The 10-Point Website Audit You Can Do Before Calling a Developer

Most business owners call a web developer before they know what's actually wrong with their website. That's a bit like calling a mechanic and saying "my car makes a noise." You will get help — but it will take longer, cost more, and you won't know whether the fix you paid for was the right one.

Before you pick up the phone, spend 30 minutes on a self-audit. You don't need any technical skills for this — just a phone, a browser, and a willingness to look at your site the way a first-time visitor does. Whatever you find becomes a concrete list you can hand to any developer, which is exactly how you get a faster, cheaper, better result.

1. Check your load speed

Open your homepage and count. If visitors wait more than a few seconds, many leave before they ever see your content. Run Google's PageSpeed Insights on your site and note the score for both mobile and desktop. Oversized photos are the usual culprit — a single uncompressed image can weigh more than the rest of the page combined. If your site feels slow, that is a problem worth fixing before anything cosmetic.

2. Look at it on your phone

More than half of your visitors are probably on a phone, so this one matters. Load your site on a real phone and try to use it: read the text without pinching to zoom, tap every button without missing, and check that nothing requires horizontal scrolling. If the mobile experience feels like an afterthought, you are showing it to your biggest audience.

3. Run the five-second test

Show your homepage to someone who hasn't seen it and give them five seconds. Then ask: what does this business do, and where would you click next? If they hesitate, your headline and main button aren't doing their job. A visitor should never have to work to understand what you offer.

4. Click every link and button

Seriously — all of them. Menu items, footer links, social icons, "learn more" buttons. Dead ends and broken links are everywhere on older sites, and every one of them is a small signal to visitors (and to Google) that nobody is maintaining the place. Make a list of everything that goes nowhere or lands on the wrong page.

5. Test your contact path

Pretend you are a customer in a hurry. From the homepage, how many clicks does it take to contact you? Fill out your own contact form and confirm the message actually arrives — you'd be surprised how many forms quietly fail. Check that your phone number is clickable on mobile and that your address, hours, and email are easy to find, not buried three pages deep.

6. Look for the padlock

Your browser's address bar should show a padlock icon next to your URL, meaning the site loads over HTTPS. If visitors see a "not secure" warning instead, that's an immediate trust killer — some people will leave on the spot. Fixing this is usually quick and inexpensive, so there's no reason to let it linger.

7. Check your Google presence

Search your business name and see what comes up. Your Google Business Profile should be claimed, complete, and consistent with your site — same name, same address, same phone number. Mismatches between your profile and your website confuse both customers and search engines. Add fresh photos while you're there; profiles with recent images get noticeably more engagement.

8. Hunt for outdated content

Look for the small signs of neglect: a copyright notice from three years ago, a blog that stops in 2022, a "coming soon" page that never arrived, seasonal promotions long past. These details quietly tell visitors the business isn't paying attention. Updating them takes minutes and instantly makes the whole site feel alive.

9. Read your search listings

Search a few terms your customers would use and look at how your pages appear in the results — the blue title and the short description under it. Are they descriptive and inviting, or generic like "Home" or "Untitled"? Each page deserves a clear, specific title. This is basic SEO, and it's fully in your control.

10. Confirm who owns everything

This one is administrative, not visual. Do you know where your domain is registered, who pays for hosting, and where the login credentials live? We've seen businesses discover mid-crisis that their domain is registered to a former employee. You should also confirm backups exist — ask your host or developer how often the site is backed up and where those backups are stored.

What to do with your score

Count your problem areas. If you found three or fewer, you're in good shape — fix them and set a reminder to repeat the audit in six months. If you found more, prioritize by business impact: contact path, mobile experience, and speed come before visual polish every time. The items that directly affect revenue deserve your budget first.

And now the good news: you've turned a vague feeling ("our website needs work") into a concrete action list. Hand that list to a developer and watch how much sharper the conversation becomes. At WebProNC, we run professional audits like this for clients across the Charlotte metro area — and every one of them starts with the same questions above. Run the checklist, bring us your findings, and we'll help you turn them into a website that actually earns its keep. webpronc.com