Website Audit Checklist: Your Cheat Sheet for Accessibility

A website audit checklist can help you measure how well your digital content is performing against industry best practices for accessibility, SEO, performance, experience, and conversions. Below, we’ve compiled a series of checklists to help you understand how effective your existing content is and where improvement opportunities lie.

Author: Missy Jensen, Senior Copywriter, SEO

Originally Published: 09/17/2024

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A website accessibility audit is like a comprehensive check-up for your website. It tells you where hidden issues are disrupting your user experience or where your next big opportunity is. With the digital landscape evolving faster and faster, a website audit is more than just a routine check — it’s a critical tool for ensuring your online presence is effective and competitive.

To help you achieve this, we’ve compiled a list of crucial audit checklists — everything from technical SEO and user experience to content quality, performance metrics, and accessibility.

Website Audits: What You Need

Before you can conduct a comprehensive website audit, you’ll need access to a variety of tools, each one tailored to different aspects of the audit process:

Technical SEO platforms: These platforms analyze your website’s underlying structure to identify issues related to search engine optimization. They look at aspects of your digital content, such as crawlability, indexing, site architecture, and more, to determine if search engines can effectively navigate and rank your site. Google Search Console and Semrush are great examples of these platforms.
User experience (UX) analytics tools: UX tools test how easily users can interact with your website. They provide in-depth insights into user behavior, engagement, and satisfaction to help you improve navigation, web design, and the overall user experience. Crazy Egg, Hotjar, and Google Analytics are a few examples of UX analytics tools.
Content quality analytics: Tools like Grammarly and Copyscape evaluate the quality, relevance, and effectiveness of your website content. Essentially, they help optimize your content for readability, SEO, and originality and ensure it is aligned with your audience’s needs.
Performance monitoring solutions: Performance monitoring solutions like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, and Pingdom all help measure your site’s speed and overall performance. They highlight where improvements can be made to improve load times and responsiveness and provide data on how well your site performs under various conditions.
Accessibility evaluation platforms: Accessibility tools ensure your site meets legal requirements and best practices for digital accessibility. They help to identify issues that might hinder users with disabilities from easily using your site. AudioEye, for example, conducts thorough accessibility audits, provides recommendations on fixing them, and determines if your digital content complies with accessibility laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act(opens in a new tab) (ADA) or the European Accessibility Act(opens in a new tab) (EAA).

5 Website Audit Checklists

Website audits enable you to conduct thorough web audits that address technical, user experience, content, performance, and accessibility aspects — all of which lead to a more effective and user-friendly website.

Below, we’ll dive into each individual audit, what you should check for, and audit tools that can help you successfully complete your website checks.

Quick Audit Checklist

The ‘Quick Audit” should serve as a foundational check to ensure your site is functioning correctly and delivering a positive user experience. Focus on the core elements of your site, including technical performance, usability, and conversion potential.

Item	Description
Check Page Load Speed	Ensure your site loads quickly on both desktop and mobile devices. Slow load times can frustrate users and negatively impact your SEO.
Test Links and Navigation	Ensure all internal and external links work correctly and that your site’s navigation is intuitive and free of broken links.
Mobile Responsiveness	Confirm your site displays and functions properly across various mobile devices and screen sizes.
User Experience (UX) Assessment	Evaluate the overall ease of use, including how easily users can find information and navigate your web pages. Look for any obstacles that might impede the user experience.
Content Readability	Check that your content is clear, concise, and engaging. Your text should also be readable and formatted correctly.
Accessibility Check	Perform a basic review to ensure your site is accessible to users with disabilities. This includes checking for adequate color contrast ratios, alt text for images, clear headings, etc.
Call-to-Action (CTA) Functionality	Test all of your CTAs (buttons, forms, links) to ensure they work correctly and lead users to the intended actions or pages.
Form Functionality	Verify that your contact forms, sign-up forms, and other interactive elements are working and are easy to complete.
Tracking and Analytics	Ensure your analytics tools are set up to accurately track your users’ behavior, conversions, and any other key metrics.

Focusing on these core areas in your basic audit helps you identify and address issues that could negatively impact your site’s performance and effectiveness. This ultimately allows you to create a more solid foundation for more in-depth evaluations.

SEO Content Audit Checklist

The better your SEO rankings on search engines like Google, the higher the chance you have of getting discovered by potential customers. While SEO tools like Google Analytics and Semrush can give you a deeper look into where your site is ranking, doing an on-page SEO audit yourself can give you a better idea of how your content is ranking.

Item	Description
Site Crawlability	Blocked pages, robots.txt errors, or improper use of meta tags can prevent search engines from crawling your site effectively. Be sure these elements are working properly to improve crawlability.
Indexing Status	Verify your most important pages are properly indexed by search pages and that none of your critical pages have been inadvertently excluded.
XML Sitemap	Confirm your XML sitemap is up-to-date and submitted properly to search engines. This will help them better understand your site’s structure and what your content is about.
URL Structure	Be sure your URLs are clean, descriptive, and free of unnecessary parameters or redirects.
Title Tags and Meta Descriptions	Check that each of your pages includes a unique, descriptive title tag and meta description that is optimized for relevant keywords.
Header Tags	Ensure you’ve used headers properly throughout your content (H1, H2, H3, etc.), as this keeps your site structured and improves readability.
Content Quality	Review your digital content for relevance, keyword optimization, and engagement; your content should be original, informative, aligned with user intent, and engaging.
Image Optimization	Verify that your images have descriptive, keyword-rich alt text and are optimized for fast loading.
Quality of Backlinks	Analyze the quality and relevance of backlinks that point to your site. Focus on removing or disavowing any toxic or low-quality links.
Mobile-Friendly	Ensure your content works well on mobile devices. Evaluate your mobile page speed and overall usability and ensure it’s optimized for these devices.
Anchor Text Distribution	Check the variety and relevance of anchor text used in backlinks to ensure a natural link profile.
Google My Business Listing	Ensure your Google My Business profile is complete, accurate, and up-to-date. Be sure your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) are consistent across channels.

Looking at the elements above can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your SEO strategy. This can also help you increase your organic traffic which enhances your site’s visibility and performance in search engine rankings, expanding your audience base.

User Experience and Design Audit Checklist

To help you create a more intuitive, visually appealing, and user-friendly site content that boosts overall satisfaction, check for the following:

Item	Description
Site Crawlability	Blocked pages, robots.txt errors, or improper use of meta tags can prevent search engines from crawling your site effectively. Be sure these elements are working properly to improve crawlability.
Indexing Status	Verify your most important pages are properly indexed by search pages and that none of your critical pages have been inadvertently excluded.
XML Sitemap	Confirm your XML sitemap is up-to-date and submitted properly to search engines. This will help them better understand your site’s structure and what your content is about.
URL Structure	Be sure your URLs are clean, descriptive, and free of unnecessary parameters or redirects.
Title Tags and Meta Descriptions	Check that each of your pages includes a unique, descriptive title tag and meta description that is optimized for relevant keywords.
Header Tags	Ensure you’ve used headers properly throughout your content (H1, H2, H3, etc.), as this keeps your site structured and improves readability.
Content Quality	Review your digital content for relevance, keyword optimization, and engagement; your content should be original, informative, aligned with user intent, and engaging.
Image Optimization	Verify that your images have descriptive, keyword-rich alt text and are optimized for fast loading.
Quality of Backlinks	Analyze the quality and relevance of backlinks that point to your site. Focus on removing or disavowing any toxic or low-quality links.
Mobile-Friendly	Ensure your content works well on mobile devices. Evaluate your mobile page speed and overall usability and ensure it’s optimized for these devices.
Anchor Text Distribution	Check the variety and relevance of anchor text used in backlinks to ensure a natural link profile.
Google My Business Listing	Ensure your Google My Business profile is complete, accurate, and up-to-date. Be sure your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) are consistent across channels.

Website Accessibility Audit Checklist

Ensuring individuals with disabilities can use and access your site isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a legal requirement under the ADA, EAA, and Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act(opens in a new tab) (AODA). The checklist below includes accessibility features outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines(opens in a new tab) (WCAG), which are considered the go-to standards for accessibility compliance.

Item	Description
Alt Text for Images	Provide descriptive and meaningful alt text for images, charts, and other non-text content.
Transcripts and Captions	Include transcripts for audio content and captions for videos to support users with hearing disabilities or impairments, such as deafness or hard of hearing.
Assistive Technology Compatibility	Ensure your digital content is compatible with assistive technologies, including screen readers or text-to-speech software.
Keyboard Accessibility	All interactive elements (links, forms, buttons) are navigable and usable by a keyboard alone and include focus indicators.
Color Contrast Ratios	Text has sufficient contrast against its background to ensure good readability (minimum ratios of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text). Use a color contrast checker to help with this.
Color Use	Color alone is not used to convey important information. Text labels or symbols are used as well.
Semantic HTML	Use proper heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to create a clear and logical content structure.
Content Organization	Content is organized in a way that’s easy to navigate and has clear sections and subsections.
Labeling	Provide clear, descriptive labels for all form fields.
Error Messages	Include accessible error messages that clearly help users understand and correct mistakes.
ARIA Roles and Properties	Use Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) to enhance the accessibility of your more complex web applications and dynamic content.
Use Simple Language	Write in clear, simple language to ensure content is easily understandable by all users.
Zoom and Resize	Text and layout are still readable and functional when zoomed in or resized.

These are just some of the accessibility features your site needs to have to be considered compliant with WCAG. For a more in-depth accessibility checklist, check out our Essential WCAG Checklist for Website Accessibility.

Website CRO Audit Checklist

Finally, the website CRO audit checklist can help you build on the foundational findings of your basic website audit. The checklist below includes more in-depth features that help you optimize your website for better conversion rates and improved user engagement.

Item	Description
Conversion Goals and Tracking	Ensure your conversion goals are clearly defined and that your tracking is properly set up.
Call-to-Action (CTA) Analysis	Check CTA visibility and clarity. Ensure your CTAs are strategically placed throughout your site.
Form Usability	Simplify form fields and ensure they’re relevant. Verify that error messages are clear and have a smooth submission process.
Landing Page Effectiveness	Confirm landing page relevance and alignment with CTAs and that you have a compelling, visually appealing design.
User Experience (UX)	Check ease of navigation and page load speed on both desktop and mobile devices.

Solving Your Website’s Accessibility Challenges

Each of the checklists above can help you identify where improvements are needed on your digital content to improve the user experience, increase conversion rates, comply with accessibility guidelines, and boost your SEO rankings.

Here’s the good news: AudioEye gives you a comprehensive boost across all these aspects — from enhancing accessibility and website performance to boosting search engine results and conversion rates. Our free Web Accessibility Scanner performs a scan of your digital content to identify common accessibility issues that not only impact users with disabilities, but those without as well. We supplement our automated testing with Expert Audits performed by our team of human experts who find and fix more complex accessibility and UX issues. The result: a website that provides a seamless, inclusive, and compliant user experience.

Ready to see how your site measures up? Enter the URL of your digital content in our scanner and take the first step towards a more accessible and high-performing website.

Want to see AudioEye in action? Schedule a demo today.