Website Audits: What to Check and When

Websites break gradually. SSL certificates expire. Performance degrades. Security headers become outdated. SEO settings drift from best practices.

Regular audits catch these issues before they become crises. A systematic approach makes sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Why audits matter

Without regular checks:

• SSL expires: Users see scary browser warnings
• Performance degrades: Load times creep up, bounce rates follow
• Security lapses: Missing headers create vulnerabilities
• SEO erodes: Technical issues accumulate, rankings slip
• Errors compound: Small issues become big problems

What to audit

Security

SSL certificate:

• Is it valid and not expired?
• Is the certificate chain complete?
• Is TLS 1.2+ enforced?

Security headers:

• Content-Security-Policy
• X-Frame-Options
• X-Content-Type-Options
• Strict-Transport-Security
• Referrer-Policy

Check with: SSL Certificate Checker, Security Headers Checker

SEO

On-page elements:

• Title tags (present, correct length)
• Meta descriptions (unique per page)
• Heading structure (H1-H6 hierarchy)
• Canonical tags
• Structured data validity

Crawlability:

• robots.txt configuration
• Sitemap presence and validity
• No accidental noindex tags

Check with: SEO Page Analyzer, Robots.txt Checker, Sitemap Validator

Performance

Server configuration:

• HTTP/2 enabled
• Gzip/Brotli compression
• Proper caching headers
• Acceptable TTFB

Core Web Vitals:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint)

Check with: Performance Checker, Google PageSpeed Insights

Email deliverability

If you send email from your domain:

• SPF record present and valid
• DKIM configured
• DMARC policy set
• Not on blacklists

Check with: Email Deliverability Checker

Domain health

DNS configuration:

• All records resolving correctly
• TTL values appropriate
• No orphaned records

Domain registration:

• Not close to expiration
• WHOIS information current
• DNSSEC enabled (if applicable)

Check with: DNS Lookup, WHOIS Lookup

Accessibility

Basic checks:

• Alt text on images
• Color contrast ratios
• Keyboard navigation
• Form labels

Check with: Alt Text Checker, Color Contrast Checker

Brand/social

Consistency:

• OG tags present and correct
• Social previews look good
• Favicon in all required sizes

Check with: Social Media Preview, Favicon Checker

Our website audit tool

Running individual checks is valuable for deep dives, but for a quick overview, our Website Audit tool runs multiple checks at once:

• SSL certificate status
• Security headers
• SEO basics
• Performance metrics
• Email configuration
• Domain authority

Enter any URL and get a full report with scores and specific recommendations.

Audit schedule

Daily monitoring

Automated uptime and SSL monitoring. Set up alerts for:

• Site downtime
• SSL expiration warnings (30 days out)
• Error rate spikes

Weekly quick checks

5-minute manual review:

• Any console errors on key pages?
• Are critical pages loading correctly?
• Any new Search Console alerts?

Monthly technical audit

30-minute systematic check:

• Run full Website Audit
• Check Search Console for issues
• Review Core Web Vitals
• Verify email deliverability

Quarterly deep dive

2-4 hour audit covering everything:

• Full crawl of all pages
• Detailed SEO analysis
• Accessibility review
• Security assessment
• Performance benchmarking

After major changes

Any time you:

• Deploy significant code changes
• Migrate to new hosting
• Change domains or URLs
• Update CMS or framework

Run a full audit before and after.

Prioritizing fixes

Not all issues are equal. Prioritize by:

Critical (fix immediately)

• Expired SSL certificate
• Site downtime
• Security vulnerabilities
• Critical pages returning 404

High priority (fix this week)

• SSL expiring within 30 days
• Missing security headers
• Core Web Vitals failing
• Important SEO elements missing

Medium priority (fix this month)

• Performance improvements
• Minor SEO issues
• Accessibility fixes
• Email authentication gaps

Low priority (track and schedule)

• Nice-to-have tweaks
• Cosmetic issues
• Future-proofing tasks

Creating an audit checklist

Build a custom checklist for your specific needs:

## Pre-launch audit

### Security

- [ ] SSL certificate installed
- [ ] Security headers configured
- [ ] Sensitive data not exposed

### SEO

- [ ] Title tags on all pages
- [ ] Meta descriptions set
- [ ] Sitemap generated
- [ ] robots.txt configured
- [ ] Structured data validated

### Performance

- [ ] Images optimized
- [ ] Compression enabled
- [ ] Caching configured
- [ ] Core Web Vitals passing

### Accessibility

- [ ] Alt text on images
- [ ] Color contrast passing
- [ ] Keyboard navigation works

### Email

- [ ] SPF record set
- [ ] DKIM configured
- [ ] DMARC policy in place

Documenting results

For each audit:

1. Record findings: What issues were found?
2. Prioritize: Which are critical vs nice-to-have?
3. Assign: Who will fix each issue?
4. Timeline: When will fixes be complete?
5. Verify: Re-check after fixes are deployed

Keep a history to track improvement over time.

Automating where possible

Some checks can run automatically:

• Uptime monitoring: Pingdom, UptimeRobot
• SSL monitoring: Many hosts offer this
• Lighthouse CI: Automated performance testing
• Security scanning: Scheduled vulnerability scans
• SEO monitoring: Rank tracking, crawl error alerts

Automation catches issues faster than periodic manual checks.

Common audit findings

Issues we see repeatedly:

• SSL certificate about to expire
• Missing HSTS header
• No Content-Security-Policy
• Images without alt text
• Slow TTFB (server response time)
• Missing or invalid structured data
• SPF/DMARC not configured
• Sitemap not referenced in robots.txt

Most are quick fixes once identified.

Take action

1. Run a Website Audit on your site now
2. Note critical and high-priority issues
3. Create tickets/tasks for fixes
4. Set up a recurring audit schedule
5. Automate what you can

For audit support or ongoing monitoring, reach out.