A website audit is essentially a health check. It surfaces the small issues before they become big ones: a broken checkout flow, a security vulnerability, a page that quietly dropped off Google’s first page, or a slow-loading homepage that’s costing you conversions. Catching these early is almost always cheaper than fixing the fallout later.
Your website is never really “done.” Browsers update, algorithms shift, competitors launch new features, and user expectations keep climbing. That’s why a regular website audit isn’t a one-time task reserved for a redesign; it’s a habit that keeps your site fast, secure, and able to be found online.
If it’s been a while since you’ve taken a look under the hood, here’s a practical guide to what to check, why it matters, which tools to use, and how we can help.
Check Your Performance and Page Speed
Speed affects everything from search rankings to conversions. A few extra seconds of load time can make a huge difference.
What to Check
- Core Web Vitals (Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift)
- Image and asset optimization
- Server response times
- Use of caching and a CDN
Tools to Use
- Google PageSpeed Insights – gives you a Core Web Vitals score plus specific, prioritized recommendations
- GTmetrix – charts that show exactly what’s slowing down each page load
- Pingdom Website Speed Test – testing from different geographic locations and connection speeds
How We Can Help
INTELLITHOUGHT can assist your team with finding the weak points of your site that’s negatively affecting your performance and create a plan to make improvements.
Check Your SEO Health
Even a beautifully designed site is invisible if it can’t be found. An SEO audit checks whether search engines can properly crawl, index, and understand your content.
What to Check
- Broken links and 404 errors
- Duplicate or missing title tags and meta descriptions
- XML sitemap and robots.txt configuration
- Backlink profile and any toxic/spammy links
- Keyword rankings and organic traffic trends
Tools to Use
- Google Search Console – free, direct-from-Google data on indexing issues
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider – crawls your entire site to flag broken links, redirect chains, and metadata problems
- Ahrefs or Semrush – platforms for backlinks, keyword tracking, and competitor comparisons
How We Can Help
INTELLITHOUGHT can assist you with optimizing your content, URLs, and image tags to make it easier for users to find your site. In addition, we can provide customized content writing assistance based on industry trends, important keywords, and local data.
Check Your Website Security
Security issues can quietly damage trust and, in worse cases, take your site offline entirely or expose customer data.
What to Check
- SSL/TLS certificate validity
- Outdated CMS core, plugins, or dependencies
- Login and form vulnerabilities
- Data handling and privacy compliance (GDPR, CCPA, etc.)
Tools to Use
- SSL Labs’ SSL Test – grades your certificate setup and flags configuration weaknesses
- Sucuri SiteCheck – scans for malware, blacklisting status, and known vulnerabilities
- Mozilla Observatory – checks HTTP security headers and general web security hygiene
How We Can Help
INTELLITHOUGHT can analyze the current state of your organization’s website security processes, identify any gaps, and help execute customized solutions
Check Your Website’s Accessibility
An accessible site is a better site for everyone and in many regions, it’s a legal requirement (ADA, WCAG, EN 301 549). An accessibility audit ensures people using screen readers, keyboard navigation, or other assistive technology can actually use your site.
What to Check
- Color contrast ratios
- Alt text on images
- Keyboard navigation ability
- Proper heading structure and ARIA labels
- Form labeling
Tools to Use
- WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) – visual overlay showing accessibility errors directly on the page
- axe DevTools – browser extension for developers to catch issues during the build process
- Lighthouse (built into Chrome DevTools) – includes an accessibility score alongside performance and SEO
How We Can Help
INTELLITHOUGHT can audit your website and correct existing accessibility errors according to WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines – reducing litigation risk, improving customer satisfaction, and saving you time and money.
Check User Experience (UX) and Design
Technical health means nothing if visitors can’t figure out how to use your site. A UX review looks at the human side of things.
What to Check
- Navigation clarity and menu structure
- Mobile responsiveness across devices
- Call-to-action visibility and clarity
- Checkout or lead-form friction points
- Visual consistency and outdated design patterns
Tools to Use
- Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity – heatmaps and session recordings show exactly where users click, scroll, and drop off
- UserTesting – real people narrating their experience as they navigate your site
How We Can Help
INTELLITHOUGHT can provide a custom, high-quality, website redesign in an efficient and cost-effective manner. See some of our work.
Check Your Content and Analytics
Finally, step back and check if your content is actually doing its job, and if you have the data to know.
What to Check
- Outdated or inaccurate content
- Analytics tracking setup and goal/conversion configuration
- Traffic sources and top-performing vs. underperforming pages
- Consistent branding and messaging across pages
Tools to Use
- Google Analytics 4 – traffic, behavior, and conversion data
- Google Tag Manager – verify tracking codes are firing correctly
- Grammarly or Hemingway Editor – quick pass for clarity and readability on key pages
How We Can Help
INTELLITHOUGHT can provide custom SEO reports that are used to evaluate current marketing efforts and inform future ones.
A Simple Audit Checklist
You don’t need to tackle all of these items in one sitting. You could rotate through a lighter version of this checklist quarterly, with a deeper technical audit once or twice a year. The goal is catching problems while they’re still small to address.
Need Assistance With Your Audit?
If an audit turns up more than you have the bandwidth to handle, that’s exactly the kind of work INTELLITHOUGHT can take off your plate. We provide a wide range of services, from performance tuning to a full redesign built on a healthier foundation. Let’s Talk.