Year-end website audit: a checklist before 2027
• Thursday, 5th November 2026 •
Year-end is when most companies review sales, costs and plans. One thing is almost always forgotten: the website. It works “well enough”, so nobody checks it, yet it is the first place a customer looks after they Google your name. We suggest a simple ritual: once a year, ideally in November or December, audit your website with a checklist, a phone in your hand and a few free tools. It takes about an hour.
Why once a year? – Services, prices, opening hours and teams change, and so do search engines and the software your website runs on. A website nobody has looked at for a year often shows outdated contact details, loads slowly on phones, has broken forms or links, and runs plug-ins that are open to attack. The costly part is invisible: enquiries that never arrive, and you never find out.
1. Content – Open the site in a private window and walk through it as a first-time visitor. Are contact details, opening hours and prices current? Are the services you describe the ones you sell? Do photos and projects show your best recent work? Are there typos or old dates like “Offer 2023”? Does every key page tell visitors what to do next?
2. Speed and mobile – Run the site through PageSpeed Insights and aim for the main page to show its biggest element in under 2.5 seconds, react to taps in under 200 ms and not jump around while loading. The usual culprits are huge images, too many plug-ins and cheap hosting. Then test on a real phone, on Wi-Fi and on mobile data.
3. Visibility – Search for site:yourdomain to see how many pages Google knows. Check Search Console for the phrases you appear for. Make sure every important page has a unique title and description, and that your Google Business Profile matches your site: name, address, phone, hours, photos and reviews.
4. Security and legal – Check that your SSL certificate is valid, that the CMS, theme and plug-ins are up to date, that backups exist and can really be restored, and that accounts of former staff are removed. Look up the renewal dates for your domain and hosting. Make sure your privacy policy and cookie banner match what the site really does.
5. Conversion – Traffic without enquiries is a cost. Send yourself a test message through the contact form and check it arrives. Is the main action obvious on a phone? Are there trust signals such as reviews, case studies and clear guarantees? Does analytics track what matters?
Write down what you find, sort it into “fix now”, “fix this quarter” and “nice to have”, and start with the first group. If you would rather have a second pair of eyes, our website maintenance and consultancy services include exactly this kind of audit.
What’s more, Digital Effect offers affordable web design, AI consultancy and a pay monthly option. It’s worth thinking about, isn’t it? Contact us today for more information.
