Website Marketing Audit Template: Copyable Worksheet

Use this website marketing audit template as a blank, copyable record for a bounded public-site review. It organizes scope, observations, evidence states, claims, journeys, search and performance evidence, competitor context, gaps, and decisions. It does not replace customer research, private analytics, CRM, product evidence, or a complete business audit.

If you need instructions for what to inspect, use the free website marketing audit checklist. This guide owns the reusable worksheet that records the work.

1. Audit charter

Audit name:
Decision supported:
Decision owner:
Canonical domain and entity:
Products, audiences, markets, and languages included:
Page roles and maximum pages:
Devices and locations:
Evidence cutoff date:
Private sources available:
Explicit exclusions:
Reviewers:
Final review date:

Scope table

Surface or source	Included scope	Collection method	Cutoff	Limitation
Public website
Performance provider
Search evidence
Analytics or CRM
Customer or sales research
Competitor public evidence

2. Evidence-state key

Use one state per record:

State	Use when
Observed	A page, response, provider result, user fact, or first-party record exists
Calculated	A documented deterministic method derives a value from observed inputs
Inferred	A reviewer, model, or rule interprets evidence and may be wrong
Unavailable	A qualifying source did not return sufficient evidence or access was absent
Not measured	The audit did not attempt the question

Never convert unavailable or not measured into zero. Keep the raw state even if a later decision uses a simplified summary. The missing-data review protocol explains the distinction.

3. Master observation register

Copy one row for every material observation:

ID	Question	URL or scope	Observation	State	Source and retrieved date	Interpretation	Confidence and reason	Next step	Owner
OBS-001

Decision rule: no finding enters the final priority table unless it cites at least one observation ID or is explicitly labeled a research question.

4. Identity, audience, and offer worksheet

Field	Public observation	Approved company truth	State	Conflict or gap	Owner
Entity and business description
Priority audience
Trigger or problem
Product or service
Mechanism
Primary value
Qualification or exclusion
Primary call to action

Review caution: the website is evidence of public communication. It does not prove the internal strategy or customer preference. Resolve material conflicts with authorized product and marketing owners.

5. Claims and proof worksheet

FTC substantiation guidance expects a reasonable basis for objective advertising claims before they are made. Record both the express wording and the impression it may create.

Claim ID	Claim and location	Type	Audience and scope	Evidence source	Qualification	Approval status	Review trigger
CLM-001		Capability, outcome, comparative, testimonial, security, or method				Draft, approved, disputed, or retire

Decision rule: an unsupported material claim becomes correction or research work. It does not remain published because the qualification appears elsewhere.

6. Journey worksheet

Step	Page and device	Reader question	Visible answer or action	Observed friction	State	Evidence ID	Follow-up source
Entry
Orientation
Evaluation
Proof
Commitment
Confirmation

Review caution: visible friction is a hypothesis about behavior. Conversion, lead quality, and revenue conclusions require valid first-party measurement.

Add an accessibility observation for every critical interactive path. At minimum, test that the path is operable through a keyboard under WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 2.1.1, then record the exact control, page, device, result, and follow-up owner rather than assigning a generic accessibility score.

7. Search and technical worksheet

Finding ID	URL or template	Intended state	Observed condition	Evidence source	Scope	Confidence	Required verification
SEO-001		Public, canonical, indexable, or another approved state

Use the technical SEO audit guide when discovery, rendering, indexing, site architecture, or structured data requires a deeper method. Crawling and indexing are not guaranteed, and a tool observation is not access to Google's internal systems.

8. Performance worksheet

Page or origin	Device	Evidence class	Date or period	Metric or observation	Scope	State	Diagnostic next step
	Mobile or desktop	Lab or field			URL or origin

Keep Lighthouse lab diagnostics separate from CrUX field data. PageSpeed Insights documents that they answer different questions. No qualifying field record means unavailable field evidence.

9. Content and page-role worksheet

URL	Audience	Page job	Search or journey intent	Primary evidence	Next route	Collision or gap	Owner decision

Google recommends helpful, reliable, people-first content and descriptive, crawlable links. Use this worksheet to identify page-role conflicts, not to award points for word count or exact-match keyword repetition.

10. Competitor and alternative worksheet

Candidate	Role	Buyer and job overlap	Public evidence	Direct evidence	State	Confidence	Keep, move, research, or exclude
	Direct, adjacent, substitute, status quo, search, or aspirational

Use the competitor validation guide before a candidate changes positioning. A shared query or similar homepage does not prove buyer substitution.

SBA market-research guidance pairs competitive analysis with direct research. Use public competitor pages to record visible claims, then use customer, prospect, and sales evidence to test whether an alternative actually entered the decision.

11. Evidence-gap register

Gap ID	Missing question	Current state	Why it matters	Valid next source	Owner	Due or review trigger	Decision blocked?
GAP-001		Unavailable, not measured, conflicted, stale, or insufficient					Yes or no

Decision rule: if a gap owns a material premise, either collect the source, narrow the claim, or mark the decision blocked. Do not fill it with a generic benchmark.

12. Finding and decision summary

Finding ID	Evidence IDs	Finding and limitation	Impact class	Confidence	Proposed response	Owner	Acceptance evidence	Status
FND-001			Correctness, blocker, experience, positioning, opportunity, measurement, or research					Proposed, blocked, deferred, chosen, or rejected

Prioritize only after validity and affected scope are confirmed. A number may help order comparable items, but it is not truth and must not hide blocked or unavailable states. For deeper handoff, use turning audit findings into actions.

Illustrative fictional example

The following example uses invented generic entities and does not describe a customer or result.

ID	Question	URL or scope	Observation	State	Interpretation	Next step	Owner
OBS-017	Is the priority audience consistent?	Fictional ExampleCo homepage and product page	Homepage says "operations teams" while product page says "agency teams"	Observed	Audience hierarchy may be unclear	Ask product marketing to approve the priority audience for this quarter	Product marketing lead

Decision record:

Finding ID	Evidence IDs	Finding and limitation	Proposed response	Acceptance evidence	Status
FND-006	OBS-017	Two public pages use different audience frames; customer preference was not measured	Resolve page roles after approved audience decision	Approved audience field plus revised page-role map	Blocked pending owner decision

The example stays blocked. It does not assign a low score or infer which audience is commercially stronger.

Reviewer sign-off

Complete this record before the worksheet becomes a planning input:

Review area	Reviewer	Status	Required correction	Date
Company and product truth		Approved, disputed, or blocked
Evidence and measurement scope		Approved, disputed, or blocked
Public claims		Approved, disputed, or blocked
Customer and competitor assumptions		Approved, disputed, or blocked
Technical findings		Approved, disputed, or blocked
Priority and ownership		Approved, disputed, or blocked

Sign-off confirms that the worksheet is suitable for the named decision and evidence cutoff. It does not certify that every marketing question was answered. A blocked review area stays visible and follows the gap-register rule.

Where Alesta can reduce setup work

This template works without Alesta. When Alesta is used, its current free workflow can provide source material that reviewers manually transfer into parts of the public identity, homepage, performance, technical, page-sample, and candidate-competitor worksheets. No automatic template integration or population is implied. The workflow starts from a registered domain, creates editable public identity and Product Information, inspects a rendered homepage, runs mobile and desktop PageSpeed diagnostics with CrUX where available, performs a technical audit of up to 25 pages, and acquires up to 12 successful same-origin public pages. Its bounded competitor workflow and Marketing Strategy document can supply review candidates.

Reviewers must still correct inferences and add private evidence. The baseline does not provide customer research, Search Console, analytics, CRM, revenue, budgets, backlinks, ranked keywords, observed AI visibility, monitoring, or execution. The Alesta home route provides current product context.

Completion rules

• Every material finding cites evidence or is labeled a research question.
• Every source retains scope and date.
• Observed, calculated, inferred, unavailable, and not measured stay distinct.
• Claims have evidence and approval status.
• Public-site hypotheses are not presented as private business facts.
• Blocked and deferred decisions remain visible.
• Every chosen response has an owner and acceptance evidence.
• The audit ends with next decisions, not one overall health score.