Guide
How to run a website conversion audit
A repeatable method for auditing why a website loses revenue — the six steps, the 44 growth domains scored across ecommerce, SaaS, service, local and agency sites, and how to rank fixes by the money at stake.
The method
Six steps, in this order
Most audits fail because they start with opinions about design. Start with numbers, finish with a ranked list, and measure again afterwards.
01Set the baseline before you look at anything
Record sessions, conversion rate, average order or lead value, and the mobile-versus-desktop split for the last 90 days. Without these, every finding is an opinion and nothing can be ranked by money.
02Classify the site honestly
An ecommerce store, a SaaS product, a service business, a local business and an agency lose money in different places. Audit against the framework that matches the business model, not a generic checklist.
03Measure technical performance with live field data
Run Google PageSpeed Insights on a real money page — a product, pricing or booking page — on mobile. Note Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, and any JavaScript console errors.
04Walk the primary conversion path on a phone
Complete the action a customer completes: add to cart and pay, request a demo, submit the enquiry, book the slot. Note every field, every surprise, and every point where you had to think.
05Score each domain, then attach a number to it
Give each of the domains below a score out of 100 with the evidence that justifies it. Then model the revenue at stake: sessions x realistic conversion-rate lift x average value. Fix in that order, not in the order you found things.
06Re-scan after the fixes land
A conversion audit is worthless without a second measurement. Re-run the same checks 2-4 weeks after deployment and compare scores, not feelings.
44 domains
What to audit, by site type
Every framework shares the same technical, analytics, security and design foundations, then diverges where the business model does. Score each domain out of 100 with evidence attached.
Ecommerce
Online stores selling physical or digital products.
17 domains · goal: sell products
- Homepage Experience
- Product Page Quality
- Collection Navigation
- Checkout Experience
- Cart Experience
- Reviews & Trust
- Email Capture
- Lifecycle Marketing
- Retention
- Merchandising
- Shipping Clarity
- Mobile Conversion
- Performance & Speed
- Technical SEO
- Analytics & Tracking
- Security & Privacy
- Visual Design & Accessibility
Service Business
Consultancies, studios and professional services selling expertise.
17 domains · goal: generate leads
- Homepage Messaging
- Service Pages
- Lead Generation
- Contact Experience
- Booking Funnel
- Trust & Credibility
- Case Studies
- SEO
- Content Quality
- Conversion Optimization
- Email Capture
- Client Journey
- Performance & Speed
- Mobile Experience
- Analytics & Tracking
- Security & Privacy
- Visual Design & Accessibility
SaaS
Software products sold on subscription or self-serve signup.
15 domains · goal: generate demos
- Homepage Positioning
- Product Messaging
- Pricing Page
- Demo Funnel
- Signup Experience
- Activation
- Trust Signals
- Content Strategy
- SEO
- Performance & Speed
- Mobile Experience
- Email Capture
- Analytics & Tracking
- Security & Privacy
- Visual Design & Accessibility
Local Business
Location-led businesses winning nearby customers.
13 domains · goal: book consultations
- Local SEO
- Google Business Signals
- Reviews
- Contact Information
- Booking Flow
- Trust
- Mobile Experience
- Homepage Messaging
- Performance & Speed
- Content Quality
- Analytics & Tracking
- Security & Privacy
- Visual Design & Accessibility
Agency
Agencies and partners selling retained or project work.
15 domains · goal: book consultations
- Homepage Messaging
- Positioning & Differentiation
- Case Studies
- Service Pages
- Lead Generation
- Contact Experience
- Trust & Credibility
- Content Quality
- SEO
- Email Capture
- Conversion Optimization
- Performance & Speed
- Analytics & Tracking
- Security & Privacy
- Visual Design & Accessibility
Prioritising
Turn findings into a ranked plan
A conversion audit is only useful if the output is ordered. Three rules decide the order.
Impact is a number, not a t-shirt size
Estimate the conversion-rate lift a fix can realistically deliver, multiply by traffic and order value, and express it in the site's own currency. A 0.2% lift on 40,000 sessions beats a 2% lift on 400.
Confidence comes from evidence
Only rank a finding highly when you can point at the artefact — the console error, the missing schema, the 4.1s LCP, the checkout field. Findings with no evidence go to the bottom.
Effort decides sequencing, not inclusion
Cheap high-impact fixes ship this week. Expensive high-impact fixes get scheduled. Nothing high-impact gets dropped because it is hard.
Running an ecommerce store? The Shopify conversion checklist works through the same domains as 26 concrete manual checks.
Questions
Website conversion audit FAQ
What the audit covers, how long it takes, and how often to repeat it.
What is a website conversion audit?
A structured review of everything between a visitor arriving and converting — speed, technical SEO, messaging, the conversion path itself, trust signals, analytics and lifecycle follow-up — scored with evidence and ranked by the revenue at stake.
How long does a website conversion audit take?
Manually, roughly half a day to a full day per site: a couple of hours on technical and performance data, the rest walking the conversion path and reviewing trust, analytics and email. An automated scan does the same domains in a few minutes.
How often should you audit conversion?
Quarterly for most sites, and after any redesign, replatform, checkout change or major traffic shift. The value comes from comparing scores over time, so keep the method identical between runs.
What should a conversion audit report contain?
A score per domain, the evidence behind each score, a specific change for each finding, the expected result, and a modelled revenue range so the list can be prioritised rather than merely read.
Is a conversion audit the same as an SEO audit?
No. An SEO audit is about being found; a conversion audit is about what happens after. They overlap on speed and technical hygiene, which is why technical SEO is one domain inside this framework rather than the whole of it.
Free download
Take the checklist with you
Every step, domain and prioritisation rule from this guide on a single printable page, with tick boxes and space for owners.
Website Conversion Audit Checklist (PDF)
One page · A4 · no email required.
Have the audit run for you
istovibe scores every domain above automatically, pulls live Google PageSpeed data and models the revenue at stake for each fix.