How to Audit Your Website: A Beginner’s Guide to a Healthy Site

Think of your website as the online home for your business. It holds all the information about your services, invites customers to your virtual doorstep, and helps you reach new audiences. 

Just like a physical store, it needs regular maintenance. A website health check ensures everything runs smoothly and that your visitors get the best experience possible.

If you've never audited your website before, don’t worry! This guide is designed for beginners — no tech or coding skills required.

How to Do a Website Audit: A Small Business Owner’s Guide 

Keeping your website up to date doesn’t have to be complicated. A website audit helps make sure everything is accurate, functional, and working for your visitors. 

We’ve broken down how to run a site audit into five simple steps:

1. Review Your Homepage: Make sure your homepage clearly explains your business, services, and how customers can contact you.
2. Update Your Services Pages: Keep service descriptions, pricing, and offers current so visitors always have the right information.
3. Verify Your Contact Details: Double-check your phone number, email, and address so customers can easily get in touch.
4. Update Your Google Business Profile: Check your listing is up to date and optimized to improve local search visibility and credibility.
5. Check Your Connected Social Media Accounts: Test your social links to confirm they direct visitors to the right profiles.

By following these steps, you’ll keep your website fresh, functional, and ready to serve your customers. 

Let’s get into the details of how to keep your site up to date and working hard for you.

Review Your Homepage

Your homepage should be clear, accurate, and immediately showcase what your business is all about. Here are three elements to check:

• Hero Section: Your main message should be clear, engaging, and aligned with what you offer. Avoid vague wording and ensure visitors immediately understand what you do.
• Services Preview: Highlight key services with short descriptions and relevant images to keep visitors engaged.
• Contact Details: Your contact information should be easy to find — typically in the footer or header. If you have a call-to-action (CTA), such as "Book a Consultation" or "Get a Quote," ensure it's prominently placed.

Pro Tip: A well-structured homepage can improve your search rankings and user engagement. Use concise headlines and avoid unnecessary clutter.

Build Your Website Homepage with Durable 

If you haven’t built your website yet, it couldn’t be easier with Durable’s AI Website Builder. All you have to do is let us know your business or business idea, and we’ll generate your website in 30 seconds. 

Once you’re signed up with a Durable account, everything on your website is fully customizable. You can change your hero section image or text, edit your services section, and add your contact details so your customers can easily contact you. 

Ready to grow your business? Durable makes it easy — get started now! 

Update Your Services Pages

Your services and pricing may change over time, so it's important to keep these pages up to date. Outdated information can lead to missed opportunities and customer frustration. Make sure your service descriptions are:

• Clear and detailed, explaining exactly what customers can expect.
• Updated with the latest pricing and package options.
• Optimized with relevant keywords for search visibility.

If you use Durable, updating your service details and pricing is quick and easy through the dashboard. 

To add a services page, navigate to Pages > Create Page > Services. Durable automatically creates a full-scope services page for you. You can publish the page as is or make your own edits and customizations.

Keeping these pages fresh helps attract and retain customers.

Verify Your Contact Details

Have you recently moved locations, changed your phone number, or updated your email? Make sure your contact details are consistent across your website, social media, and business listings.

Pro Tip: Display your contact details in multiple places, such as:

• Footer (visible on every page)
• Dedicated Contact Us page
• Site header for easy access

A well-placed phone number or email can improve customer inquiries and engagement.

Durable makes it easy to create a Contact page with all the necessary fields. Just go to Pages > Create Page > Contact in your dashboard editor, and Durable will generate a page where clients can leave their information. You can even customize it to include a calendar link for scheduling or a form to request specific details about your services.

Test Your Contact Form

If you have a contact form on your site, test it regularly to ensure messages are being received correctly. Follow these steps:

1. Fill out the form as a customer would.
2. Confirm that you receive an email notification.
3. Verify that the response time meets customer expectations.

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Claim Your Google Business Profile

Google Business Profiles are a powerful tool that helps you appear in local search results. And an optimized profile can improve visibility and attract more customers.

To make sure your listing is accurate and discoverable in Google searches, you should: 

• Verify your business name, address, and phone number.
• Upload high-quality photos of your business, products, or services.
• Respond to customer reviews to build trust and engagement.

If you haven’t claimed your listing yet, Durable makes it easy to set one up. Build your Google Business Profile here → 

Check Your Connected Social Media Accounts

Your website should link to your active social media accounts. Social media can help customers stay updated with your latest offers, news, and content. Click on your social icons and confirm they:

• Direct visitors to the correct profiles.
• Display correctly on desktop and mobile devices.
• Align with your brand’s messaging and visuals.

Keeping these links updated can grow your following and make it easier for customers to engage with your business.

Missing social links on your website? Learn how to set up social icons on your website →

Technical Website Health Check? We've Got You Covered

If your website is built with Durable, we handle many of the technical details behind the scenes. 

Here are just some of the things that we check for you to make sure your site is in tip-top shape:

Run a Website Speed Test

A slow website can frustrate visitors and impact your search engine ranking. Plus, site speed is important for user experience and search engine optimization (SEO). That’s why Durable sites are all set up to run smoothly and quickly for the best results and experience for your website visitors. 

If your site isn’t built with Durable, here’s how to check your website speed:

• Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to test load times.
• Identify and fix speed issues, such as large image files or outdated plugins.
• Optimize images and enable caching to improve performance.

Ensure Mobile Compatibility

More people browse on mobile than ever before. A site that doesn’t work well on phones or tablets can lead to lost business. 

All Durable website templates come ready-made and optimized for desktop, mobile, and tablet devices — so you don’t need to worry about how your website appears. 

If your website isn’t on Durable, here’s how to test mobile compatibility:

• Open your website on different devices and browsers.
• Ensure text, images, and buttons scale properly.
• Check for touch-friendly navigation.

Note: Designing a website that is mobile compatible is tricky business — that’s why we make sure all our websites are automatically responsive to different devices. However, if you built your website from scratch or somewhere other than Durable, you might want to consult a professional website developer before making changes to your site. 

Check Your SSL Certificate

An SSL certificate secures your website and builds trust with visitors. It also helps with SEO rankings, as Google prioritizes secure sites.

All Durable domains come with Cloudflare SSL, offering fast and secure protection against threats like DDoS attacks. So you’re in safe hands as soon as you launch your website. 

If your website doesn’t run with Durable, here’s how to check your SSL status:

• Look for a padlock icon in the browser address bar.
• Ensure your URL starts with https:// instead of http://.

Keeping your website in top shape doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By setting aside time for a website health check, you’ll make sure your site is always working for you.

Durable makes website management easy — get your business online with one click.