When I first heard the phrase "website audit," I assumed it was something only big companies with big budgets could afford.
I pictured expensive software, monthly subscriptions, and an SEO agency charging hundreds of dollars to tell me what was wrong with my site. As someone running a small website on a tight budget, I thought a proper audit was simply out of my reach.
I was completely wrong.
I eventually discovered that you can run a thorough, professional-level website audit without spending a single dollar. No subscriptions. No free trials that ask for your credit card. No expensive agencies. Just free tools used the right way — and the knowledge of what to look for.
This guide will walk you through exactly how I do a full website audit for free, step by step. By the end, you will know everything your website needs fixing — at zero cost.
Read relative post:
What Is a Website Audit and Why Do You Need One?
A website audit is a full checkup of your website. It looks at everything that affects how your site performs — how fast it loads, how search engines reads it, whether it is secure, whether links are working, and how well each page is optimized for search. Not only that, how visitors feel when they land on your website.
Think of it like a health checkup for your body. You might feel fine on the outside, but a checkup can reveal problems you cannot see — things that, if left untreated, grow into serious issues later.
Your website works the same way. A site can look perfectly fine to a visitor while quietly having technical problems that stop Google and other search engines from ranking it properly. An audit brings those hidden problems to the surface so you can fix them before they cause real damage.
I run a website audit or analysis on all my sites every month. It has helped me catch broken pages, slow loading times, missing meta descriptions, and security issues — all before they became serious problems.
Step One — Run a Full Site Audit With Auditest
The first and most important step is to run a complete automated audit and analysis.
Go to Auditest — auditest.online
Enter your website address or URL and start the audit. This is completely free. No account required.
Within seconds, Auditest gives you a full report covering the health of your website across multiple areas — technical SEO, on-page optimization, page speed, mobile usability, security, and more. It gives your website an overall score and breaks down every issue it finds with a clear explanation of what is wrong and why it matters.
This single step replaces what used to require three or four different paid tools. It is your starting point for everything that follows.
Write down or screenshot the issues the audit flags. Or download those issues as a PDF. You will work through them one category at a time.
Step Two — Check Your Website Speed
Page speed is one of the most important factors in both user experience and Google rankings as well as other search engines. A slow website loses visitors and ranks lower in search results.
After your Auditest report, look specifically at the speed section. It will show you your current load time and identify what is slowing your site down — large images, too many scripts, slow server response, or render-blocking resources.
Common free fixes for speed issues:
If your images are large, compress them using a free tool like TinyPNG before uploading. Large images are the single most common cause of slow websites and the easiest fix.
If you use WordPress, install a free caching plugin like W3 Total Cache or LiteSpeed Cache. Caching saves a version of your pages so they load faster for returning visitors.
If your hosting server is slow, this is harder to fix without upgrading your plan — but knowing it is the problem helps you make an informed decision.
Pro Tip: Aim for a page load time under three seconds. Research shows that more than half of visitors abandon a page that takes longer than three seconds to load. Every second you shave off your load time keeps more visitors on your site.
Step Three — Check Your On-Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to the elements on each page that help Google understand what that page is about. Your Auditest report will flag issues in this area, but here is what to check manually as well.
Every page on your website should have a unique title tag — the text that appears in the browser tab and in Google search results. It should describe the page clearly and include the main keyword for that page. Keep it under 60 characters.
Every page should also have a meta description — a short summary of 150 to 160 characters that appears below your title in search results. This does not directly affect rankings but it affects whether people click on your result which is very important.
Check that every image on your site has alt text — a short description of what the image shows. Google cannot see images the way humans can. Alt text tells Google what the image contains and helps your pages rank in image search as well.
Finally, check that each page has one clear H1 heading — the main title of the page — and that your content uses H2 and H3 subheadings to organized information clearly.
Step Four — Check Your Technical SEO
Technical SEO covers the behind-the-scenes elements that help Google find and index your website correctly. Your Auditest report covers these automatically, but understanding what they mean helps you prioritise fixes.
Sitemap. Your website should have an XML sitemap — a file that lists all your pages and tells Google where to find them. Most website platforms generate this automatically. Submit yours to Google Search Console if you have not already.
Robots.txt. This file tells Google which pages to crawl and which to ignore. Make sure yours is not accidentally blocking pages you want Google to index.
Canonical tags. If you have similar content on multiple URLs, canonical tags tell Google which version is the main one. This prevents duplicate content issues that can hurt your rankings.
HTTPS. As we covered in the SSL article, your website must run on HTTPS. If your Auditest report flags an SSL issue, fix this before anything else. It affects both security and rankings.
Step Five — Check for Broken Links
Every broken link on your website is a dead end for both visitors and Google. Run a broken link check as part of your audit using the free tools available on Auditest.
Go through the list of broken links the check returns and fix each one. Update links that have changed, remove links that lead to pages that no longer exist, and replace them with working alternatives where possible.
This step alone can make a noticeable difference to how Google crawls and rates your website.
Step Six — Check Your Mobile Usability
As covered in our previous article, more than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. Your Auditest report includes a mobile usability section that shows exactly how your site performs on small screens.
Fix any mobile issues the report identifies before moving on. A website that works on desktop but breaks on mobile is, in Google's eyes, a broken website.
Read more articles:
Technical SEO Checklist: 20 Things to Fix Before You Launch Any Website
Finally:
A professional website audit does not require an expensive subscription or an SEO agency. It requires the right free tools and the knowledge of what to look for — both of which you now have.
Start with your free audit at auditest.online. Work through the report section by section — speed, on-page SEO, technical SEO, broken links, and mobile usability. Fix what you can immediately and schedule the rest.
A healthy website is not built in a day. But with a monthly audit habit and the right free tools, you will always know exactly where your site stands — and exactly what to do next.