How to Audit Your Own Website (The Process, Not Just the List)
A checklist tells you what to look at. This is the part nobody writes down: what order to work in, what to do with what you find, and which findings are safe to ignore.
By Ryan Goering, CEO & Founder, BaaDigi
Last updated August 2026
The Short Answer
To audit your own website, work in three passes rather than going page by page. Pass one is findability: search "site:yourdomain.com" in Google, open Search Console and read the Pages report, and confirm your important URLs are indexed and returning 200. Pass two is usability: run PageSpeed Insights on your homepage and top service page, check the site on an actual phone, and confirm the phone number and form are reachable without scrolling. Pass three is conversion: submit your own form and verify it arrives in both your inbox and your analytics. Fix findings in that same order — a beautifully written page that Google has not indexed earns nothing, and traffic you cannot measure cannot be improved. Most owners can complete all three passes in an afternoon.
Quick Answers
Where should you start when auditing a website?
Start with indexing, not design. Search "site:yourdomain.com" in Google and count the results against how many pages you think you have. A gap there explains more lost revenue than anything you will find in a content review.
What website audit findings can you safely ignore?
Most tool-generated warnings about heading order, minor render-blocking scripts, and missing alt text on decorative images. They are real, but they rarely change rankings or revenue on a small site. Chase them only after findability and conversion tracking are solid.
Do you need a developer to audit a website?
Not to audit it. Every step here uses free tools or your own eyes. You need a developer to fix some of what you find — which is why the last step of the process is turning the findings into a specific, unambiguous request.
The Checklist, In Order
- 1
Pass 1 — Can it be found?
site: search, Search Console Pages report, and a status check on your top ten URLs. Anything not indexed goes to the top of the fix list.
- 2
Pass 2 — Can it be used?
PageSpeed Insights on two pages, then the site on a real phone on cellular data. Look for slow loads, tiny tap targets, and a hidden phone number.
- 3
Pass 3 — Does it convert?
Submit your own form. Confirm it reaches your inbox, your CRM, and your analytics. Broken tracking makes every other number a guess.
- 4
Sort by money, not by category
Group findings into "blocks revenue", "costs revenue", and "nice to have". Work strictly top down.
- 5
Write the request, not the complaint
Turn each fix into a specific instruction with the URL, what is wrong, and what "done" looks like. Vague requests come back wrong.
Work the Passes
One prompt per stage of the process. Paste in what you find; let the model do the sorting and the writing up.
The Findability Triage
Turn a Search Console export into a ranked fix list.
Here is the Pages report from my Google Search Console, showing which URLs are indexed and which are excluded with reasons: [paste the export] My site is [type of business] in [city]. 1. Which exclusions are actually a problem versus normal (parameter URLs, redirects, intentional noindex)? 2. Rank the real problems by how much traffic they are likely costing me. 3. For each, tell me in plain language what is causing it and what the fix is. Do not tell me to "improve content quality" — be specific about what to change.
The Findings Sorter
Stop staring at 40 issues and know what to do Monday.
Here is everything I found auditing my website: [paste your raw notes — messy is fine] Sort them into three buckets: - BLOCKS revenue (people cannot find or use the site) - COSTS revenue (they can, but fewer convert) - NICE TO HAVE (real but low impact) Within each bucket, order by effort-to-impact ratio. Then tell me the three things to do first and roughly how long each should take. If anything in my notes is not actually a problem, say so and cut it.
The Developer Request
Write the ticket so it comes back right the first time.
The Mobile Reality Check
What your site is actually like on a phone in a truck.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from a website audit checklist?
The checklist is the artifact — the twelve things to check. This is the method: what order to work in, how to triage what you find, and how to turn findings into action. Most people have a checklist and still stall because nothing tells them what to do with forty findings.
How long does auditing your own site take?
An afternoon for a typical small business site of 10 to 40 pages. The three passes are roughly 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and 20 minutes. Sorting the findings and writing the developer request takes longer than the auditing does.
Should you audit your site before or after a redesign?
Both. Before, so you know what is worth keeping and which URLs earn traffic. After, because redesigns are the single most common cause of pages silently dropping out of the index. Audit within a week of launch, not six months later.
Can you trust an AI assistant with audit findings?
For sorting, prioritising, and writing things up, yes — it is reading what you paste in. For anything requiring live data about your site, no. If a model states your traffic, ranking position, or search volume without you providing it, that number is invented.
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