How to do a website audit when you’re the expert, not the web designer: look at your site the way the person about to hire you does, and answer seven questions about what they see. You don’t need to know anything about SEO to do it.
The people who check your site are usually already interested. A colleague mentioned you, they heard you on a podcast, or they read something you wrote. They visit to confirm what they were told. If the site shows a smaller business than the one they heard about, most of them won’t tell you. They just book someone else.
Open your homepage on your phone and go through the checklist below. Each check comes with a real site we redesigned, so you can see what a “no” and a “yes” look like. If you’d rather have a professional read, The Website Audit covers your brand, your website and how people find you on Google. It’s $500, and it counts toward your project if we build together.
1. Does the first screen say what you’re known for?
Cover your logo with your thumb. Could someone who has never met you say what you do, who it’s for and why they’d pick you over the next person they find?
Kim Tomlinson’s earlier homepage for Endeavour Real Estate Coaching opened with “From striving to thriving” and a promise of mindset, messaging and motivation. It was a fine line for any coach. It didn’t mention the reason agents seek her out, which is Motivational Interviewing, the method she uses in her own deals as an active top producer.
Her homepage now opens with “Stop convincing clients. Help them convince themselves.” and a line saying she coaches agents to lead the hardest conversations in real estate using motivational interviewing.
If your first screen could belong to anyone in your field, mark this one “no.”
2. Does the site describe the business you run today?
Most experts outgrow their site before they notice. The site was right when it launched, and then the business moved: a framework, a book, a training program, bigger clients.
Crystal Hines’s Align Therapy site still led with “Helping Therapists go from Surviving to Thriving.” Meanwhile Crystal had created IFS-Informed EMDR, presented it at the 2025 EMDRIA Conference, and her teaching had drawn more than 1,000 registrations. A therapist arriving after one of her presentations met a support practice, not the person who created the framework they’d just learned about.
Read your homepage headline and your About page out loud. If either one describes who you were three years ago, mark it “no.”
3. Is your strongest proof next to the claim it proves?
Make a quick list of the things that would impress a buyer most: the conference stage, the book, the client logos, the result you’re proudest of. Then find each one on your site. How far does someone have to scroll or click to see it?
On Align’s old site, Crystal’s conference and teaching credentials sat on the media page. On Sheevaun Thatcher’s site, her book Sales, Shoes, Success sits directly beneath the logos of the organizations that have trusted her, and a banner on every page announces the hardcover.
If your best proof lives on a page most visitors never open, mark it “no.”
4. Can each kind of buyer find their own way in?
Many experts have more than one buyer. An event organizer, a company that wants an advisor and a reader who wants coaching all need different evidence, even when the same book brought them to you.
Tissa Richards’s site gives event organizers a speaking page with stage photography, a reel, keynote topics and a “Book Tissa to speak” button, and gives advisory clients a separate page of their own.
Name the two or three people most likely to hire you. If any of them has to dig through pages meant for someone else, mark it “no.”
5. Does every page end with the next step you want?
Click through your main pages and note what each one asks the visitor to do. Is it the step you want, and is it the right size for someone who just arrived?
Kim’s earlier homepage put a contact form in the first screen, before a visitor knew why to choose her. Her site now gives agents four ways in, from a twelve-week course to one-on-one coaching, and invites people who aren’t ready for either to take the 360 Agent Audit.
If a page ends with nothing, or with a social media link, mark it “no.”
6. Do your images look like one business at the level you work?
Scroll your whole homepage quickly and look only at the pictures. Do they look like they came from the same business? Would they look at home on the site of someone charging what you charge?
Alison Leslie’s earlier Empower Healing homepage opened with a large logo, a welcome message and a list of modalities. Her current site opens on a custom image library built around the nature and attention to the body that run through her work, with training and consultation for therapists named right away.
If the pictures look like they came from six different places, or from a stock library your competitors also use, mark it “no.”
7. Would you send your best referral to the site without explaining it first?
Picture someone you’d love to work with asking for your website. Would you send the link as it is, or would you add “ignore the site, it’s out of date”?
Kim put it this way after we rebuilt hers: “she saw right away what my old site was missing, which was the story. It had the information, but it didn’t tell people who I am or why I coach the way I do…”
If you’d want to explain your website before anyone sees it, mark it “no.”
When to get a professional website audit
Count your “no” answers.
None or one: your site is doing its job. Come back to this list once a year, or whenever the business changes.
Two or more, and you can see what’s wrong: you may be ready to rebuild. Our custom website design starts at $4,500. If your positioning and copy need the work too, the Authority Platform is a fixed $8,500 for your brand, a custom website and a lead tool, live 30 days after kickoff.
Two or more, and you can’t tell whether it’s the brand, the website or how people find you: that’s what The Website Audit is for. You get a branded report, a video walkthrough and a short list of fixes in order of impact. It’s the better first step if you’re about to spend money on a redesign or on SEO and want to know which one will make the difference.
Questions about website audits
What does a professional website audit include?
Ours covers three things: your brand (how you come across and whether it matches the level of your work), your website (the pages, the path and what a visitor understands in the first few seconds) and search (how people find you on Google and which fixes would do the most). You get a branded report, a video walkthrough and a short list of fixes in order of impact.
How much does a website audit cost?
The Website Audit is $500. If we build your new site together, the fee counts toward that project. It doesn’t credit toward monthly plans.
Do I need to know what’s wrong before I book an audit?
No. Most people who ask for one only know that the site isn’t bringing in the work it should. The audit looks at the brand, the website and search together, so you don’t have to diagnose it first.
Can you audit a site you didn’t build, or one built with AI?
Yes. The audit covers any site, including one built with an AI tool that needs a professional eye. If you want ongoing SEO for a site Sway Rise Creative didn’t build, the audit is where that starts.
Should I get an audit or go straight to a redesign?
If you already know the site describes an old version of your business, a redesign may be the right call, and the Authority Platform shows exactly what’s included. If you’re not sure whether the problem is the design, the words or search, start with the audit so you spend the bigger money on the right fix.
Ready for a professional read of your site? Get in touch and tell me what you’re seeing, or see what The Website Audit covers.
