Web Design
What a Real Website Audit Actually Checks
By Mohamed Eltoukhy, founder of EVOGENCY ·
A website audit is often used as a sales tool, which makes it worth knowing what a genuinely useful one actually covers before agreeing to pay for one.
A real audit should leave you with a clear, prioritized list of what's wrong, why it matters, and what to fix first, in language you can understand. Not a scary score and a sales pitch.
Technical and performance checks
Load speed, mobile usability, broken links, and basic security should all be reviewed as part of any real audit, not just a surface level glance.
It should also check whether Google can crawl and index the important pages, whether there's a sitemap, whether redirects work, and whether there are duplicate versions of the site competing with each other.
Search basics
Page titles and descriptions, headings, internal links, image alt text, and structured data all affect how search engines understand your pages. An audit should flag missing or duplicate titles, pages with no clear heading, and thin pages that aren't pulling their weight.
For local businesses, it should also look at your Google Business Profile, reviews, and whether your business information matches across the web.
Conversion and content review
A real audit also looks at whether the content and layout actually guide a visitor toward contacting the business, not just whether the site technically works.
Is the phone number tappable? Is the call to action clear? Does each service have a page that answers real questions? Are there reviews and real photos? Is anything confusing or outdated?
Accessibility basics
Color contrast, keyboard navigation, form labels, and alt text affect real visitors and carry legal risk. A good audit at least flags the most obvious problems.
Red flags in an audit
Be cautious if an audit is just an automated score with no explanation, if it's full of jargon without priorities, or if every finding leads to an expensive package. Also be wary of claims that the site needs to be completely rebuilt without a clear reason.
Google's own guidance on hiring SEO help suggests giving an auditor limited, read only access rather than full control, at least until you've decided to work with them.
What you should walk away with
A short list of issues ranked by impact, an explanation of each in plain English, and a sense of which you can fix yourself and which need help. That's worth having whether or not you hire anyone.
Our free audit is built exactly that way. Request one and see what your site needs.