Website Audit Checklist: 27 Things That Make or Break Your Leads in 2026
A 27-point checklist covering conversion, speed, SEO, AI search readiness and trust, plus the order to fix what you find.
Topic
Web Design
Your website is often the first conversation a customer has with your business. These guides cover what a small business site needs to turn visits into leads: fast load times, clear calls to action, mobile-friendly forms, trust signals and the technical basics search engines check, plus how to audit your own site and decide what to fix first.
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Straight answers on Web Design
The questions this topic raises most, answered in plain English. Each answer comes from one of the guides above.
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Ask a real human. We answer in plain English and never send you down a jargon rabbit hole.
How often should I audit my website?
Run a full audit at least twice a year, and again after any redesign, platform change or sudden drop in leads. Monthly, do three quick checks: submit your own contact form, call your business number after hours, and look for new errors in Google Search Console. Those three tests catch most of the problems that quietly cost leads.
How long does a website audit take?
An automated scan takes minutes. A thorough manual review of a small business site usually takes a few hours, because someone has to test forms, calls and mobile pages by hand. Our free website audit runs the automated checks for you and lists what to fix first, so your manual time goes to the fixes.
What is a good website speed score?
Aim for Google's "good" Core Web Vitals thresholds: Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less, measured on real visitors. In the PageSpeed Insights lab score, 90 or above counts as good and 50 to 89 needs improvement.
Does my website need to be optimized for AI search?
Yes, increasingly. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 45% of consumers use AI tools like ChatGPT for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier. Put key content in plain HTML, open pages with direct answers, add Organization schema and let search and answer crawlers read your public pages.
Your next step
Find Out Where Your Website Is Leaking Leads
Get your free Butter Score: one score out of 100 for your website, and part of your free Buttered Blueprint. You’ll see how your site performs, how it’s set up for Google and AI search, and what to fix first. Use it with us or without us.
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