The new year brings fresh opportunities and a natural time for reflection. While many of us make personal resolutions about health and habits, it’s also the perfect time to evaluate something crucial to your business success – your website. Just like our personal health check-ups, it’s good to regularly review your website and making sure it is still serving your business needs effectively. A comprehensive website health check can highlight areas needing attention.
Think of your website as your 24/7 online storefront. It’s often the first impression potential customers have of your business, and it needs to do more than just look good – it needs to perform, convert, and grow with your business.
In this guide, we’ll walk through essential areas to review, helping you identify if your website is still fit for purpose or needs some attention as we move into 2025. Whether you’re running a small local business or managing a larger operation, these checks will help ensure your website continues to be a valuable asset for your business.
Let’s start our website health check by looking at one of the most important foundations – performance and speed.
Performance and speed
Website speed isn’t just a technical metric – it’s directly tied to your business success. Studies consistently show that users abandon websites that take more than a few seconds to load, and search engines like Google consider site speed when ranking pages. A slow website isn’t just frustrating for visitors; it’s potentially costing you customers.
Key areas to check:
- Test your website’s load time
- Review and optimise large image files that might be slowing down your pages
- Check if your hosting plan still suits your website’s needs
- Ensure your website is using caching, and this is set up well
- Monitor server response times for potential bottlenecks
If your pages take more than 2-3 seconds to load, it’s time to consider optimisations or upgrades. Simple changes like optimising images or updating your hosting plan can make a significant difference in your website’s performance.
If your website was built over 2 years ago, then it’s definitely a good time to review and evaluate if the technologies used on the site are still the best fit. This can extend to platforms, page builders, themes and plugins. The web design world moves fast, and there are often new tools, methods and platforms to use that can make a big impact on speed and performance.
The next crucial part of our website health check is mobile responsiveness.
Mobile responsiveness
If you’re looking at your website analytics, you’ll likely find that most of your visitors are coming from mobile devices. This isn’t surprising – mobile browsing has become the norm, and your website needs to deliver a seamless experience across all screen sizes.
A mobile-responsive website isn’t just about fitting on a smaller screen. It’s about ensuring your content is easy to read, your navigation is thumb-friendly, and your important calls to action are easily accessible. Poor mobile experience can quickly send potential customers to your competitors.
Simple mobile checks to perform:
- Browse your website on different mobile devices and tablets
- Test your contact forms and buttons – are they easy to tap?
- Check if your text is readable without zooming
- Ensure images scale correctly on smaller screens
- Verify that menus and navigation are easy to use on mobile
Beyond just looking good, your mobile website needs to be functional. Can customers easily find your phone number and click to call? Is your address linked to map directions? These small details make a big difference in converting mobile visitors into customers.
Security and maintenance
Your website security is like insurance – you might not think about it until something goes wrong, but by then it’s often too late. Regular maintenance and security checks are essential to protect your business and customer data.
Unfortunately the reality now is that hackers don’t just target big businesses. Small business websites are often seen as easier targets, making regular security reviews crucial. A compromised website can damage your reputation, lose customer trust, and even impact your search engine rankings.
Essential security checks for your website:
- Verify all software, plugins and themes are up to date
- Ensure your SSL certificate is current and working correctly
- Check your backup system is running and test a restore
- Review user accounts and remove any unused logins
- Monitor for any unusual activity or login attempts
Remember that security isn’t a one-time fix. Regular updates, strong passwords, and ongoing monitoring are your best defence against potential threats. If you’re using a content management system like WordPress, staying on top of updates is particularly important.
Content relevance and freshness
The content on your website tells your business story and connects with your customers. Outdated or irrelevant content can quickly erode trust and make your business appear unprofessional.
Start by reviewing your core business information. Have your services changed? Are your prices still current? Is your contact information up to date? These might seem obvious, but it’s surprising how often these essential details get overlooked.
What to review in your content audit:
- Check all service descriptions are current and accurate
- Update team information and staff profiles if needed
- Review your business hours and holiday closures
- Ensure pricing and package information is up to date
- Look for outdated terminology or references
- Check that seasonal content or promotions are current
Fresh, relevant content also helps with search engine rankings. If you have a blog or news section that hasn’t been updated in months (or years), consider either committing to regular updates or removing dates to keep your site looking active and engaged.
User experience and navigation
Your website might have all the right information, but if visitors can’t find what they’re looking for quickly, they’ll leave. Good navigation isn’t just about having a nice menu – it’s about creating a logical path for visitors to follow.
Think about your website from a new visitor’s perspective. Can they quickly understand what you do? Is it clear how to contact you? Are your most important services or products easy to find? Your website should guide visitors naturally towards taking action, whether that’s making a purchase, filling out a form, or picking up the phone.
Key navigation elements to assess:
- Review your main menu structure and labels
- Check that your contact details are visible on every page
- Ensure important calls to action stand out
- Test all internal links to avoid dead ends
- Verify that forms are working and easy to complete
Pay special attention to your footer navigation too. Many visitors scroll straight to the bottom of pages looking for contact information or quick links. A well-organised footer can significantly improve your website’s usability.
SEO and visibility
Search engine optimisation might seem complex, but at its core, it’s about making sure your website can be found by the right people. As search engines evolve, your SEO strategy needs regular review to stay effective.
Start with the basics of your local presence. Is your business showing up correctly in Google Business Profile? Are your business name, address, and phone number consistent across your website and online directories? Local SEO is particularly important for businesses serving specific geographic areas.
Essential SEO elements to check:
- Review your page titles and meta descriptions
- Check that your Google Business Profile is up to date
- Ensure your content includes relevant local keywords
- Verify that your site loads properly for search engines
- Look for and fix any broken links
- Check your website appears correctly in search results
Remember that good SEO isn’t about tricking search engines – it’s about clearly communicating what your business does and who it serves. Make sure your content naturally includes the terms your potential customers might use when searching for your services.
It’s also worth noting the recent changes in how search engines present results. With the introduction of AI-generated summaries and answers, having clear, well-structured content is more important than ever. Search engines are now looking to extract direct answers from your website content to answer user queries. This means your content needs to be precise, informative, and well-organised to appear in these AI-generated summaries and maintain visibility in search results.
Conversion optimisation
Having visitors find your website is only half the battle – you need them to take action once they arrive. Whether it’s making a purchase, filling out a contact form, or calling your business, your website should be actively working to convert visitors into customers.
Start by identifying your key conversion goals. What actions do you want visitors to take on your website? Once you know what success looks like, you can better evaluate if your website is achieving these goals.
Areas to review for better conversions:
- Check if your calls to action are clear and compelling
- Review your contact forms – are they asking for too much information?
- Ensure your phone numbers are clickable on mobile devices
- Look at your website analytics to identify where visitors drop off
- Test your checkout process if you’re running an online store
- Monitor your form submission and enquiry rates
One often overlooked aspect of conversion is trust. Do you have recent testimonials? Are your security certificates visible? Is your business information complete and professional? These trust signals can make the difference between a visitor taking action or clicking away.
Action plan for your website health check improvements
Now that you’ve completed your website health check, it’s time to create a practical plan, it’s time to create a practical plan for improvements. Not everything needs to be fixed immediately, but having a structured approach will help ensure important updates don’t get overlooked.
Start by categorising issues based on their impact on your business:
- Critical issues that affect security or basic functionality
- High-priority improvements that directly impact sales or enquiries
- Medium-priority updates to improve user experience
- Nice-to-have changes that could be done over time
Consider your available resources and budget when planning updates. Some changes, like updating content or optimising images, might be manageable in-house. Other improvements, like security updates or major design changes, might require professional help.
Regular website health checks like this one are essential to do periodically, and the start of a new year is a great time. Remember that your website is an investment in your business. Regular website maintenance and strategic improvements are often more cost-effective than waiting until your site becomes seriously outdated or experiences problems.
