Website audit checklist for local prospects
Qualify local prospects with a short set of website facts that survive “so what?” — presence, reachability, trust basics, and conversion paths.
For Web freelancers · Micro-agencies · Local SEO freelancers
You do not need a forty-metric agency audit to decide whether to dial a bakery in Valencia. You need a short set of facts that survive a skeptical owner asking “so what?”
Work in order: presence, reachability, trust and device basics, then conversion paths. Stop when you have one strong hook, or clear evidence they are not a fit.
Presence and reachability
In the first minute, establish whether there is an owned domain on major listings, only social profiles, or little more than a directory pin, and whether a phone exists for a call. No presence or social-only is often a strong prospect if your offer matches. A modern site with working booking is usually a skip unless you sell something specific such as SEO, migration, or performance.
Then check that DNS resolves, note HTTP status, watch redirect chains and the final URL, and look for parking or “coming soon” pages while Maps still shows the business as open. Down sites, endless redirects, and parking domains are concrete hooks.
Trust, mobile, and conversion paths
On the entry URL, confirm HTTPS without obvious mixed junk, a mobile viewport meta tag, and a spot check that the page is usable on a phone-sized screen. Titles and meta descriptions should exist and not be boilerplate. You are not grading poetry; you are looking for browser warnings and unreadability.
For clinics, salons, trades, and restaurants, conversion paths often matter more than aesthetics. Look for a contact form that is not obviously broken, booking or appointment links when the niche needs them, a visible phone or click-to-call, and whether WhatsApp or chat is the only path (note it; do not moralize). Spot broken internal links on home, contact, and services pages. Missing booking or quote paths usually beat “your palette is dated” as a pitch.
Optional notes for scoping: common CMS detection, social links, and a desktop or mobile screenshot for the leave-behind. Save deep tech-debt archaeology for later.
Turning checks into a short note
A useful one-pager has two or three observed facts with timestamps, one niche-specific sentence on why each matters, a single suggested next step, and an explicit list of things you are not claiming (rankings, invented revenue impact). Owners forgive blunt facts. They punish vague fear marketing.
A checklist qualifies the conversation. A website opportunity score ranks where to spend the week. Use the score to prioritize and the checklist for the words you say.
ApexPull website audits cover DNS, HTTP status, redirects, HTTPS, response time, title and meta, mobile viewport, contact form and booking detection, phone and email found on the site, WhatsApp, social links, common CMS detection, a limited broken-link crawl, and screenshots, with audit version and timestamp. Quotas apply by plan; Markets and search are not metered like scraper credits. See Pricing.
Related: cold call scripts from website facts and how to find local businesses that need a website. To run audits on a shortlist, start from Search after signup.