Website Audit Checklist: 24 Things to Check Before Launch
Launching a website without an audit is like shipping code without tests — it might work, but you will not know what's broken until a user tells you. This checklist covers checks across four categories, ordered by severity. Start at the top and work down.
Critical Issues (9 checks)
These are objective failures. If any of these are present, the site has problems that affect every visitor.
1. Broken links
Crawl every internal link and verify it returns a 200 status. Broken links send visitors to dead ends and waste the link equity you have built. Pay special attention to navigation links, footer links, and CTAs.
2. Title tags
Every page needs a unique <title>tag. Pages without titles show as "Untitled" in browser tabs and get poor click-through rates in search results.
3. Duplicate title tags
Two pages with the same title compete with each other in search results. Check that every page has a distinct title that accurately describes its content.
4. H1 tags
Every page should have one H1 that describes the page's primary topic. Missing H1s leave search engines guessing about your content hierarchy.
5. Multiple H1 tags
While multiple H1 tags are technically valid in HTML5, using a single H1 per page keeps the heading hierarchy clear for both users and search engines. Check that each page has one primary H1, then use H2s and H3s for subsections.
6. Meta descriptions
Pages without meta descriptions let Google auto-generate snippets from page content. The auto-generated text is often awkward or irrelevant. Write a description that gives searchers a reason to click.
7. SSL certificate
The entire site must load over HTTPS. Browsers mark HTTP sites as "Not Secure" and Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014. Check that your certificate is valid and not expired.
8. Robots.txt
Verify your robots.txt exists and is not accidentally blocking important pages. A misconfigured robots.txt can deindex your entire site.
9. Redirect chains
A redirect chain is when a URL redirects to another URL that itself redirects again (A → B → C). Each hop adds latency and dilutes link equity. Fix by pointing all links directly to the final destination URL.
Performance (5 checks)
Slow sites lose visitors. Google's Core Web Vitals directly affect rankings and are measurable via the PageSpeed Insights API.
10. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Measures how long the largest visible element takes to render. Target under 2.5 seconds. Common culprits: oversized hero images, slow server response, render-blocking scripts.
11. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Measures visual stability — how much the page layout shifts as it loads. Target under 0.1. Fix by setting explicit dimensions on images and embeds, and avoiding dynamically injected content above the fold.
12. Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
Measures responsiveness to user input. Target under 200ms. Heavy JavaScript, long main-thread tasks, and synchronous event handlers are the usual causes of poor INP.
13. Render-blocking resources
CSS and JavaScript files in the <head> that block the browser from rendering content. Defer non-critical scripts and inline critical CSS to unblock the initial render.
14. Image compression
Uncompressed images are the most common performance problem on the web. Convert to WebP, serve responsive sizes, and compress to an appropriate quality level (80% is usually indistinguishable from 100%).
SEO (5 checks)
These checks improve how search engines and social platforms understand and display your content.
15. Open Graph tags
When someone shares your page on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Slack, Open Graph tags control the title, description, and image that appear. Without them, platforms guess — and they usually guess poorly.
16. XML sitemap
A valid sitemap at /sitemap.xml helps search engines discover all your pages, especially on larger sites where some pages may not be reachable through internal links alone.
17. Mobile-friendliness
Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning the mobile version of your site is the one that gets ranked. Check that text is readable without zooming, buttons are tappable, and content does not overflow the viewport.
18. Structured data
JSON-LD markup helps Google generate rich snippets — star ratings, FAQ dropdowns, event dates. Not every page needs it, but key pages (product, article, FAQ, local business) benefit significantly from structured data.
19. Canonical tags
If the same content is accessible at multiple URLs (with and without trailing slashes, query parameters, or www), canonical tags tell search engines which version to index. Missing canonicals cause duplicate content issues.
Quick Wins (5 checks)
Small fixes that take minutes and improve the overall quality of your site.
20. Meta description length
Keep descriptions between 120 and 160 characters. Shorter ones waste space in search results. Longer ones get truncated, cutting off your message mid-sentence.
21. Title tag length
Keep titles between 30 and 60 characters. Titles beyond 60 characters get cut off in search results with an ellipsis, hiding your keywords and reducing click-through rates.
22. Image alt text
Every meaningful image needs an alt attribute that describes what the image shows. This helps screen reader users, improves image search visibility, and provides context when images fail to load.
23. HTML lang attribute
Set the lang attribute on your <html> tag (e.g., lang="en"). This tells browsers and screen readers which language the page is written in, improving accessibility and translation accuracy.
24. Favicon
A missing favicon shows a generic browser icon in tabs and bookmarks. It is a small detail that signals professionalism. Add a <link rel="icon"> pointing to your favicon file.
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