Website Performance Audit Checklist

A website performance audit checks eight areas: speed and Core Web Vitals, technical SEO, on-page SEO, AI search readiness, user experience, conversion, security, and analytics. Work through the 40 checks below using free tools: Google PageSpeed Insights, Google Search Console, the Schema Markup Validator, and your own phone. Every "no" is a fix to schedule.

1. Speed and Core Web Vitals

Tool: PageSpeed Insights, mobile tab 1. ☐ Largest Contentful Paint (main content visible) ≤ 2.5 seconds 2. ☐ Interaction to Next Paint (response to taps) ≤ 200 milliseconds 3. ☐ Cumulative Layout Shift (layout stability) ≤ 0.1 4. ☐ Images compressed and in modern formats (WebP/AVIF) 5. ☐ No more than two font families; fonts don't block rendering

2. Technical SEO

Tool: Google Search Console, your browser 6. ☐ https:// and the non-www (or www) version redirect to one canonical address 7. ☐ /robots.txt exists and doesn't block important pages 8. ☐ /sitemap.xml exists and has been submitted to Google and Bing 9. ☐ Every page has a self-referencing canonical tag 10. ☐ No important pages return errors (404/500) in Search Console 11. ☐ Custom 404 page that helps visitors find their way

3. On-page SEO

12. ☐ Every page has a unique title (around 50–60 characters) including the brand name
13. ☐ Every page has a unique meta description (around 140–160 characters)
14. ☐ One H1 per page that states the topic
15. ☐ Each service has its own page targeting its main search term
16. ☐ Descriptive internal links (not "click here")
17. ☐ All meaningful images have alt text

4. AI search readiness (AEO)

Tool: Schema Markup Validator 18. ☐ Organization schema with name, logo, contact and sameAs profile links 19. ☐ Service, Article, FAQ and Breadcrumb schema where relevant 20. ☐ Key pages open with a short, direct answer to the main question 21. ☐ robots.txt doesn't block AI search crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and others) 22. ☐ An llms.txt file summarises the business for AI agents 23. ☐ Business facts (name, location, founding year, services) are identical on the site and on external profiles

5. User experience

24. ☐ What you do is clear within five seconds of landing
25. ☐ Navigation works easily on a phone
26. ☐ Text is readable without zooming; buttons are easy to tap
27. ☐ No intrusive pop-ups or scroll-jacking
28. ☐ Meets basic accessibility: colour contrast, keyboard navigation, form labels

6. Conversion

29. ☐ One primary call to action per page, visible without scrolling
30. ☐ Short contact form (3–4 fields)
31. ☐ Phone, email and (where relevant) WhatsApp visible
32. ☐ Real proof: case studies, testimonials, reviews
33. ☐ Starting prices or ranges shown

7. Security

34. ☐ SSL on every page, with no mixed-content warnings
35. ☐ CMS, plugins and server software up to date
36. ☐ Admin login protected (MFA, IP restriction or non-default URL)
37. ☐ Automated off-site backups, with a tested restore

8. Analytics

38. ☐ Google Analytics 4 installed, with conversions defined
39. ☐ Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools verified
40. ☐ A monthly review of traffic, rankings and conversions

Scoring

Frequently asked questions

How often should I audit my website?

A full audit once or twice a year, plus monthly checks of Search Console errors, speed and conversions.

What are Core Web Vitals?

Core Web Vitals are Google's measures of real-world page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).

What is llms.txt?

llms.txt is a plain-text file at the root of a website that summarises the business and links to its key pages in a format that's easy for AI systems to read. It's an emerging convention, not a formal standard, but it's cheap to add.

Want us to run the audit for you?

Eleova's SEO + AEO setup, which fixes the technical issues this checklist finds, starts from $499. Build a better digital experience →