What We Look for in a Free Website Audit

A website audit isn't just a gut check on whether a site looks nice. It's a structured review of the technical, content, and performance factors that determine how your site performs in search and how well it converts the visitors it does get. Here's what we look at in every audit we run for Jacksonville businesses.

1. Indexing and Crawlability

The first thing we check is whether Google can actually find and read your site. This means verifying that your pages are indexed in Google Search Console, that your robots.txt file isn't accidentally blocking crawlers, and that there are no noindex tags left on pages that should be visible. A site that isn't indexed can't rank — full stop. This issue is more common than most people realize, especially on sites built by someone who forgot to flip the switch from "development" to "live."

2. Page Speed and Core Web Vitals

We run every site through a performance test to measure load time, interactivity, and visual stability. These three metrics — known as Core Web Vitals — are direct Google ranking signals. A site that fails them ranks lower than a comparable site that passes, all else being equal.

The most common issues we find: images uploaded at full resolution and never compressed, too many third-party scripts loading on every page, and themes that generate bloated, slow-loading code. We look at both mobile and desktop scores since Google weighs mobile performance more heavily.

3. Mobile Usability

We pull up every site on an actual mobile device and navigate it like a real visitor would. We're checking that text is readable without zooming, buttons are large enough to tap, the layout doesn't break or overflow, and the contact method is easy to reach. Given that most local searches happen on phones, a site that's awkward on mobile is losing the majority of its potential customers.

4. On-Page SEO

We check each page's title tag, meta description, H1 heading, and body content for proper local keyword usage. For a Jacksonville business, this means making sure the city name appears in the right places — present enough that Google understands where you operate and who you're serving. We also check that each page has a unique title and description, since duplicate metadata is a surprisingly common issue on template-built sites.

5. Local SEO Signals

Beyond the website itself, we look at the full local search picture. Is there a Google Business Profile? Is it verified, complete, and accurate? Does the name, address, and phone number on the website exactly match what's on Google Business Profile and other directory listings? These consistency signals matter more than most people realize for map pack rankings.

6. Technical Structure

We check for a sitemap.xml file and confirm it's been submitted to Google Search Console. We look at the URL structure to make sure pages have clean, readable addresses. We verify that the site uses HTTPS and has a valid SSL certificate. We check for broken links — each of these is a small signal to Google, and they add up.

7. Contact and Conversion Path

We look at how easy it is for a visitor to actually take action. Is there a clear call-to-action above the fold? Can someone find a phone number or contact form within two clicks from any page? Does the contact form actually work — meaning we test it and confirm the submission sends an email to the right place?

8. Content Quality and Depth

Thin content — pages with only a few sentences — signals to Google that a page isn't worth ranking. We look at whether each key page has enough substantive content to be useful to a visitor and credible to a search engine.

What We Do With What We Find

After running through this checklist, we put together a plain-language summary of what we found — what's working, what's hurting you, and what the priority fixes are. We don't pad it with jargon or turn it into a sales pitch. The goal is to give you an honest picture of where your site stands.