A few months back I ran an audit on my own site. Partway through, I found my buttons had white text on a sage green background. It looked calm and on brand. It also failed WCAG. The contrast wasn’t close enough to pass, so anyone with low vision would have struggled to read them. I changed the text to a dark colour, ran the check again, and it passed. Small fix. I’d never have caught it just by looking at the site every day, because you stop seeing your own website after a while. That’s really what an audit is for.
If you’ve been offered a website audit, or you’re a small business owner in Harrogate or anywhere else in Yorkshire wondering what a website health check actually involves, here’s what happens under the bonnet.
What gets checked
A proper audit isn’t a glance at the homepage. When I do one, I go through five things:
- How fast the site loads, and where it slows down
- Whether it can be found on Google
- Whether people using assistive technology can actually use it (this is where my sage green buttons got caught out)
- Whether the content says what it needs to say, clearly
- Whether every link on the site actually goes somewhere
All five matter. A fast site with confusing content still loses visitors. Clear content on a slow site still loses visitors. You need all of it working together.
Automated report or human audit
You can run your site through a free online tool and get a score back in seconds. Those tools are genuinely useful for the technical side: slow-loading images, missing alt text, broken links. What they can’t do is tell you why someone leaves your site without getting in touch.
They won’t tell you that your hero section doesn’t explain what your business actually does. This is the single most common thing I find. A lovely photo, a confident headline, and nothing that tells a stranger whether you fit kitchens, do the books, or sell dog food. A scanner won’t flag that. A person reading your site as a stranger will, every time.
What to do with the findings
An audit only earns its keep if you act on it. I hand over a written report with everything prioritised, so you know what to fix first and what can wait. Some fixes are quick, like a new headline or a colour change. Others take longer, like rebuilding a page or a broken booking form.
Most people take the list and either fix things themselves, hand it to their developer, or ask me to do the work. I’ll always offer, but the audit stands on its own. You don’t have to book anything else to get value from it.
How often, and what triggers one
There’s no fixed schedule, but a few things usually mean it’s time: enquiries have quietly dropped off, you’re about to rebrand or redesign, it’s been more than a year or two since anyone looked properly, or you’ve simply never had an outside pair of eyes on it. If you built the site yourself, or inherited it from someone else, it’s easy to lose that outside view completely.
What it costs
I offer three levels. A light audit covers up to eight pages and a written report, from £350. A full audit covers up to 20 pages, plus a video walkthrough of the findings, from £650. An audit and consult adds a one hour call to go through everything together, from £650. Full pricing and what’s included in each is on my website audit page.
If you want a second pair of eyes on your site, book a free 20 minute call and we’ll work out which one makes sense.
