Evaluate Your Website: Assess It in 5 Simple Steps
When was the last time you took a critical look at your website? Most business owners launch their site and forget about it. But a website that was good 2 years ago might be outdated today.
A systematic website evaluation reveals problems you didn't know existed — and shows you exactly what needs to improve to get more customers.
What you'll learn
- 5 concrete steps to evaluate your website
- Free tools for each test
- What the results mean for your business
- When it's time for a redesign
Step 1: Test Speed
Speed is the most important technical factor. If your site is slow, visitors leave before they see your content.
How to Test
Use PageSpeed Insights — Google's own free tool. Enter your URL and wait for the results.
What to Look For
- Performance score above 90 (green) = Good
- 50-89 (orange) = Needs improvement
- Below 50 (red) = Critically slow
Key Metrics
| Metric | Good | Needs Improvement | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | Under 2.5s | 2.5-4s | Over 4s |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | Under 200ms | 200-500ms | Over 500ms |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | Under 0.1 | 0.1-0.25 | Over 0.25 |
These three numbers are called Core Web Vitals and directly affect your Google ranking.
Important
Always test BOTH mobile and desktop. Google uses the mobile version to evaluate your site, and the mobile score is almost always lower than desktop.
Step 2: Check Mobile Friendliness
Over 60% of all web traffic comes from mobile phones. If your site doesn't work well on mobile, you're losing the majority of your visitors.
How to Test
- Open your site on your phone
- Use Chrome DevTools (F12 → mobile icon)
- Test with Google's Mobile-Friendly Test
What to Look For
- Text is readable without zooming in
- Buttons are large enough to tap (minimum 44x44px)
- No horizontal scroll — everything fits within the screen
- Menu works on mobile (hamburger menu)
- Forms are easy to fill out with touch
- Images scale correctly
Step 3: Evaluate SEO
Search engine optimization determines whether potential customers find your website. A poor SEO score means invisibility in Google.
How to Test
- Google Search Console — Free, shows your site's performance in Google
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools — Free site audit
- Screaming Frog — Free crawler (up to 500 URLs)
SEO Checklist
Basics:
- ☐ Does each page have a unique title tag?
- ☐ Are title tags between 50-60 characters?
- ☐ Does each page have a meta description?
- ☐ Are meta descriptions between 140-160 characters?
- ☐ Do you use only one H1 tag per page?
Technical:
- ☐ Is your site indexed in Google? (Search:
site:yoursite.com) - ☐ Do you have an XML sitemap?
- ☐ Are there broken links?
- ☐ Is HTTPS enabled?
- ☐ Does the site load in under 3 seconds?
Content:
- ☐ Does each page have at least 300 words?
- ☐ Do you use relevant keywords naturally?
- ☐ Do you have alt text on all images?
- ☐ Is there internal linking between relevant pages?
Step 4: Assess Content
Good content is what convinces visitors to contact you. Poor content does the opposite.
Questions to Ask
About the homepage:
- Can a visitor understand what you offer within 5 seconds?
- Is there a clear call-to-action (CTA)?
- Do you highlight benefits (not just features)?
About service pages:
- Do you clearly explain what the customer gets?
- Are there prices or price indications?
- Is there social proof (reviews, cases, logos)?
About blog content:
- Are the articles up to date?
- Do they answer real questions your customers have?
- Do they link to your service pages?
Step 5: Measure Conversion
The ultimate test: Does your website convert visitors into inquiries or sales?
How to Measure
- Web analytics — See visitor count and conversion rate. We recommend Independent Analytics or Plausible as privacy-friendly alternatives to Google Analytics — they require no cookie banners and are GDPR-compliant out-of-the-box. Google Analytics is also an option, but requires cookie consent.
- Form submissions — How many use your contact form per month?
- Call tracking — How many call after visiting your site?
Calculate Your Conversion Rate
Conversion rate = (Number of inquiries / Number of visitors) × 100Benchmarks:
- Below 1% = Poor — clear improvement potential
- 1-3% = Average — can be improved with optimization
- 3-5% = Good — you're doing better than most
- Over 5% = Excellent
Your Website Scorecard
Give your website an overall rating:
| Area | Score (1-5) | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | __ | High |
| Mobile Friendliness | __ | High |
| SEO | __ | Medium |
| Content | __ | High |
| Conversion | __ | High |
| Total | __/25 |
What Your Score Means
- 20-25 points: Your website performs well. Focus on maintaining and fine-tuning.
- 15-19 points: There's room for improvement. Prioritize areas with the lowest scores.
- 10-14 points: Your website has significant issues. Consider a thorough update.
- Below 10 points: It's time for a website redesign.
Conclusion
An honest evaluation of your website is the first step toward improvement. Most websites have issues — the important thing is to identify them and prioritize what to fix first.
Want a professional assessment?
Contact me for a free, no-obligation review of your website. I'll give you a concrete action plan with the most important improvements.
