Website Audit Checklist for Small Business: 30 Checks, a Pass Line for Each and a Score Sheet

Key takeaways

• Audit in order of damage. Check that people can contact you and that Google can index your pages before you look at fonts or footers.
• Thirty checks in eight areas is enough for a small site. It needs a person opening the pages that matter, not a 150 point crawl report.
• Every check needs a pass line. "Fast" and "readable" mean nothing without a number. The pass lines below come from Google and W3C pages where they publish one, and are marked "Ours" where they do not.
• Use three pages. The home page, your best service page and the contact page carry most of the value. Test them on a phone.
• Run it twice a year and after any big change, and keep the score sheet so the next audit has a before.

What an audit is for

An audit answers one question: is anything stopping the right people from finding you, trusting you or contacting you? It is not a ranking guarantee. It produces a short, ordered list of fixes.

Two other guides here cover narrower jobs: the website redesign SEO checklist for moving a site without losing rankings, and website speed optimization for load time. This is the regular health check. If it makes you doubt the whole site, read signs your website needs a redesign.

Before you start

Open a phone, a laptop, Google Search Console for your domain and your analytics, and note your enquiries for the last 90 days. Write your goal for the site in one line, for example "phone calls from homeowners in our town".

The 30 checks, in order of damage

This is the whole audit. Work through it from the top. Each check has a pass line. Where a pass line comes from Google or W3C, the page is linked. Anything unlinked is our own rule.

Area 1: Can people reach you? (checks 1 to 5)

1. Tap your main contact button on a phone. Pass: One tap leads to a form, number or booking page.
2. Submit your own contact form. Pass: The message reaches the right inbox within minutes.
3. Tap the phone number. Pass: It starts a call.
4. Find the contact route from every page. Pass: Visible without scrolling on the three main pages.
5. Check the thank-you step. Pass: The visitor sees a clear confirmation.

A broken form loses every enquiry quietly, so this area comes first. Our guide to contact page design covers what the page should hold.

Area 2: Can Google find and index the pages? (checks 6 to 10)

1. Open the Page indexing report in Search Console. Pass: Your important pages sit under Indexed. Source: Google Search Console help.
2. Read the "Not indexed" reasons. Pass: Each reason is one you chose, such as a removed page, not a surprise.
3. Search for a leftover no-index rule. Pass: None on pages you want in search.
4. Open your robots.txt file. Pass: It does not block the pages you want found.txt blocks as a reason.
5. Check your sitemap is submitted. Pass: Search Console shows it as read with no errors.

Google's report splits addresses into Indexed and Not indexed and gives a reason for each one that is not indexed, such as a no-index rule, a 404, a redirect, a robots.txt block, a server error, a soft 404 or a duplicate where Google chose another version. A removed page returning a 404 is normal. A service page marked no-index is not. Checked 1 November 2026. Need a robots.txt file? Our robots.txt generator builds one.

Area 3: Speed and stability (checks 11 to 14)

1. Largest Contentful Paint. Pass: 2.5 seconds or less. Source: web.dev Core Web Vitals.
2. Interaction to Next Paint. Pass: 200 milliseconds or less.
3. Cumulative Layout Shift. Pass: 0.1 or less.
4. Mobile and desktop both pass. Pass: All three met for each, measured at the 75th percentile of visits.

The web.dev page, last updated 31 October 2024 and read on 1 November 2026, sets those "good" targets and says a page passes only when it meets all three. If you fail, follow the order in our speed guide: images, then third-party scripts, then caching.

Area 4: Phone experience (checks 15 to 18)

1. Read the home page on a phone. Pass: No sideways scrolling, no zooming to read.
2. Tap every button and link in the main menu. Pass: Each target is easy to hit with a thumb, with space between them.
3. Compare mobile and desktop content. Pass: The main text, headings, titles and image alt text match. Source: Google mobile-first indexing.
4. Check that content does not need a tap to load. Pass: Text is in the page, not fetched only after a swipe or click.

Google says it uses the mobile version of your content for indexing and ranking, and that mobile and desktop should carry equivalent primary content, headings, titles, descriptions and image details. Content should not need a swipe or click to load. A responsive site rarely has mismatches. Checked 1 November 2026.

Area 5: Titles, headings and content (checks 19 to 22)

1. Every important page has its own title. Pass: No two pages share the same title. Source: Google title link guidance.
2. Titles say what the page is about. Pass: Not "Home" or "Services" alone.
3. One clear heading per page. Pass: The main heading says what the page offers and to whom.
4. No outdated claims. Pass: Prices, hours, staff names, offers and years are current.

Google advises descriptive, concise titles, avoids vague labels such as "Home", and warns that one title across many pages makes them hard to tell apart. It gives no character limit and says titles are cut to fit the device width. Our meta title checker previews a title. Checked 1 November 2026. Check 22 is the one owners fail most: "Open until 2024" or a service you stopped offering costs trust that no tool will flag.

Area 6: Readability and access (checks 23 to 25)

1. Body text contrast. Pass: At least 4.5 to 1. Source: W3C WCAG 2.2 contrast.
2. Large text contrast. Pass: At least 3 to 1.
3. Images carry descriptive alt text. Pass: Every image that adds meaning has a short description.

W3C counts large text as 18 point, or 14 point bold, which it says is about 24 and 18.5 pixels, and says the ratios are strict: 4.499 to 1 does not pass. Test colours with the colour contrast checker. Checked 1 November 2026.

Area 7: Trust and basics (checks 26 to 28)

1. Address, phone and email are correct and the same everywhere. Pass: Site, Google Business Profile and directories agree.
2. The padlock shows and no page warns of mixed content. Pass: Every page loads over HTTPS.
3. Legal pages exist and are current. Pass: Privacy policy and any terms or cookie notice your region requires. Source: Ours, and not legal advice.

Details that differ between your site and your listings confuse customers and search engines. Legal pages depend on where you trade, so check the official source for your country. This is not legal advice.

Area 8: Links and errors (checks 29 to 30)

1. Click every link in the menu and footer. Pass: None return an error page.
2. Open a made-up address on your site. Pass: You see a helpful not-found page, and the browser receives a real 404. Source: Google 404 and soft 404 guidance.

Google says a 404 tells it the content does not exist, and a page that looks like an error but returns a success code is reported as a soft 404. So the page should say "not found" and the server should say so too. Checked 1 November 2026.

The score sheet

Print or copy this. Give each area its points: one point per check passed. Then total.

Our own bands, not a Google score: 27 to 30 is healthy, so re-check in six months. 21 to 26 needs a focused fix list, starting with areas 1 and 2. Below 21 means the site is likely costing you enquiries, so fix areas 1, 2 and 4 first, then decide whether patching or rebuilding is cheaper.

Write the date and score at the top of the sheet so the next audit has a before.

Turn the findings into a fix list

Sort every failed check into one of three piles: today (under an hour and stops enquiries, such as a broken form or a stray no-index), this month (titles, image sizes, contrast colours) and decide (a slow template, platform limits). If three or more land in "decide", compare patching with rebuilding using our website redesign cost guide. For wording and buttons, see call to action examples and why a website is not converting.

When you do not need a full audit

Skip the full version if the site is a few months old, or if you changed one page (re-check that page). Be careful with automated scores too. A tool can say 92 while your form is broken, because it does not fill it in. Checks 1 to 5 need a human. For a quick automated first look, our free website audit gives a starting point, and the checklist does the rest.

Our guide to website maintenance cost shows what ongoing care includes.

How we help at Amariq

If your score comes back low, we turn the failed checks into a fix list ordered by what they cost you in enquiries, then do the work on Webflow, Framer, WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace or a custom build. We price from scope, never by the hour, so the audit findings decide the quote. For speed, forms and conversion fixes, see our website optimization service. For a rebuild after a poor score, see web design and UI/UX.

Frequently asked questions

How often should a small business audit its website?

Twice a year, plus after any big change such as a new theme, a platform move or a new form. A monthly check of the form and indexing report catches quiet failures.

How long does a website audit take?

For a small site and its three main pages, expect two to four hours the first time. The second round is faster because you have last time's score sheet.

What is the most important thing to check first?

Whether a visitor can contact you. Submit your own form and tap your own number. A broken form loses every enquiry quietly, and no speed fix makes up for it.

What is a good Core Web Vitals score?

Google's web.dev page sets the "good" targets as Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less, measured at the 75th percentile. A page passes only when all three are met.

Should I fix everything the audit finds?

No. Fix what stops enquiries first, then search visibility, then cosmetics. Choices like a slow template go in the "Decide" pile.

Does a website audit help with SEO?

It can, because several checks cover indexing, titles, mobile content and errors, which affect how Google reads the site. It does not guarantee rankings. It removes blockers and shows you where to improve.