What you need
You can run a useful evaluation of your own site without special knowledge or paid help. You need a web browser, a phone, a notes document or spreadsheet, and a couple of free hours. The steps below are numbered so you can work through them in order and tick them off.
A caution before you begin: you know your own site too well. You remember what pages are supposed to say, so you may skim past things a newcomer would find confusing. Try to look at each page as if you had never seen it.
Step 1: Write down what the site is for
In two sentences, note what the site does and who it is for. Then add one measurable thing you would like visitors to do, such as send a message, buy a product or read more than one article. You will use this to judge whether findings matter.
Step 2: List your pages
Make a list of the pages on the site. If your site software has a page or post listing, copy from there. Otherwise, click through the menus and note what you find. Add columns for the page title and a short note on its purpose. For a site of a few dozen pages, this takes about half an hour and gives you a map to work from.
Step 3: Search for your own site
Type your site or business name into a search engine and see what appears. Then try a few phrases you would expect people to use to find your main pages. Note which of your pages show up, what the displayed title looks like, and whether anything unexpected appears, such as old pages or the wrong version of your address.
This is not a ranking check. Results vary by location and over time, and one look proves little. It is a quick way to see how your site presents itself and whether pages seem to be missing.
Step 4: Click through everything
Visit each page from your list. Click every menu item, button and obvious link. Write down anything that leads to an error, a blank page or the wrong place. Fixing broken links is some of the easiest improvement a site owner can make, and visitors notice them quickly.
Step 5: Read your key pages as a stranger
Choose your five most important pages and read them slowly. Ask:
- Can I tell within a few seconds what this page offers?
- Is the information correct and current?
- Is the writing clear, or does it repeat the same words over and over?
- Is the next step obvious?
Be honest about pages that exist only because someone thought they should. Pages with very little to say are candidates for expanding, or for content pruning if they add nothing.
Step 6: Check titles and headings
Look at the title shown at the top of the browser tab for each page. It should describe the page in plain words and differ from other pages. Then look at the main heading and subheadings. Good heading structure outlines what is on the page, in order. Well-written title tags and clear headings are free to fix and make pages easier to understand for both visitors and search engines.
Step 7: Test on your phone
Open the site on your phone and move through your main pages. Notice whether text is readable without pinching, whether buttons are easy to tap, whether images fit the screen and whether anything slides around while the page loads. Try it on mobile data rather than home wifi if you can, since that is closer to what some visitors experience. If you have a second phone or a tablet, repeat the test, because device testing often turns up layout problems that one phone hides.
Step 8: Check speed and security by feel
You do not need special measurements for a first pass. Notice how long a page takes before you can use it. Notice whether the address bar shows a secure connection, and whether the browser ever warns about anything. If your site feels slow on a normal connection, note which pages are slowest. Large images and many add-ons are common causes.
Step 9: Look at your numbers, if you have them
If your site already collects basic visit information, glance at which pages get the most visits and which get almost none. You are not looking for precise figures; you are looking for surprises. A page you consider important that nobody visits deserves a closer look. If you have no such information yet, add analytics setup to your list of tasks for later.
Step 10: Sort and decide
Go through your notes and sort them into three groups:
- Things that are broken or confusing and quick to fix.
- Things that need more effort, such as rewriting a weak page.
- Things to leave for now.
Choose the first three items from the first group and do those this week. Record what you changed and when, so you can look back later and see what effect, if any, the changes had.
What a DIY evaluation cannot tell you
Your own review will catch obvious problems and give you a sense of direction, but it has limits. It will not reveal everything about how search engines treat your site, it depends on your own judgment, and it cannot predict future rankings or traffic. If something seems seriously wrong, such as a sudden loss of visits you cannot explain, or if the site is large or complex, hiring help may be worth considering. For most small sites, though, this routine is a solid starting point, and repeating it every few months keeps small issues from piling up.