How AuditCrow Checks Your Website: Our Methodology

When you run an AuditCrow scan, we analyse your page across several categories and surface issues in plain language. Every finding has a severity (how much it hurts your site) and a fix difficulty (how much effort it usually takes to fix). We explain every term in the report so you don't need a developer to understand it. For a quick start, try our free website audit tool or read how to read a website audit report.

What We Scan

We scan the single page whose URL you give us. Think of it like a health check for that one page: we look at its structure, content, speed, and safety, and give you a clear list of what to fix. We don't crawl your whole site in one go (crawling means visiting many pages in one run). We focus on one URL so you get a clear, actionable report for that page. If you need to check lots of pages at once, you can run multiple scans or use tools like SEOptimer or Screaming Frog for larger crawls. We compared AuditCrow to others in best free website audit tools 2026.

Our Categories and Checks

We group issues into the following areas. Each check either passes or produces an issue with a short explanation, a severity (critical, warning, notice), and a fix difficulty (easy, medium, hard).

1. SEO Fundamentals

We check the elements that search engines and users see first:

Page title - The line of text that appears as the blue link in Google results (like the headline on a book spine). We check it's present, unique for that page, and a reasonable length (e.g. under 60 characters).
Meta description - The short summary under the title in search results. We check it's present and within a reasonable length (e.g. under 160 characters).
Headings - The main heading (H1) and subheadings (H2, H3, etc.) that structure your page. We check you have one main heading, a logical order, and no skipped levels.
Links - Broken links (links that go to missing or error pages), and basic link attributes.
Canonical - A signal that tells Google "this is the main version of this page" when you have similar or duplicate URLs. We check it's set correctly where it matters.
Structured data - Extra information in a standard format (e.g. schema or JSON-LD) that helps search engines understand your content. We detect it and check it's valid.

These align with what you'd expect from Google's guidelines and tools like Lighthouse. For more on acting on these, see 5 SEO quick wins and how to audit your website for SEO.

2. Performance and Speed

We look at factors that affect how quickly your page loads and responds:

Resource size - Large images, scripts, or styles that slow the page down.
Render-blocking resources - Scripts or styles that the browser must load before it can show the page, so they delay what visitors see first.
Caching - Whether the server tells the browser it can store copies of images and other files so returning visitors load the page faster.
Compression - Whether the server squashes text and code (e.g. with gzip or brotli) so less data is sent over the network.
Core Web Vitals-related signals - We look for issues that would hurt the main speed and stability metrics Google uses (how fast the main content appears, how quickly the page responds to a tap or click, and whether the layout jumps around while loading).

We don't replace PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse for precise lab metrics; we translate speed-related findings into clear, prioritised issues. More context: why website speed matters.

3. Accessibility

We check common accessibility issues (so people with disabilities can use your site). These are often based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG):

Images - Whether images have alt text (a short description read aloud by screen readers for people who can't see the image).
Colour contrast - Whether text stands out enough against its background so it's readable.
Form labels - Whether every form field has a visible label that's properly associated with it.
Heading and landmark structure - So assistive technology (e.g. screen readers) can navigate the page logically.
Keyboard and focus - Whether someone can reach and use all interactive elements with just the keyboard.

Accessibility improves usability for everyone and can align with SEO. See what is website accessibility for more.

4. Security Basics

We look for basic security and trust signals:

HTTPS - Whether the page is served over a secure connection (so data is encrypted). We check for TLS (the technology behind the padlock in the browser).
Mixed content - Insecure resources (e.g. images or scripts loaded over plain HTTP) on an otherwise secure page. Browsers may block these or show warnings.
Security headers - Settings the server sends (e.g. HSTS, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy) that help protect against certain attacks and improve trust.

We don't perform penetration testing or vulnerability scanning; we focus on basics that affect trust and compliance.

5. Content Quality

We evaluate content-related signals:

Word count - Very short pages may be flagged as thin (not enough substance for users or search engines).
Duplicate or boilerplate content - Where the same block of text appears across many pages, which makes it harder for Google to know which page to rank.
Readability - Basic sentence and paragraph length to spot overly dense or sparse text.

These help you spot pages that need more or better content. For common patterns we see, read common website issues small business.

How We Prioritise Issues

Each issue has:

Severity - Critical (blocks or seriously harms your site or users), Warning (important to fix), Notice (optimisation).
Fix difficulty - Easy, Medium, Hard (based on typical effort to fix).

We list issues so you can tackle critical and easy items first, then warnings, then notices. The report is designed to be shared - e.g. with a developer or agency - or downloaded as a PDF for your records. Report links are valid for 30 days; we don't store reports long-term.

What We Don't Do

We don't crawl your whole site in one scan (single-page focus).
We don't replace Google Search Console for real search performance data - use Search Console alongside an audit.
We don't run backlink or competitive analysis; for that, consider Ahrefs, Semrush, or similar.

Run a Scan

To see this methodology in action, run a free scan. You'll get a report that reflects these categories and priorities. If you have questions, check our FAQ or contact us. For comparisons with other tools, see AuditCrow vs SEOptimer and AuditCrow vs Google Lighthouse.