Most website audits happen reactively: something is broken, or a stakeholder complains, or a redesign is scheduled and someone needs to understand the current state first.
A structured audit is more useful than a gut-feel review. It produces prioritized, actionable findings rather than a list of opinions. This is the framework I use.
Before You Start
Define the scope. Is this the entire site or a specific section? Are you auditing for UX, performance, brand consistency, accessibility, or all of these? A focused audit with clear scope produces more useful output than a broad sweep that touches everything shallowly.
Define who the output is for. A developer needs different findings than a marketing director. Tailor the format of your output to the audience before you start, not after.
1. First Impression Pass
Open the site fresh, as a first-time visitor. Do not read every word. Note:
- What you understand about what the company does within five seconds of landing
- Whether the primary action is obvious
- Whether the visual hierarchy leads your eye somewhere specific or diffuses attention
- How the site feels on mobile vs. desktop
Write these notes immediately. First impressions cannot be reconstructed once you have spent an hour with the site.
2. Navigation and Information Architecture
Walk through every primary navigation item. For each:
- Is the label descriptive or clever? Clever labels fail users who do not already know what the product does.
- Does the destination page match the expectation set by the label?
- How many clicks does it take to reach the most important action on the site?
Check for orphan pages: pages that exist but are not linked from navigation.
3. Copy and Messaging
Read the homepage copy as if you know nothing about the company. Ask:
- Is the value proposition stated directly, or implied?
- Who is the target customer, and does the language match how that person speaks?
- Are there jargon terms that require industry knowledge to understand?
- Does the copy answer objections, or does it only make claims?
4. Visual Consistency
Check for:
- Typeface consistency across headings, body, and UI elements
- Color usage against the brand palette
- Button style consistency: same border radius, padding, and label capitalization
- Image style: are photos, illustrations, and icons from a coherent visual language?
- Spacing: does the layout use a consistent spacing scale?
5. Performance
Google PageSpeed Insights — pagespeed.web.dev
Run on the homepage and at least one inner page. Note the Core Web Vitals scores. LCP and CLS are the most user-visible metrics.
WebPageTest — webpagetest.org
More detailed than PageSpeed Insights. The waterfall chart shows what is loading in what order.
Flag: images not converted to WebP or AVIF, render-blocking scripts, and fonts loaded without font-display settings.
6. Accessibility
WAVE — wave.webaim.org
Enter a URL and get a visual overlay of accessibility issues. Shows missing alt text, poor contrast, missing form labels, and heading structure problems.
axe DevTools — deque.com/axe/devtools
More technical than WAVE. Run it on pages with interactive elements like forms, modals, and carousels.
Manual check: Tab through the entire page using only a keyboard. Can you reach every interactive element?
7. SEO Basics
- Does every page have a unique title tag and meta description?
- Are heading levels used in logical order?
- Are images missing alt attributes?
- Does the site have a sitemap at /sitemap.xml?
Documenting Findings
Use a simple priority system: Critical, High, Medium, Low.
Group findings by category, not by page. A list of findings organized by page is harder to act on than a list organized by theme.
Provide a screenshot or specific URL for every finding. Findings without evidence get deprioritized in stakeholder reviews.
An audit is only useful if it produces a decision. Write your output with specific recommendations, not just observations. "The CTA is hard to find" is an observation. "Move the primary CTA above the fold on mobile and increase contrast to meet WCAG AA" is a recommendation.
Discussion
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