Free website audit — Brighton & UK-wide

51 five-star reviews

Free website audit

Send me your website address and I’ll go through the site myself, then write you a plain-English summary of what’s working, what’s costing you enquiries right now, and what I’d fix first. Usually within two working days. It costs nothing, there’s no card and no obligation, and nothing happens afterwards unless you ask it to.

I’m Spencer, a freelance web designer based in Brighton. A website health check is not a PDF from a scanning tool. Those give you a score out of 100 and a list of things that don’t matter. I go through the site myself and tell you what’s actually costing you enquiries — and if your site is in decent shape, that is what the audit will say.

Get my free website audit Or see a free mockup instead

Free. No card, no trial, no obligation.

WordPress Wix Squarespace Shopify Custom builds

£0What the audit costs. No card, no trial, no obligation

2 daysUsually two working days for the written summary

6Areas I check by hand on every website audit

From £600Fixed price for the fixes — only if you want them doing

Nothing here is automated. No scanner, no score out of 100, no 60-page export you’ll never read. Just me, your site, and a written list of what I’d change and in what order. Already know the site needs replacing rather than repairing? That’s a website redesign rather than an audit.

Request the audit →

The health check

What a website health check actually covers

A website health check is not a PDF from a scanning tool. Those give you a score out of 100 and a list of things that don’t matter. I go through the site myself and tell you what’s actually costing you enquiries.

Six things get looked at by hand on every audit, whatever your site is built with:

Speed on a real phone

Not a lab score — actual Core Web Vitals from real visitors, and what specifically is slowing you down. Usually unresized images, or a page builder loading forty stylesheets.

Whether Google can index it

Are your pages actually in the index? Is anything accidentally blocked? Are duplicate pages competing with each other? Does the sitemap match reality?

Whether your listings earn clicks

Pages ranking on page one and earning nothing is more common than you’d think. I check what Google is actually displaying, which is often not what you wrote.

Whether the site works

Broken links, 404s, redirect chains, forms that fail silently, contact details that are wrong or missing.

Security and updates

Out-of-date plugins, abandoned plugins nobody maintains any more, missing SSL, no backups, no firewall.

Accessibility

Contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation and form labels, measured against WCAG 2.1 AA — now a real legal consideration for a lot of UK businesses.

Every one of those either wins you enquiries or quietly loses them. The audit tells you which ones are currently losing them on your site, and roughly what it would take to turn each one around. If I can’t find anything meaningful in a category, I’ll say so and move on rather than padding the report.

WordPress specifics

WordPress website audit: what I look for

Most of the sites I audit are WordPress, and WordPress has a predictable set of problems. These are the ones that turn up again and again, and they’re the first things I check on a WordPress website audit.

Plugin bloat

A typical site I look at runs 30–60 plugins, a third inactive and several abandoned. Inactive plugins are still a security surface.

Caching plugins fighting

Genuinely common — two or three optimisers installed over the years, each undoing the other’s work.

Page builder weight

Elementor, Divi and WPBakery all ship a lot of markup. Fine if it’s configured properly, a real problem if it isn’t.

Version mismatches

The ones nobody notices — a premium plugin several major versions behind its free counterpart, unsupported and behaving strangely.

Database and media library

Post revisions stacking up, orphaned media, images uploaded at 4000px and displayed at 400.

Whether you actually own it

If your site is on a builder platform or a monthly licence, I’ll tell you what moving it would involve and what you’d keep.

Not on WordPress? That’s fine — I’ll audit Wix, Squarespace, Shopify or a custom build too, and I’ll be honest about what can be improved in place and what can’t. If you’d like the fixes handled for you afterwards, I offer WordPress support and hosting as well.

Audit my site

The deliverable

What you get back

A written summary in plain English, usually within two working days. Not a 60-page automated export.

It covers what’s working, what’s costing you enquiries right now, and what I’d fix first if it were mine — ordered by impact, not by how easy it is. If something is fine, I’ll say it’s fine rather than inventing a problem.

Where I can show you evidence, I will: your actual Search Console data if you’re happy to share access, real page speed measurements, screenshots of what Google is displaying for your pages.

If the honest answer is that your site is in decent shape and doesn’t need rebuilding, that’s what the audit will say. I’d rather tell you that than sell you a project you don’t need.

Afterwards, nothing happens automatically — there’s no sequence of follow-up emails. Some people take the audit and fix things themselves, which is fine; it’s written so you can hand it to whoever looks after your site.

If you do want me to do the work, I’ll quote a fixed price for the specific items, from £600. No retainer, no monthly management fee. Longer-term help with visibility is a separate SEO conversation, not something the audit signs you up to.

Request my free website audit

Free No card, no trial, no obligation

What lands in your inbox

A plain-English written summary, usually within two working days
What’s working and worth leaving alone
What’s costing you enquiries right now
A fix list ordered by impact, not by how easy it is
Real Core Web Vitals from actual visitors
Indexing, sitemap and duplicate-page findings
What Google is displaying for your pages, with screenshots
Broken links, 404s and forms that fail silently
Security, plugin and update risks
Accessibility measured against WCAG 2.1 AA
A fixed price for the fixes, from £600, only if you want it

How it works

How the free audit works

Four steps. All I need to start is your website address — everything else is optional.

First

You send the address

Fill in the form with your website address. If you’re willing to add me as a read-only user to Google Search Console and Analytics the audit gets considerably more useful, but it works without.

Then

I go through the site

By hand, not with a scanner. Speed on a real phone, indexing, what your listings look like in Google, broken links, security, accessibility — and the WordPress specifics if that’s what you’re on.

After that

You get the write-up

Usually two working days. Longer for a large site or an ecommerce shop. Written so you can hand it straight to whoever looks after your site, if that isn’t you.

Finally

You decide, or don’t

Fix it yourself, hand it to your developer, or ask me for a fixed price on the specific items, from £600. There’s no follow-up sequence either way.

FAQs

Common questions about the free audit

Still unsure about something? Ask me directly — I answer every enquiry personally.

Get my free audit

Is it genuinely free?

Yes. No card, no trial, no obligation.

What do you need from me?

The website address. If you’re willing to add me as a read-only user to Google Search Console and Analytics the audit gets considerably more useful, but it works without.

How long does it take?

Usually two working days. Longer for a large site or an ecommerce shop.

Do you only audit WordPress sites?

No. Most are WordPress and that’s where I can go deepest, but I’ll audit Wix, Squarespace, Shopify or a custom build. For those I’ll be honest about what can be improved in place and what can’t. If you’re weighing the platforms up, I’ve tested them head-to-head in my Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress comparison.

Will you just tell me I need a new website?

Not unless you do. Plenty of sites need three or four specific fixes, not a rebuild. If it genuinely is past saving, I’ll explain why, and then a website redesign is the honest answer rather than patching.

Do you audit sites outside Sussex?

Yes — this is all remote. I’m in Brighton and work with businesses across the UK.

What happens after the audit?

Nothing automatic. There’s no sequence of follow-up emails. Some people take the audit and fix things themselves, which is fine — it’s written so you can hand it to whoever looks after your site. If you do want me to do the work, I’ll quote a fixed price for the specific items, from £600. No retainer, no monthly management fee.

Can I have a design mockup as well?

Yes, and it’s also free. The audit tells you what’s wrong with the site you’ve got; a free mockup shows you what a replacement could look like. Plenty of people ask for both — say so in the form and I’ll send them together.

Recent work

Websites I’ve built

A few of the projects in my portfolio. Every one is a custom WordPress build, owned outright by the client.

Website design

Trusted by businesses across Sussex

Request your free website audit

Give me the website address and anything you already suspect is wrong. I’ll go through the site myself and send the write-up back, usually within two working days. Free, no card, and no obligation to do anything with it.

Call 01273 011148 07907 575812

Email spencer@podiumdesign.co.uk

Reviews 51 reviews

Request your free audit

I reply personally within one working day.

Sectors

Industries I work with

Whether you’re a startup, small business or multinational company, I build websites for businesses of all sizes across Sussex.