A free website audit is one of the oldest ways to start a conversation with a potential client. It's also one of the most abused. Most audits are 20-page PDFs full of automated scores that the business owner never reads. A good audit is the opposite: short, specific and easy to act on.
Why audits work when they're done right
An audit gives you a reason to get in touch that isn't "please hire me". You're offering something useful first. If it's good, it does three jobs at once:
- It shows the owner a problem they didn't know about.
- It proves you understand their website and their business.
- It makes the next step, fixing the problem, feel obvious.
Keep it to one page
Business owners are busy. If your audit doesn't fit on one screen, it won't get read. A structure that works:
- A one-line summary. "Your website looks good on a laptop, but three things are costing you enquiries on phones."
- Three to five findings. For each one: what you found, why it matters in business terms, and how you'd fix it.
- One clear next step. A short call, or a fixed price for the fixes.
That's it. No scores out of 100, no wall of charts.
What to include
Pick findings the owner can check for themselves. If they can see it, they'll believe it.
| Finding | How to explain it |
|---|---|
| Not mobile-friendly | "On a phone, the text is tiny and the menu covers the page. Most of your visitors are on phones." |
| Slow homepage | "The page took about five seconds to appear on my phone. Many people leave before that." |
| Outdated footer year | "The footer still says © 2021, which can make the business look less active than it is." |
| No HTTPS | "Browsers show a 'Not secure' warning, which puts people off before they read anything." |
| Broken links | "Two links on the homepage go to pages that no longer exist." |
| No page description | "Google has to guess what to show under your name in search results." |
What to leave out
- Jargon. "Largest Contentful Paint" means nothing to a plumber. "Takes five seconds to load" does.
- Every small issue. Pick the problems that matter most to the business. Fewer, bigger points land better.
- Criticism of the person who built it. The owner may have built it themselves, or paid a friend. Keep it about the site.
Free or paid?
A short audit, sent with your first message, should be free. It's your introduction. A deeper review, with a full plan and priorities, can be a paid first project. Many owners are happy to pay a small fixed fee for a clear plan, and it often leads to the bigger job.
Finding sites worth auditing
An audit only works if the site actually has problems worth fixing. Rather than auditing sites at random, start with sites that already show the issues above. Dozif checks every website for them, so you can filter for, say, sites that aren't mobile-friendly or sites without working HTTPS, and go straight to the ones with the most to gain.
Then send the audit with a short, personal message. Our guide to cold emails for web designers has examples you can adapt.
