketchy shared hosting, that's often the root cause.
The goal isn't perfection. It's making sure your website isn't actively turning away customers while you're busy running your business.
One More Thing
If you run this audit and find yourself staring at a list of problems you don't know how to fix, that's normal. Websites accumulate cruft over time. The fact that you now know what's wrong puts you ahead of most small business owners.
Need a second opinion or want help fixing what you found? Reach out—call, email, whatever works. No charge for a quick sanity check.