Mark each statement for your current website. Choose N/A if it genuinely doesn't apply to your business; it is then left out of the score. Not sure counts as a gap, because finding out is part of the job.
What this score is: a self-check based on your own answers, weighted towards the things that most often cause trouble in a redesign. What it isn't: a technical audit of your website, a measure of how your site ranks, or a guarantee of results. Nothing here has looked at your site. Two people answering for the same site can get different scores.
How it works
- Answer each statement for your current website: Yes, Partly, No, Not sure or N/A. The score updates as you go.
- The 6 areas carry different weight. Search visibility and content carry the most, because that is where a redesign most often loses ground.
- Your “fix first” list orders every No and Not sure by how much it is worth. Start at the top.
- Save the report as a PDF and take it to your first meeting with whoever builds the new site. It makes the brief much easier to write.
A high score means the foundations are in place and the redesign can focus on how the site looks and what it says. A low score is not a bad website as such. It means some basics are missing or unknown, and those are cheaper to sort out before design work starts than after launch.
If you would like a second pair of eyes on the results, Pro Web Design Southampton designs and rebuilds websites for businesses in Southampton and across south Hampshire. Send us your PDF through the contact page and we will tell you what we would tackle first.
Questions
What should a website audit checklist include?
For a business planning a new site, the useful checks are the ones that cause trouble later: whether you own the domain and hosting logins, whether you can measure enquiries, which pages already bring in visitors, how the site works on a phone, and whether the contact form actually delivers. This checklist covers those in six areas: goals and tracking, content, search visibility, speed and mobile, trust and enquiries, and ownership and security.
What should I do before redesigning my website?
Make sure you have the logins for your domain, hosting and Search Console. Record how many enquiries the current site brings in so you have something to compare against. Export a list of the pages that get visits or links so each one can be redirected. And write down what the current site does well, so the new one keeps it.
Will a redesign hurt my Google rankings?
It can if page addresses change without 301 redirects, if pages that brought in visitors are dropped, or if the new site is slower. Planned properly, with every old address redirected and the useful content kept or improved, a redesign does not have to cost you search traffic.
How is the score worked out?
Each of the 27 items carries between 2 and 6 points, adding up to 100. Yes earns the full points, Partly earns half, and No or Not sure earns nothing. Items you mark N/A are taken out of the total and the score is rescaled to 100. Items that most often cause redesign problems, such as the list of addresses to redirect, carry the most points.
Is this a full website audit?
No. It is a self-check based on your own answers, and nothing on this page looks at your website. A technical audit would crawl the site, test its speed and check its search data directly. The checklist is a quick way to see where the gaps probably are and what to ask your web designer.
Do you keep my answers?
Your answers are saved in your own browser so you can come back to them, and they are not sent anywhere unless you ask us for a copy, in which case your request and score come to our studio and we reply by email. Clearing your browser data or pressing Start again removes them.
Planning a new website?
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