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Web audit: what to analyze and how to improve
Adrià Vidal7 min read
web auditweb optimizationconversion analysisCRO
What is a web audit
A web audit is a systematic analysis of a website's state that identifies technical, user experience, speed, content, and conversion problems that are preventing the site from performing at its full potential. It's not a superficial review: it's a structured diagnosis with prioritized findings and actionable recommendations.
The most useful analogy is a full medical check-up. The doctor doesn't wait for the patient to have serious symptoms before doing a check-up: they proactively review key indicators to detect problems before they become emergencies. A web audit works the same way: it identifies what's wrong before it costs you sales, rankings, or reputation.
A HubSpot survey found that 75% of users judge a company's credibility based on the design of its website. And Google has confirmed that page speed and experience are direct ranking factors. A website with undetected problems loses on multiple fronts simultaneously.
The 5 areas of a complete web audit
1. Technical SEO
Technical SEO ensures that search engines can crawl, interpret, and index the site's content correctly. Without a solid technical foundation, the best content in the world won't rank.
Critical elements to review:
| Element | What is analyzed |
|---|---|
| Crawlability | Robots.txt, noindex directives, crawl errors |
| Indexation | Indexed pages vs. existing pages, duplicates |
| URL structure | Canonical URLs, redirects, redirect chains |
| Structured data | Schema markup, rich snippets |
| Hreflang | Correct implementation on multilingual sites |
| XML Sitemap | Updates, included pages, errors |
| Core Web Vitals | LCP, FID/INP, CLS — Google's page experience metrics |
A common problem on sites with many pages is keyword cannibalization: several pages competing for the same search terms, diluting the authority of each one. The technical audit detects it and allows defining a clear hierarchy.
2. User Experience (UX)
UX determines whether visitors arriving at the site can complete their goals without friction. Poor UX not only affects user satisfaction: it directly impacts conversion rate.
Elements to evaluate in the UX audit:
- Information architecture: Can users find what they're looking for in a few clicks? Does the navigation reflect how users think or how the company is internally organized?
- Message clarity: Does the visitor understand in 5 seconds what the site offers and who it's for?
- Conversion flow: How many steps are there between arrival and conversion? Is each step necessary?
- Accessibility: Is the site usable for people with disabilities? Does it comply with WCAG 2.1 guidelines?
- Responsive design: Is the mobile experience equivalent to desktop?
3. Speed and technical performance
Load speed is one of the factors with the greatest combined impact on SEO and conversion. Google has established that a 1-second delay in mobile page load can reduce conversions by up to 20%.
Key metrics to measure:
| Metric | Recommended threshold | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | Less than 2.5 seconds | PageSpeed Insights |
| Time to First Byte (TTFB) | Less than 800ms | WebPageTest |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | Less than 0.1 | Chrome DevTools |
| Total Blocking Time (TBT) | Less than 200ms | Lighthouse |
The most common causes of poor speed are unoptimized images (no WebP, no lazy loading, no specified dimensions), render-blocking JavaScript in the critical path, lack of server-level caching, and a CDN that isn't configured or is poorly configured.
4. Conversion optimization (CRO)
The conversion audit analyzes what is preventing current visitors from converting. This analysis combines quantitative data (analytics, heatmaps, session recordings) with qualitative analysis (UX heuristics, persuasion principles, message review).
Critical funnel touchpoints to review:
- Homepage: value clarity, visual hierarchy, primary CTA
- Product or service pages: enough information to decide, social proof, objection handling
- Forms: number of fields, labels, error messages, progress indicators
- Checkout (ecommerce): minimum steps, payment options, security signals, cart recovery
- Landing pages: alignment between the ad or email driving traffic and the page's message
A well-executed conversion audit identifies the 3–5 highest-impact friction points to act on first. Prioritization is as important as diagnosis: not all improvements have the same return.
5. Content
Content is what convinces the visitor that they're in the right place and that the company can solve their problem. A content audit evaluates:
- Relevance: Does the content answer real user questions at each funnel stage?
- Quality: Is it original, up-to-date, and deep enough to build trust?
- Structure: Is it well organized to facilitate reading and scanning?
- Keyword coverage: Is there content covering the search terms relevant to the business?
- Duplicates and cannibalization: Are there pages with similar content competing against each other?
Web audit checklist
A basic checklist to structure the audit:
Technical SEO
- Review crawl errors in Google Search Console
- Analysis of indexed vs. expected pages
- Review of redirects and redirect chains
- Structured data validation
- Core Web Vitals analysis
UX and conversion
- 5-second test on the homepage
- Review of main conversion flows
- Heatmap and session recording analysis
- Review of forms and checkout steps
- Test on the 3 devices most used by your audience
Performance
- PageSpeed Insights on mobile and desktop
- Analysis of unoptimized images
- Review of third-party scripts and their load impact
- Cache and CDN configuration
Content
- Inventory of low-performing pages (traffic, conversion)
- Duplicate content detection
- Analysis of pages with no organic traffic for more than 6 months
- Metadata review (titles, descriptions, H1)
Tools for a web audit
| Area | Tool | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Technical SEO | Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, Google Search Console | From €0 |
| Core Web Vitals | PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest | Free |
| User behavior | Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity | From €0 |
| Speed tests | GTmetrix, Lighthouse | Free |
| Accessibility | WAVE, axe DevTools | Free |
| Conversion analysis | Scan&Boost | Free (basic) |
How to prioritize improvements after the audit
The output of an audit can be overwhelming: dozens of findings across different areas and different severities. Prioritization prevents the team from getting lost in minor details while critical problems keep costing sales.
A simple prioritization framework is the ICE score:
| Criterion | Question |
|---|---|
| Impact | How much will the key metric improve if we fix this? |
| Confidence | How certain are we that this improvement will have that impact? |
| Ease | How much effort does implementing it require? |
Each finding is scored from 1 to 10 on each criterion. Those with the highest ICE score (sum of the three) go first. This ensures the team works first on what moves the needle most with the least effort.
A web audit is not a one-time event: it's a process that should be repeated every 6–12 months, or whenever a significant change is made to the site. Technical problems appear over time, user behavior changes, and Google's algorithms evolve.
You can start with an automatic analysis of your website at Scan&Boost to identify the most urgent conversion problems. If you want a complete audit with data analysis, qualitative research, and a prioritized optimization plan, learn about our CRO agency service.
You can also explore how to structure the continuous improvement process in our guide on user-centered design.
Adrià Vidal, CRO specialist at Boost.
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