The 12-Point Website Audit Every Business Owner Can Run in 20 Minutes

You don't need a consultant to know whether your website is helping or hurting your business. You need twenty minutes, a phone, and a browser. Here are twelve checks — grouped into speed, SEO, conversion, and AI-readiness — that a business owner can run without any tools beyond what's free on the web.

Group 1 — Speed (the deal-breaker)

1. PageSpeed score

Open pagespeed.web.dev and paste your homepage URL. Look at the Mobile tab. A score under 60 means Google is actively demoting you; between 60–89 is workable; 90+ is competitive.

2. Image weight

Right-click any hero image and check its file size. If it's over 300KB on a small screen, someone shipped a desktop-sized image to a phone. This is the single most common cause of slow sites.

3. Mobile load on real cellular

Turn off Wi-Fi and load your homepage on your phone. If it takes more than 3 seconds to show something readable, you're losing visitors before you meet them.

Group 2 — SEO fundamentals

4. Title tag

Look at the browser tab. Does it say your business name and a real value proposition, in under 60 characters? "Home | Acme" is a wasted slot.

5. One H1 per page

Right-click, "View Page Source," and search for <h1. You should find exactly one per page, and it should describe the page — not the site.

6. Schema present

Paste your URL into Google's Rich Results Test. If no structured data is detected on your homepage or service pages, you're invisible to the machines that summarize the web.

7. Indexed pages

Google site:yourdomain.com. If fewer pages show up than you have, some content is either blocked or not being found.

Group 3 — Conversion

8. Above-fold offer clarity

Show your homepage to someone who's never seen it. Give them five seconds. Ask: "What does this business do, and what does it want you to do next?" If they can't answer both, the page is not doing its job.

9. Form length

Count the fields on your contact form. Over five and you're bleeding leads. Most businesses need name, email, and one qualifying question. Everything else can come later.

10. Click-to-call on mobile

Load your site on a phone. Is your phone number tappable? If a customer has to select, copy, and dial, you've added friction to the highest-intent action on your site.

Group 4 — AI-readiness

11. FAQ content in question form

Do you have real customer questions on your service pages, answered directly? Assistants pull from these blocks. If your site is all marketing prose, you're not answerable.

12. Fact density

Open your "About" or main service page. Highlight every specific fact — years in business, service area, response time, number of clients, price ranges. If you can't find five, the page is too vague to be quoted.

Scoring your results

Give yourself one point per check passed. 10–12: you're ahead of most local businesses. 7–9: a targeted refresh will move the needle fast. Under 7: a rebuild will pay for itself in ad efficiency alone.

Or skip the twenty minutes — the audit I run covers all twelve of these plus thirty more, including Core Web Vitals detail, schema validation, AI-citability testing across four assistants, and a prioritized fix list. You'll get the scorecard within two business days, and there's no obligation to hire.