The free website audit checklist for 2026

Search engines reward clarity and signal — both about what each page is and how the site fits together. Walk through every public page and confirm:

• Every page has a unique, descriptive <title> (50-60 characters) that includes the target keyword.
• Every page has a unique meta description (140-160 characters) written for humans, not stuffed with keywords.
• Each page has exactly one H1 and a logical H2/H3 outline.
• URLs are lowercase, hyphenated, short and keyword-relevant — no trailing IDs.
• Canonical tags are set on every page to prevent duplicate-content splits.
• A sitemap.xml is published and submitted to search consoles.
• A robots.txt is present and doesn't accidentally block important sections.
• If you serve multiple languages, hreflang tags are set on every locale variant.

Speed is both a ranking factor and a conversion lever. The faster the site, the higher the rankings and the lower the bounce rate. Aim for:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds on mobile.
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP) under 200 milliseconds.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1.
• Images served in modern formats (WebP, AVIF) with explicit width/height attributes.
• Above-the-fold images preloaded; below-the-fold images lazy-loaded.
• Fonts loaded with font-display: swap to avoid invisible text.
• JavaScript bundles under 200 KB gzipped on the landing route.

Rankings follow intent. Each page should clearly serve one query and answer it better than the competing pages on the first results page.

• Primary keyword appears in the title, H1, first paragraph and at least one H2.
• Page covers the entire topic, not just one angle — search engines rank comprehensive pages.
• Internal links point to related pages with descriptive anchor text.
• All images have descriptive alt text (not decorative "image123.png" placeholders).
• Structured data (JSON-LD) is added where relevant: Article, FAQ, Product, Organization.
• There's a clear, scannable structure: short paragraphs, bullet lists, subheadings.

Accessibility helps real users and protects you legally. It also overlaps heavily with SEO — clean semantic HTML wins on both fronts.

• Text contrast meets WCAG AA (4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text).
• All interactive elements are reachable by keyboard.
• Focus states are visible on links, buttons and form fields.
• Form inputs have associated <label> elements.
• Images and icons used as buttons have aria-labels.
• Page has a logical heading order and uses landmarks (header, nav, main, footer).

Traffic without conversion is wasted spend. Every page should have a primary action and remove friction around it.

• Each page has one primary call-to-action above the fold.
• CTAs use action-oriented copy: "Start free," "See pricing," "Book a call."
• Forms ask for the minimum required information.
• Social proof (logos, testimonials, reviews) sits near each major decision point.
• Pricing is either visible or one click away — hidden pricing kills conversions.
• Trust signals (security badges, refund policies, contact info) are present in the footer.

Small technical issues quietly degrade rankings. Check the basics that crawlers care about.

• HTTPS is enforced site-wide with HSTS.
• Redirects use 301 (permanent), not 302, where appropriate.
• No broken internal links — run a crawler monthly.
• Custom 404 page exists and links back to the main navigation.
• Analytics and search-console tags fire on every page.

Running this checklist by hand on every page takes hours. The internal Uisdom AI runs an automated version of these checks whenever it analyses a site — pasting a URL into Uisdom gives you a structured report plus a rebuilt version of the site that fixes most of the issues on its own.