Choose the pages and the goal
Select the homepage, a main service page, a useful article and the contact or booking route. Add a location or product page if it is central to the business.
For a repair company, the goal might be suitable appointment enquiries. That makes service details, coverage and the enquiry process more relevant than the number of published blog posts.
Keep the exact addresses in your notes. Findings tied to a page are easier to reproduce than comments about the website in general.
Check access and discovery
Open each selected URL and follow the links that lead to it. Look for errors, unexpected redirects and important pages that cannot be reached through normal navigation.
For a site you control, use Search Console to investigate indexing concerns. Check whether noindex, crawl restrictions or an unexpected canonical are involved before changing settings.
Google’s SEO Starter Guide provides a reference for discovery, page organisation and content fundamentals.
Review the information customers need
- Does the title describe the actual page?
- Is the main heading clear?
- Are services, locations and conditions accurate?
- Do images add useful information and have appropriate text alternatives?
- Do links lead to the information they promise?
- Can a visitor find the next step?
Look for repeated enquiries that reveal missing details. If callers repeatedly ask whether you serve their area, check how coverage is explained before commissioning unrelated content.
Complete the journey on mobile
Open the menu, read the service details and try the enquiry route on a phone. Check layout, waiting time, error messages and confirmation behaviour.
Use our mobile checklist for a closer review. Performance reports can help investigate delays, but do not treat every warning as equally important.
Record the action you attempted and what happened. “Submit button hidden behind the keyboard” is more useful than “mobile needs improvement.”
Prioritise and verify the fixes
For each finding, note the affected URL, evidence, customer impact, owner and next action. Fix confirmed obstacles before spending time on speculative changes.
- Agree on the expected behaviour.
- Make a specific correction.
- Repeat the original check.
- Record the result and any remaining issue.
- Review related pages if the fix affects a shared template.
An audit is a snapshot, not a guarantee of rankings or a certificate that nothing can go wrong. Use the priorities guide to choose what to do next, then measure useful outcomes.