URLTO GUIDE
What should you fix first in a website audit?
A long report can hide the next action. Begin with whether visitors can open the page, then investigate settings that conflict with its intended purpose.
URLTO editorial · Updated
Website audit · series02 / 10
1. Understand the report's scope
Website Audit analyzes a public URL's response and fetched HTML. It also checks same-host robots.txt and sitemap.xml signals within a time budget. It does not visit every page of the site, and JavaScript-generated or authenticated content may differ from the report.
2. Order work by its effect
| Priority | What to review | Next action |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Access failure or unexpected destination | Check the URL, response and redirects |
| 2 | Unintended noindex or canonical | Compare settings with publication intent |
| 3 | Title, description and content structure | Make them describe the actual page |
| 4 | Sharing images and alternative text | Review context and the shared result |
3. A warning needs context
A private result page may intentionally use noindex. Empty alternative text on a decorative image needs different treatment from an informative image. Review the page's role and actual markup before changing a flagged item. URLTO's aggregate score is not a ranking prediction or security certification.
4. Recheck the same URL after a change
Give the responsible person the URL, observed issue, intended behavior and observation date. Recheck the same URL after a fix and inspect the page in a browser. Continue with the dedicated link, redirect or social-preview tool when you need to examine those signals.