The Ultimate WordPress Website Audit Checklist for 2026

Your WordPress website is working right now, but is it working well? A comprehensive website audit reveals hidden problems that silently cost you traffic, leads, and revenue every single day. We’re often asked to perform website audits focusing on different aspects (plugins, speed, SEO, conversions), so we put together this comprehensive checklist to help you audit your own WordPress site.

Most WordPress audit guides scratch the surface: update your plugins, check your speed, maybe run a security scan. That’s a start, but it misses the issues that actually matter to your business—like whether your calls-to-action are converting, whether your plugin stack is bloated, or whether AI search engines can even find your content.

This guide covers everything. We’ll walk through 20 audit areas across 8 major sections, from security and performance to conversions and AI visibility. Whether you perform this audit yourself or hire a professional, you’ll know exactly what to look for and why it matters.

Time required: a complete audit of a large site can take a long time, for a smaller site expect it to take at least 4 hours.

What you’ll need: Admin access to WordPress, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and a speed testing tool like GTmetrix or PageSpeed Insights


Quick-Start Audit Checklist (30 Minutes)

Short on time? Start with these critical checks that catch the most common problems:

Immediate Actions:

  • [ ] Check for available updates (Dashboard → Updates)
  • [ ] Review admin user accounts for any you don’t recognize
  • [ ] Run a malware scan with Wordfence or Sucuri
  • [ ] Verify your site loads in under 3 seconds on mobile
  • [ ] Confirm your SSL certificate is active (look for the padlock)
  • [ ] Test your most important form or checkout process

Red Flags Requiring Immediate Attention:

  • Admin accounts you didn’t create
  • Site redirecting to unfamiliar URLs
  • Google search warnings about your site
  • Forms or checkout not working
  • Mobile site broken or extremely slow

If you find any red flags, stop and address them before continuing. For serious issues like unrecognized admin accounts or malware warnings, professional help is usually the fastest path to resolution.


Part 1: Foundation Audits

These audits ensure your WordPress site has a solid technical foundation. Problems here affect everything else.

1. WordPress Core, Theme, and Plugin Updates

Outdated software is the leading cause of WordPress security breaches. According to Bitdefender, 60% of breaches involve unpatched vulnerabilities—meaning the fix was available but never applied.

How to audit:

  1. Go to Dashboard → Updates
  2. Check if WordPress core needs updating
  3. Review all plugin updates available
  4. Check your theme for updates

What to look for:

  • WordPress core version (stay on the latest stable release line you can safely support, and prioritize security releases—avoid running versions that are out of WordPress security support)
  • Plugins with security patches noted in changelogs
  • Plugins that haven’t been updated in over a year
  • Themes showing “not tested with your version of WordPress”

Action items:

  • Update plugins with security fixes immediately
  • Update other plugins during your next maintenance window
  • Replace abandoned plugins (no updates in 12+ months) with maintained alternatives
  • Consider whether themes without recent updates should be replaced

Important: Always verify you have a working backup before applying updates. For detailed guidance on safe update procedures, see our complete WordPress maintenance guide.


2. Security Audit

Security problems can destroy your business overnight. A hacked site damages customer trust, tanks your search rankings, and can take weeks to fully recover from.

For a thorough security assessment, we’ve created a dedicated guide: How to Perform a WordPress Security Audit. Here’s the essential checklist:

User account audit:

  • [ ] Review all Administrator accounts (Users → All Users, filter by Administrator)
  • [ ] Remove or downgrade any admin accounts that don’t need full access
  • [ ] Check for suspicious usernames (random characters, generic names like “admin123”)
  • [ ] Verify all admin accounts use strong, unique passwords
  • [ ] Enable two-factor authentication for all admin accounts

Security plugin check:

  • [ ] Install Wordfence or Sucuri if you don’t have a security plugin
  • [ ] Run a full malware scan
  • [ ] Review firewall settings and blocked IP addresses
  • [ ] Check for failed login attempts (high numbers suggest brute force attacks)
  • [ ] Verify file integrity monitoring is enabled

Server-level security:

  • [ ] Confirm SSL certificate is valid and not expiring soon
  • [ ] Understand your host’s security capabilities and incident response process (different hosts handle this differently—ask what’s included)
  • [ ] Check that automatic server software updates are enabled
  • [ ] Confirm Web Application Firewall (WAF) is active if available

Critical security settings:

  • [ ] WordPress file editor is disabled (prevents code changes through dashboard)
  • [ ] XML-RPC is disabled or restricted (note: disabling breaks Jetpack, WordPress mobile apps, and some integrations—if you need these, restrict via WAF rules or security plugin instead of fully disabling)
  • [ ] Directory browsing is disabled
  • [ ] Error display is off in production

3. Backup Verification

Backups only matter if they actually work when you need them. Many businesses discover their backups are corrupted or incomplete only after disaster strikes.

How to audit:

  1. Locate your three most recent backups
  2. Verify they completed successfully (check for error messages in your backup tool’s logs)
  3. Confirm backup files exist and aren’t zero-byte or obviously truncated
  4. Actually restore a backup to a staging site—this is the only reliable way to verify backups work (file sizes can vary legitimately due to incremental backups, compression settings, and media changes)

What to verify during test restoration:

  • [ ] WordPress dashboard loads correctly
  • [ ] All pages display properly
  • [ ] Forms submit successfully
  • [ ] Media files (images, PDFs) are intact
  • [ ] Any eCommerce functionality works
  • [ ] Custom functionality operates as expected

Backup best practices:

  • Backups should run at least weekly (daily for active eCommerce sites)
  • Store backups off-site (not on the same server as your website)
  • Keep at least 30 days of backup history
  • Document your restoration process so it’s repeatable under pressure

Part 2: Plugin Audit and Cleanup

Most WordPress sites accumulate plugins over time like a garage accumulates boxes. This section helps you identify what to keep, what to remove, and what to replace.

4. Plugin Inventory and Assessment

Create a complete plugin inventory:

Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and document:

Plugin NameActive/InactiveLast UpdatedPurposeEssential?
Example PluginActive3 months agoContact formsYes

Evaluate each plugin against these criteria:

Keep if:

  • Actively maintained (updated within last 6 months)
  • Serves a clear, necessary purpose
  • Compatible with your WordPress and PHP versions
  • Transparent changelog and responsive support
  • Good reviews that address your use case

Replace if:

  • Not updated in 12+ months
  • Known security vulnerabilities
  • Duplicate functionality with another plugin
  • Poor reviews or abandoned support forums
  • Causes compatibility warnings

Remove immediately if:

  • Inactive and not needed
  • You don’t remember why you installed it
  • Duplicate of another plugin’s features
  • From an untrusted source

Note: Install count is a weak signal. Many excellent niche plugins (B2B, multilingual, accessibility, specialized eCommerce) have smaller user bases but are well-maintained and secure.

5. Plugin Redundancy Audit

Many sites run multiple plugins that do the same thing, wasting resources and creating conflicts.

Common redundancy patterns to check:

SEO plugins: Do you have both Yoast SEO and RankMath installed? Choose one.

Caching plugins: Multiple caching plugins conflict. Pick one: LiteSpeed Cache, WP Rocket, or W3 Total Cache.

Security plugins: Wordfence and Sucuri together is fine (complementary), but multiple firewall plugins create conflicts.

Image optimization: One optimizer is enough. Smush, ShortPixel, or Imagify—not all three.

Backup plugins: If your host provides backups, you may not need a backup plugin. If you use WP Remote or ManageWP, you don’t also need UpdraftPlus.

Form plugins: Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms—you only need one form solution.

6. Plugin Performance Impact Assessment

Some plugins dramatically slow your site. Identify the culprits.

High-impact plugin categories:

  • Page builders (Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder)—necessary but heavy
  • Social sharing plugins—often add significant JavaScript
  • Slider/carousel plugins—frequently performance killers
  • Analytics plugins—may add tracking scripts that delay loading
  • Chat widgets—can significantly impact load time

How to identify slow plugins:

  1. Install Query Monitor plugin temporarily
  2. Load a typical page on your site
  3. Check which plugins add the most database queries
  4. Check which plugins load the most scripts
  5. On a staging site or during a low-traffic maintenance window, deactivate suspected plugins one at a time and measure speed impact (have a rollback plan ready—deactivating the wrong plugin can break checkout or layouts instantly)

Performance audit actions:

  • [ ] Remove social sharing plugins if they’re not driving measurable engagement
  • [ ] Replace heavy sliders with static images or lightweight alternatives
  • [ ] Consider loading chat widgets only on specific pages
  • [ ] Evaluate whether page builder is necessary for all pages
  • [ ] Check if analytics plugins duplicate Google Analytics functionality

Part 3: Performance Audit

Site speed directly impacts conversions. According to Google/Deloitte research, a 0.1-second improvement in site speed can boost conversions by 8.4% for retail sites. For a detailed performance optimization guide, see Speed Up Your WordPress Site Without Changing Hosts.

7. Core Web Vitals Assessment

Google’s Core Web Vitals are the key metrics for measuring user experience:

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Should load within 2.5 seconds

  • Measures how quickly the main content appears
  • Usually your hero image or main heading

INP (Interaction to Next Paint): Should respond within 200 milliseconds

  • Measures how quickly the site responds to user interactions
  • Replaced FID (First Input Delay) in March 2024

CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Should be 0.1 or less

  • Measures visual stability (does content jump around?)
  • Often caused by images without dimensions or late-loading ads

How to test:

  1. Run your homepage through PageSpeed Insights
  2. Check both mobile and desktop scores
  3. Review the specific issues identified
  4. Test your highest-traffic pages individually

Target scores:

Google’s “good” (green) threshold for PageSpeed Insights Performance score is 90+. In practice:

  • Desktop: 90+ is achievable for most well-optimized sites
  • Mobile: 90+ is the goal, but many real-world sites struggle to reach it. If you’re below 90, prioritize fixing Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) over chasing the overall score. A pragmatic internal target of 75+ mobile can be a starting point, but don’t mistake it for Google’s “green” threshold.

8. Image Optimization Audit

Images are typically the largest files on your pages. Unoptimized images can add seconds to load time.

How to audit:

  1. Open your site in Chrome
  2. Right-click → Inspect → Network tab
  3. Reload the page
  4. Filter by “Img” to see all images
  5. Sort by “Size” to find the largest files

What to look for:

  • [ ] Images served at larger dimensions than displayed (wasted bandwidth)
  • [ ] Images in older formats (PNG when JPEG would work, no WebP/AVIF)
  • [ ] Large hero images impacting LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
  • [ ] High total image weight per page (check in DevTools Network tab)
  • [ ] Images without explicit width/height attributes (causes layout shift)

Note: There’s no universal “correct” file size—a large, high-DPI hero image may legitimately be 300KB+ if properly optimized. Focus on using modern formats, proper dimensions for display size, and measuring actual LCP impact rather than arbitrary file size rules.

Image optimization checklist:

  • [ ] Use modern formats: WebP or AVIF with JPEG/PNG fallbacks
  • [ ] Serve images at the actual display dimensions (not larger)
  • [ ] Compress images before uploading (TinyPNG, ShortPixel)
  • [ ] Specify width and height attributes in HTML to prevent layout shift
  • [ ] Use lazy loading for images below the fold
  • [ ] Consider using a CDN for image delivery
  • [ ] Prioritize optimizing your LCP image (usually the hero/header image)

9. Caching and CDN Audit

Caching and CDN configuration dramatically impact speed for repeat visitors and global audiences.

Caching audit:

  • [ ] Page caching is enabled and working
  • [ ] Browser caching is properly configured
  • [ ] Object caching is active (if your host supports it)
  • [ ] Cache is being cleared appropriately after updates

How to verify caching works:

  1. Open Chrome DevTools (F12) → Network tab
  2. Load your homepage (check “Disable cache” is OFF)
  3. Click on the main document request
  4. Check Response Headers for caching indicators:
    • Cache-Control (should show max-age or similar)
    • CF-Cache-Status: HIT (Cloudflare)
    • x-cache: HIT (many CDNs)
    • x-litespeed-cache: hit (LiteSpeed)
    • Age header (indicates time in cache)
  5. Reload and verify the cache headers show a cache hit on the second request

CDN audit:

  • [ ] CDN is properly configured (Cloudflare, StackPath, etc.)
  • [ ] Static assets are being served from CDN
  • [ ] No mixed content warnings (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages)
  • [ ] CDN SSL is properly configured

Part 4: Technical SEO Audit

Technical SEO ensures search engines can find, crawl, and understand your content. These issues often go unnoticed but can severely limit your organic traffic potential.

10. Crawlability and Indexing Audit

Google Search Console checks:

Log into Google Search Console and review:

  • [ ] Page indexing report (Pages): Check for pages with errors or pages that aren’t indexed
  • [ ] Sitemap status: Verify your sitemap is submitted and processed
  • [ ] Crawl stats: Look for sudden drops in crawl frequency
  • [ ] Manual actions: Any penalties applied to your site

Robots.txt audit:

Review your robots.txt file (yoursite.com/robots.txt):

  • [ ] Not blocking important pages or assets
  • [ ] Not blocking CSS/JavaScript files
  • [ ] Sitemap URL is included
  • [ ] AI crawlers are allowed (GPTBot, Google-Extended, ClaudeBot)

Common indexing problems to check:

  • [ ] Important pages accidentally marked “noindex”
  • [ ] Orphan pages with no internal links
  • [ ] Duplicate content without canonical tags
  • [ ] Pages blocked by robots.txt that should be crawlable
  • [ ] Redirect chains (more than one redirect to reach final URL)

11. On-Page SEO Audit

For your most important pages, verify:

Title tags:

  • [ ] Unique for each page
  • [ ] Include primary keyword
  • [ ] Under 60 characters
  • [ ] Compelling for clicks

Meta descriptions:

  • [ ] Unique for each page
  • [ ] Include call-to-action or value proposition
  • [ ] Under 155 characters
  • [ ] Accurately describe page content

Heading structure:

  • [ ] One H1 per page
  • [ ] Logical hierarchy (H2s, H3s in order)
  • [ ] Keywords included naturally
  • [ ] Headers accurately describe following content

Internal linking:

  • [ ] Important pages have multiple internal links
  • [ ] Anchor text is descriptive (not “click here”)
  • [ ] No broken internal links
  • [ ] Related content is cross-linked

Image SEO:

  • [ ] All images have descriptive alt text
  • [ ] File names are descriptive (not “IMG_12345.jpg”)
  • [ ] Images are relevant to surrounding content

12. Schema Markup Audit

Schema markup helps search engines understand your content and can enable rich results in search.

Essential schema types to verify:

  • [ ] Organization schema: Company name, logo, social profiles
  • [ ] LocalBusiness schema: (if applicable) Address, phone, hours
  • [ ] Article schema: Author, publication date, headline
  • [ ] FAQ schema: Question and answer pairs
  • [ ] Product schema: (for eCommerce) Price, availability, reviews
  • [ ] HowTo schema: Step-by-step instructions

How to test:

  1. Use Google’s Rich Results Test
  2. Enter your page URL
  3. Review any errors or warnings
  4. Verify the detected schema matches your content

Part 5: Content and Conversion Audit

Traffic means nothing if visitors don’t convert. This section audits whether your content actually drives business results.

13. Call-to-Action (CTA) Audit

Your CTAs are where traffic becomes leads and revenue. Audit every conversion opportunity.

Locate all CTAs on your site:

  • Homepage CTAs
  • Navigation CTAs
  • Sidebar CTAs
  • In-content CTAs
  • Footer CTAs
  • Exit intent popups
  • Form CTAs

For each CTA, evaluate:

Visibility:

  • [ ] CTA is immediately visible (above the fold for primary CTAs)
  • [ ] Color contrasts with surrounding elements
  • [ ] Size is appropriate—not too small to notice or too large to seem desperate
  • [ ] Mobile visibility is verified

Clarity:

  • [ ] Action is clear (what happens when they click)
  • [ ] Value proposition is stated (what they get)
  • [ ] Language is specific (“Get Your Free Quote” beats “Submit”)
  • [ ] Urgency is appropriate (not manipulative)

Functionality:

  • [ ] Link/button works correctly
  • [ ] Mobile tap targets are large enough (44×44 pixels minimum)
  • [ ] Form destination is appropriate
  • [ ] Thank you page/confirmation exists

CTA placement audit:

  • [ ] Primary CTA appears within first screenful (above the fold)
  • [ ] CTAs appear at natural decision points in content
  • [ ] Long pages have multiple CTAs (not just at the end)
  • [ ] CTAs are consistent but not repetitive

14. Form Audit

Forms are where conversions happen. Broken or frustrating forms cost you leads.

Form inventory:

Document all forms on your site:

  • Contact forms
  • Quote request forms
  • Newsletter signup forms
  • Lead magnet download forms
  • Account registration forms
  • Checkout forms

For each form, test:

Functionality:

  • [ ] Form submits successfully
  • [ ] Confirmation email is sent (if applicable)
  • [ ] Data appears in your CRM/email system
  • [ ] Thank you page displays properly
  • [ ] Error messages are helpful

User experience:

  • [ ] Required fields are clearly marked
  • [ ] Field labels are visible (not just placeholders)
  • [ ] Mobile experience is smooth
  • [ ] Form isn’t unnecessarily long
  • [ ] Auto-fill works for common fields

Conversion optimization:

  • [ ] Form asks only for necessary information
  • [ ] Value proposition is clear near the form
  • [ ] Privacy/spam concerns are addressed
  • [ ] Submit button text is action-oriented

15. Conversion Path Audit

Trace the complete journey from first visit to conversion.

For your primary conversion goal, document:

  1. Entry points: Where do visitors enter your site?
  2. Information gathering: What pages do they visit before converting?
  3. Decision point: Where do they decide to take action?
  4. Conversion action: What form/page completes the conversion?
  5. Follow-up: What happens after conversion?

Conversion path issues to check:

  • [ ] Entry pages have clear next steps
  • [ ] Information pages link to relevant service/product pages
  • [ ] Service/product pages have clear CTAs
  • [ ] Conversion forms are accessible from multiple paths
  • [ ] Mobile conversion path is as smooth as desktop

Analytics verification:

  • [ ] Conversion goals are set up in Google Analytics
  • [ ] Goal completions are being tracked
  • [ ] Conversion rate is within expected range for your industry
  • [ ] You can identify which traffic sources convert best

Part 6: Mobile Experience Audit

More than half your visitors likely use mobile devices. If your mobile experience is poor, you’re losing business.

16. Mobile Responsiveness Audit

Visual inspection on multiple devices:

Check your site on:

  • [ ] iPhone (Safari)
  • [ ] Android phone (Chrome)
  • [ ] iPad/tablet

What to look for:

  • [ ] Text is readable without zooming
  • [ ] Buttons and links are easily tappable
  • [ ] Images scale appropriately
  • [ ] No horizontal scrolling required
  • [ ] Navigation works smoothly
  • [ ] Forms are usable on mobile
  • [ ] Popups don’t block content

Mobile-specific issues:

  • [ ] Phone numbers are clickable (tel: links)
  • [ ] Maps link to native maps app
  • [ ] Mobile menu is functional and complete
  • [ ] Important content isn’t hidden behind “read more” buttons
  • [ ] Page load time is acceptable on 3G/4G

Mobile testing tools:

Use Lighthouse (built into Chrome DevTools) or PageSpeed Insights to evaluate mobile experience:

  1. Open Chrome DevTools (F12 or right-click → Inspect)
  2. Go to the Lighthouse tab
  3. Select “Mobile” and run the audit
  4. Review the Performance, Accessibility, and Best Practices scores

For real-world data, check Google Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report, which shows how actual mobile users experience your site.


Part 7: AI Search Visibility Audit

This is the audit section most guides miss entirely. As users increasingly get answers from AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews, your content needs to be optimized for AI discovery—not just traditional search.

For the complete picture on this emerging topic, see our Complete Guide to GEO and AEO Optimization.

17. AI Crawler Access Audit

AI platforms need to crawl your content to reference it in their responses. Whether to allow this access is a business decision with tradeoffs (bandwidth usage, content reuse in AI responses, competitive concerns, paywall considerations).

Check your robots.txt for AI crawler rules:

Review your robots.txt file for any explicit blocks on AI crawlers. A block looks like this:

# This BLOCKS the crawler
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

# This ALLOWS the crawler (or simply having no rule for it)
User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

Common AI crawlers to consider:

  • GPTBot (OpenAI/ChatGPT)
  • Google-Extended (Gemini/AI training)
  • ClaudeBot (Anthropic)
  • PerplexityBot (Perplexity AI)
  • CCBot (Common Crawl, used by many AI systems)

Action items:

  • [ ] Check whether you’re explicitly blocking any AI crawlers
  • [ ] Make an intentional decision about each crawler based on your business needs
  • [ ] If you want AI visibility, ensure you’re not blocking these crawlers
  • [ ] If you have paywalled or proprietary content, consider selective blocking
  • [ ] Verify critical content renders without JavaScript (server-side rendering)
  • [ ] Ensure your sitemap includes all important pages

18. AI-Friendly Content Audit

AI systems prefer specific content formats and structures.

Content structure check:

  • [ ] Questions are used as headers (matches how people query AI)
  • [ ] Direct answers appear early in content (not buried at the end)
  • [ ] Statistics and data are included with sources
  • [ ] Content includes authoritative citations
  • [ ] Definitions are provided for key terms
  • [ ] FAQ sections are present on key pages

E-E-A-T signals for AI:

  • [ ] Author names are visible with credentials
  • [ ] Organization information is clear
  • [ ] Content includes original research or data when possible
  • [ ] Sources are cited and linked
  • [ ] Content is regularly updated with timestamps

Schema markup for AI:

  • [ ] Organization schema establishes entity identity
  • [ ] FAQ schema is implemented for question-answer content
  • [ ] Article schema includes author and publication date
  • [ ] HowTo schema is used for instructional content

For a simplified approach to getting started, see Three Easy Steps to Improve Your AI Visibility.


Part 8: Analytics and Tracking Audit

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. This section ensures your tracking is accurate and actionable.

19. Google Analytics Audit

Basic tracking verification:

  • [ ] Google Analytics 4 (GA4) code is present on all pages
  • [ ] Real-time reports show active users
  • [ ] No duplicate tracking codes (causes inflated metrics)
  • [ ] Internal IP addresses are filtered out
  • [ ] Spam referrals are filtered

Conversion tracking (GA4):

  • [ ] Key events are marked as conversions (GA4 replaced “goals” with conversion events)
  • [ ] Conversion events are actually recording
  • [ ] Conversion values are set (if applicable)
  • [ ] E-commerce tracking works (if applicable)

Data quality check:

  • [ ] Engagement rate is realistic (GA4’s primary engagement metric—replaces bounce rate)
  • [ ] Average engagement time makes sense
  • [ ] Traffic sources are attributed correctly
  • [ ] No significant gaps in data

Note: GA4 handles metrics differently than Universal Analytics. “Bounce rate” still exists but is calculated differently (inverse of engagement rate) and may not appear by default. Focus on engagement rate and engaged sessions for similar insights.

20. Email Deliverability Audit

WordPress sends important emails: password resets, form notifications, order confirmations. If these aren’t delivered, you have a serious problem.

Test email functionality:

  1. Submit a test through your contact form
  2. Trigger a password reset
  3. Complete a test transaction (if eCommerce)

Email deliverability fixes:

If emails aren’t arriving reliably:

  • [ ] Install WP Mail SMTP plugin
  • [ ] Configure with a transactional email service (SendGrid, Mailgun, etc.)
  • [ ] Verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for your domain
  • [ ] Test deliverability with mail-tester.com

Audit Schedule: How Often to Review Each Area

Not every audit needs to happen monthly. Here’s a practical schedule:

Weekly (15 minutes)

  • Check for available updates
  • Review security alerts
  • Verify backup completion
  • Test primary conversion (form/checkout)

Monthly (1-2 hours)

  • Apply updates with testing
  • Security scan review
  • Performance check
  • Form functionality testing
  • Analytics review

Quarterly (4-6 hours)

  • Complete security audit
  • Backup restoration test
  • Plugin cleanup and assessment
  • CTA and conversion audit
  • Content freshness review
  • Mobile experience check

Annually (Full day)

  • Complete audit using this guide
  • Technical SEO deep dive
  • AI visibility assessment
  • Hosting and infrastructure review
  • Strategic planning for improvements

When to Get Professional Help

Some audit findings require expertise beyond DIY capabilities. Consider professional help when you discover:

Security issues:

  • Unrecognized admin accounts
  • Malware or suspicious files
  • Signs of active breach

Technical problems:

  • Database errors or corruption
  • Complex plugin conflicts
  • Performance issues you can’t diagnose

Strategic opportunities:

  • Major conversion optimization potential
  • Technical SEO requiring site structure changes
  • Need for ongoing maintenance you can’t commit to

For guidance on finding the right help, see How to Find a Good WordPress Developer for Your Website.


Audit Documentation Template

Download this simple template to document your audit findings:

Site Audit Summary

Date: _______________
Site URL: _______________
Audited by: _______________

Critical Issues Found:

  1. _______________ | Priority: High | Status: ___
  2. _______________ | Priority: High | Status: ___
  3. _______________ | Priority: High | Status: ___

Important Issues Found:

  1. _______________ | Priority: Medium | Status: ___
  2. _______________ | Priority: Medium | Status: ___
  3. _______________ | Priority: Medium | Status: ___

Opportunities Identified:

  1. _______________ | Impact: ___ | Effort: ___
  2. _______________ | Impact: ___ | Effort: ___
  3. _______________ | Impact: ___ | Effort: ___

Key Metrics Baseline:

  • PageSpeed Mobile: ___
  • PageSpeed Desktop: ___
  • Primary Conversion Rate: ___
  • Monthly Organic Traffic: ___

Next Audit Date: _______________


Next Steps After Your Audit

  1. Prioritize by impact: Fix security issues first, then items affecting conversions, then everything else.
  2. Create a timeline: Spread improvements over weeks rather than trying to do everything at once.
  3. Document changes: Note what you changed and when, so you can identify what caused any new issues.
  4. Measure results: Compare metrics before and after changes to verify improvements.
  5. Schedule your next audit: Put it on your calendar now so it actually happens.

Related Resources


About MantyWeb

Since 2009, MantyWeb has helped businesses maintain, secure, and optimize their WordPress websites. We specialize in making WordPress maintenance the easiest part of your business operations.

If you’d prefer professional help with your website audit or ongoing maintenance, we’d love to hear from you.