A website audit checks whether your site does its job: people can find it, open it on a phone, get the facts they need and contact you. For a local business, the problems worth finding are the ones that cost you calls, bookings and visits.
A missing or unfindable website alone costs some of those. In a 2026 BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had recently searched for a local business, 18% said they had not contacted a business because they couldn't find a website (BrightLocal, July 2026).
Key takeaways
- A useful website audit answers six questions: can customers find you, use the site on a phone, load it quickly, contact you, trust it, and use it whatever their abilities.
- Google indexes and ranks the mobile version of your site, so check it on a phone first.
- Google says "there is no single signal" for ranking. Move pages out of the "poor" speed range before chasing perfect scores.
- Three free Google tools cover a 10-minute self-check: PageSpeed Insights, Search Console and the Rich Results Test.
- Fix what stops customers reaching you first, then what stops them contacting you, then everything else.
What a website audit is
A website audit is a structured check of your site against what customers and Google need from it. It should end with a short list of problems, ranked by what each one costs you.
Many audit tools produce long reports full of terms like canonical tags and robots.txt. A local business owner mostly needs plain answers to the six questions below, taken in the order a customer meets them.
A good audit also looks beyond the website to your Google Business Profile, the listing that appears in Google Maps and local results. Customers can see your hours, phone number and reviews there without opening your site at all.
| Check | What good looks like | Free tool |
|---|---|---|
| Found on Google | Home, service and contact pages are indexed | Google Search Console |
| Business listing | Name, address, phone and hours match the website | Google Business Profile |
| Phone use | Readable text, tappable buttons, no sideways scrolling | Your own phone |
| Speed | All three Core Web Vitals in the "good" range, or at least out of "poor" | PageSpeed Insights |
| Contact path | Call button dials, form arrives, booking completes | Your own phone |
| Security | Every page loads over HTTPS | Any browser |
| Accessibility | Usable with a keyboard, readable contrast, labelled form fields | A keyboard, then a person |
Can customers find you on Google?
An audit first checks two things: that Google has your pages in its index, and that your Google Business Profile is complete and correct. If either one fails, customers searching for you may never see the rest of your work.
Your pages in Google's index
Google Search Console is free and answers the first question directly. It confirms whether Google can find and crawl your site, flags pages it could not index, shows which searches bring up your site and how many people clicked, and emails you when it spots a problem (Search Console Help).
Good looks like this: your home page, each service page and your contact page are indexed. Any page listed as "not indexed" should be one you don't need people to find.
Your Google Business Profile and reviews
Google says local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and prominence" (Google Business Profile Help). Relevance is how well your profile matches the search. Distance is how far you are from the searcher, and prominence is how well known your business is, which includes links and reviews.
The same Google page says "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking." It also says "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." Anyone selling guaranteed map positions is selling something Google says it does not offer.
Reviews also shape whether people call. In BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults, 97% read reviews, 74% look for reviews from the last three months, and 89% expect the owner to respond (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey, February 2026).
An audit checks that your business name, address, phone number and opening hours match on the profile and the website. It also checks that your business category is right and that recent reviews have replies.
Does the website work on a phone?
Google indexes and ranks the mobile version of your site, using a crawler that behaves like a smartphone (Google Search Central, updated December 2025). Google announced in October 2023 that this switch to mobile-first indexing was complete (Search Central Blog, October 2023).
In practice, anything missing from your mobile pages is missing as far as Google is concerned. That includes text, prices and contact details hidden behind a desktop-only menu.
Phones are also where most people browse. StatCounter's September 2026 figures put mobile at 58.99% of worldwide web traffic, about six in ten page views (StatCounter, September 2026).
On a phone, an audit checks that:
- text is readable without zooming
- buttons and links are big enough to tap and spaced apart
- the menu opens and every page can be reached from it
- nothing is wider than the screen, so there is no sideways scrolling
- pop-ups don't cover the content or the call button
- forms work with the phone keyboard
Test on your own phone using mobile data, because office Wi-Fi can hide slow loading.
Is the website fast enough?
Google measures loading and responsiveness with three Core Web Vitals. A page counts as "good" only when all three meet Google's thresholds for at least 75% of page loads, measured separately on mobile and desktop (web.dev, updated October 2024).
| Measure | What it means in plain words | Good | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | How long the main content takes to appear | 2.5 s or less | Over 4 s |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | How quickly the page reacts to a tap or click | 200 ms or less | Over 500 ms |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | How much the page jumps around while loading | 0.1 or less | Over 0.25 |
Anything between "good" and "poor" is labelled "needs improvement" (web.dev, updated May 2025). INP replaced an older measure called First Input Delay (FID), so an audit that still reports FID is out of date.
How much speed matters for ranking
Google's page experience documentation says "Core Web Vitals are used by our ranking systems," but also that "there is no single signal" and that good scores do not guarantee a top ranking (Google Search Central, updated September 2026).
The same page says that chasing perfect scores just for SEO reasons "may not be the best use of your time." Moving a page from "poor" to "good" fixes a real problem for visitors, while polishing a page that already passes can wait.
How much speed matters for customers
One widely cited study is "Milliseconds Make Millions," which Deloitte and 55 ran for Google using late-2019 data from 37 European and US brand sites and more than 30 million sessions over 30 days. A mobile site that was 0.1 seconds faster went along with 8.4% more conversions on retail sites and 10.1% more on travel sites (web.dev case study).
The study observed a correlation across large brands, so it does not prove speed alone caused the gains, and a local plumber's site is a different case. It does support the common-sense reading that slow pages lose some people who would otherwise have bought.
Can customers contact or book?
An audit follows the path a customer takes from landing on your site to calling, booking or sending a message, and tests every step. A failure here loses someone who had already decided to get in touch.
In BrightLocal's 2026 survey of US consumers, the top three deciding factors were clear and complete information (32%), the most or best reviews (30%), and clear pricing or a deal (29%) (BrightLocal, July 2026).
An audit checks that:
- your phone number is visible on every page and opens the dialler when tapped
- the contact form sends, and the message reaches a person who reads it
- online booking works from start to confirmation
- opening hours on the site match your Google Business Profile, including holidays
- your address or service area is stated plainly
- prices, starting prices or price ranges are on the page
- the customer sees what happens next after sending a form
Do this one yourself: send a message through your own form and tap your own call button. If the form message never arrives, every enquiry since it broke has gone the same way.
Is the website secure?
Every page of your site should load over HTTPS, with no "Not secure" warning in the browser's address bar. An audit also checks that the plain http:// address redirects to the secure one and that the security certificate renews on its own.
It also checks that the site's software, theme and plugins are up to date, and that a recent backup exists and someone knows how to restore it.
Google described HTTPS as "only a very lightweight signal" when it added it to ranking in 2014, affecting "fewer than 1% of global queries" at the time (Search Central Blog, August 2014).
Browsers are the bigger reason now. Google announced in October 2025 that Chrome 154, due in October 2026, turns on the "Always Use Secure Connections" setting by default. With that setting on, Chrome asks for permission before opening a public site without HTTPS (Google Security Blog, October 2025). A visitor would see that warning before seeing your business.
A security check also covers who controls the site. The domain, hosting and admin logins should be in your name, which our guide on who owns your website after a designer builds it explains.
Can everyone use the website?
An accessibility check looks at whether people with disabilities can use your site, including people using a screen reader, a keyboard only, or large text. The reference standard is WCAG 2.2 from the W3C, which adds nine success criteria to version 2.1 and stays backwards compatible with it (W3C, version dated 12 December 2024).
A basic audit checks:
- text contrast against the background
- descriptions (alt text) on meaningful images
- a visible label on every form field
- that every link, button and form can be used with a keyboard alone
- that the page still works when text is enlarged
The European Accessibility Act
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) has applied since 28 June 2025 (Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 31). It covers certain products and services sold to consumers in the EU, including e-commerce services.
Microenterprises that provide services are exempt (Art. 4(5)). A microenterprise has fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet of no more than EUR 2 million (Art. 3). The exemption covers services only, not products.
So for your website, the EAA matters only if you offer a covered service, such as selling online, to consumers in the EU. A service business with fewer than 10 staff and a turnover or balance sheet of no more than EUR 2 million is exempt. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Being exempt doesn't make the site usable for customers who need these fixes. Many of them, such as readable contrast and labelled form fields, are small jobs that also help everyone on a small screen.
What you can check yourself in 10 minutes
Three free Google tools and your own phone cover the basics. Start with your home page and your most important service page.
| Tool | What it tells you | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| PageSpeed Insights | Real-user speed data from Chrome over the last 28 days, plus a lab test | Core Web Vitals on the mobile tab; a lab score of 90 or more is good, 50 to 89 needs improvement, under 50 is poor |
| Google Search Console | Whether Google can crawl and index your pages, which searches show your site, and how many people click | Important pages marked "not indexed", and any alerts |
| Rich Results Test | Whether your structured data (code that describes your business to Google in a standard format) is valid | Errors, or no structured data found at all |
| Your phone | Whether a real customer can act | Tap to call, send the form, check the hours |
Search Console only shows data once you have verified that you own the site. If you can't do that without your developer, that is a finding in itself.
Small sites often don't get enough visits for PageSpeed Insights to show real-user data, so you may only see the lab test (Google for Developers). The Rich Results Test checks pages as a smartphone by default (Search Console Help).
What needs a person
The tools report symptoms. A person is needed to:
- decide which findings actually cost you customers and which can wait
- read your pages as a customer would and spot missing answers, such as prices or service area
- compare your listing and site with competitors in your area
- test accessibility with a keyboard and a screen reader
- check who holds the domain, hosting and logins
- estimate what each fix takes
What to fix first
Fix problems in the order they lose customers: first anything that stops people reaching you, then anything that stops them contacting you, then everything that makes them hesitate.
- Wrong or missing contact details. A wrong phone number or wrong opening hours on your site or Google Business Profile send customers away even when everything else works.
- No HTTPS, or software that is out of date. As Chrome starts asking permission before opening sites without HTTPS, some visitors may turn back at the warning.
- Important pages not indexed. A service page Google doesn't have can't bring anyone in from search.
- A broken contact path. A form that doesn't arrive or a call button that doesn't dial loses people who had already chosen you.
- Phone layout problems. Phones carry more than half of web traffic worldwide, so text you can't read or buttons you can't tap hit a large share of visitors.
- Missing information. Add prices or price ranges, services, service area, and recent reviews with replies.
- Pages in the "poor" speed range. Move them to "needs improvement" or "good".
- Accessibility barriers. Fix contrast, labels and keyboard use, many of which are quick.
- Perfect scores. Polishing pages that are already "good" can wait.
Several of the first six are often small jobs, such as correcting opening hours or repairing a form. If the list points to a rebuild instead, our guide to what a website costs a small business explains what drives the price.
Frequently asked questions
Can I audit my own website for free?
Yes, for the basics. PageSpeed Insights, Google Search Console and the Rich Results Test are free, and so is testing your own form and call button on a phone. What the tools don't do is rank the findings by what they cost you, which is where a person helps. That is what our free website check does.
Does a slow website really cost me customers?
It can. In the Deloitte study for Google, a mobile site 0.1 seconds faster went along with 8.4% more retail conversions, though that was a correlation across large brands. Start with pages in the "poor" range.
Why doesn't my business show up on Google Maps?
Google ranks local results mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and you can't pay for a better position. Check that your Google Business Profile is verified, uses the right category, has correct hours and contact details, and has recent reviews with replies.
Do I need an accessibility audit for a small business website?
Legally, for your website, the EAA applies only to covered services, such as online sales, offered to consumers in the EU, and microenterprises providing services are exempt. A basic accessibility check is still worth doing, because customers with disabilities need to read your prices and contact you like anyone else.
How often should a small business audit its website?
We recommend a full check once a year and after any redesign, platform change or new booking system. Between those, Search Console emails you about indexing problems, and a quick test of your form and call button every month catches the most expensive failures.
Sources
- BrightLocal, Consumer Search Behavior 2026, decision factors (survey of 1,227 US consumers), July 2026: brightlocal.com
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adults), February 2026: brightlocal.com
- Google Business Profile Help, how local ranking works: support.google.com
- Google Search Central, mobile-first indexing, updated December 2025: developers.google.com
- Google Search Central Blog, mobile-first indexing complete, October 2023: developers.google.com
- Google Search Central, page experience in Google Search, updated September 2026: developers.google.com
- Google Search Central Blog, HTTPS as a ranking signal, August 2014: developers.google.com
- Google Security Blog, HTTPS by default in Chrome, October 2025: security.googleblog.com
- Google for Developers, about PageSpeed Insights: developers.google.com
- Search Console Help, what Search Console does: support.google.com
- Search Console Help, Rich Results Test: support.google.com
- web.dev, Web Vitals, updated October 2024: web.dev
- web.dev, how the Core Web Vitals thresholds were defined, updated May 2025: web.dev
- web.dev, Milliseconds Make Millions (Deloitte for Google, data from late 2019): web.dev
- StatCounter, desktop, mobile and tablet share worldwide, September 2026: gs.statcounter.com
- W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, version dated 12 December 2024: w3.org
- Directive (EU) 2019/882, the European Accessibility Act, Articles 3, 4 and 31