Your website either makes your phone ring or it doesn't. Most local business owners know something's wrong but don't know what to check first.
This website audit checklist covers the basics you can check yourself. No technical background required. Just your phone, a computer, and about 30 minutes.
Run through this list every few months. Your competitors probably aren't doing this, which means you'll spot problems they miss.
Speed Audit Checklist
Website speed kills more sales than bad reviews. Customers leave if your site takes more than three seconds to load.
Start with PageSpeed Insights. Google built this tool and it's free. Type in your website address and wait for the results.
The mobile score matters most. That's where your customers are browsing. If you're under 50, you have a serious problem. If you're over 70, you're doing better than most local businesses.
Warning
Don't panic if PageSpeed Insights shows red scores. The tool is picky. Real customer experience matters more than perfect scores. But if customers complain about slowness, speed is costing you money.
Big images slow everything down. Check your homepage for photos over 1MB. Most phone cameras create 3-5MB images. Your website doesn't need files that big.
Your hosting matters too. Cheap shared hosting often means slow sites. If you're paying under $10 per month, that might explain speed problems.
For deeper website speed analysis, you need tools that check server response times and database performance. That's where a professional audit helps.
Mobile Experience Checklist
Most local service customers find you on their phone. Your site needs to work perfectly on small screens.
Browser developer tools lie. They show you what mobile might look like, not what it actually feels like. Use your real phone.
Call your own number from your website. If tapping the number doesn't start a call, you're losing customers. Every tap should work.
Buttons need to be thumb-sized. If you're stabbing at tiny buttons, so are your customers. Contact buttons, service buttons, phone numbers - make them obvious and easy to hit.
Open your website on your phone. Can you:
- Find your phone number in 5 seconds?
- Tap it to start a call?
- Fill out your contact form without frustration?
- Read everything without zooming?
If any answer is no, fix that first.
Text that requires zooming costs you calls. If you're squinting, customers are leaving. Make fonts bigger. Use more white space.
Your address should link to Google Maps or Apple Maps. Customers want directions, not to copy and paste your address.
Check out our guide on making your website mobile-friendly for specific fixes to common mobile problems.
Content Audit Checklist
Your website content has one job: tell customers what you do and where you do it. Most business websites fail this basic test.
Your homepage is not the place for creativity. State what you do in the first sentence. "Johnson Plumbing serves Springfield with emergency repairs and new installations." Clear and done.
Show your service area. "Serving Springfield and surrounding areas" tells customers nothing. List the cities you actually serve.
Each major service needs its own page. Don't cram everything onto one "Services" page. Drain cleaning gets a page. Water heater repair gets a page. Emergency plumbing gets a page.
Your About page should explain why customers should choose you. Skip the corporate mission statement. Tell them how long you've been in business, what makes you different, and why they should trust you.
Every page needs to pass the "stranger test." If someone lands on any page of your site, they should know what you do and where you do it in five seconds.
SEO Basics Checklist
Local SEO isn't complicated, but you need to get the basics right. These are the technical pieces that help Google understand your business.
Title tags show up in search results. They should include your service and city. "Emergency Plumber Springfield | 24/7 Repairs | Johnson Plumbing" works better than "Home | Johnson Plumbing."
Keep title tags short. Google cuts them off after about 60 characters. Say what matters first.
Meta descriptions are the snippet text under your title in search results. Write them like ad copy. Tell people why they should click.
Use heading tags to organize your content. Your main headline should be H1. Section headlines should be H2. Subsections should be H3. Don't skip levels.
Tip
Most website builders handle basic SEO automatically. WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix all create proper heading tags and meta tags. But you still need to write good titles and descriptions.
Link to your Google Business Profile from your website. This helps Google connect your website to your business listing.
Schema markup tells Google you're a local business. Most website builders add this automatically, but check if yours does. Search "schema markup checker" and test your homepage.
Conversion Audit Checklist
Your website converts visitors into customers or it doesn't. Everything else is decoration.
Your phone number is your most important conversion tool. Put it where customers can see it immediately. Top right corner works. Big, bold text in the header works.
Make phone numbers clickable on mobile. Use the "tel:" link format so tapping starts a call.
Keep contact forms simple. Ask for name, phone, and what they need. Skip the dropdown menus and optional fields. Every extra field costs you leads.
Test your contact form every month. Submit it yourself and make sure you get the email. Broken contact forms are invisible to business owners but obvious to customers.
Every service page needs a call to action. "Call now for drain cleaning" or "Schedule your water heater repair." Tell customers what to do next.
Give customers multiple ways to contact you. Phone number, contact form, and email address. Some people prefer calling. Others prefer forms.
Trust Signals Checklist
Local customers want proof you're legitimate before they call. Trust signals make the difference between a call and a click away.
Google reviews are your strongest trust signal. Link to your Google Business Profile or embed recent reviews on your homepage.
Real photos beat stock photos every time. Show your actual work. Show your actual trucks. Show your actual team. Stock photos scream "template website."
Professional licenses matter to customers. HVAC techs should show their EPA certification. Contractors should show their license numbers. Electricians should mention their master electrician status.
Insurance protects customers and shows you're serious. "Fully insured" or "Licensed and insured" adds credibility.
Years in business builds confidence. "In business since 2015" or "10+ years in Springfield" tells customers you're established.
When You Need a Professional Audit
This website audit checklist covers the basics you can check yourself. Some problems need deeper analysis.
Professional audits check technical SEO issues you can't see. Server response times, crawl errors, duplicate content, broken internal links, and competitor analysis.
If you've fixed everything on this checklist and still aren't getting calls, the problem is probably deeper. That's when you need tools that check things like:
- How Google actually crawls your site
- Whether your competitors are outranking you
- Technical errors that hurt your search rankings
- Local SEO factors you might be missing
For a complete analysis of what's holding your website back, check out the RiSeva website audit. It covers the technical issues this checklist can't catch.
Next Steps
Work through this website audit checklist one section at a time. Don't try to fix everything at once.
Start with speed and mobile. Those affect every visitor. Then fix content problems. Finally, tackle the SEO basics and trust signals.
Check these items every few months. Websites break. Content gets outdated. New problems appear.
Your competitors probably aren't doing regular website audits. That's your advantage.