This checklist is designed to be run by a marketer and a developer together, in about half a day. The marketer knows which pages matter and why each tool is on the site; the developer can check how the pages are built. The result is a short, prioritized list of fixes rather than a long report nobody acts on.
If you are new to the metrics mentioned here, read Website performance for marketers first.
Before you start
Pick the pages to audit. You don't need to check every URL; start with the pages that carry your traffic and leads:
Your top ten landing pages by sessions over the last three months, from your analytics.
Your top converting pages, such as pricing, demo request and contact pages.
One page per template, for example a blog post, a case study and a service page. Fixing a template fixes every page that uses it.
Open three free tools: the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, and your analytics. Create a simple spreadsheet with one row per page and columns for each metric.
Record today's numbers before you change anything. Without a baseline, you can't show what the work achieved.
Step 1: Field data
Start with field data, which shows what real visitors experience. That is what Google measures and what your leads feel.
Step 2: Images and media
The largest element in the first screen, usually a hero image or video, decides how fast the page feels.
Step 4: Scripts and tags
Third-party scripts often compete with your own page for the browser's attention, which shows up as poor responsiveness. Our guide to how third-party scripts slow your site explains the loading options in detail.
Step 6: Responsiveness
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures how quickly the page reacts to clicks and taps. It depends on real interactions, which lab tools can only approximate, so test by hand as well.
How to prioritize what you find
You will end up with more findings than you can fix at once. Sort them with three questions:
Does it affect a metric that is failing in field data? Fixing a lab warning on a page that already passes in the field can wait.
How much traffic and how many leads does it affect? A fix to a template or to your top landing pages beats a fix to a single page.
How much effort is it? Removing an unused tag takes minutes; replacing a page builder can take months.
Priority | Example |
|---|
Do now | A failing metric on top landing pages with a quick fix, such as an oversized hero image or an unused tag |
Plan next | Template-level fixes, such as font loading or reserving space for embeds |
Needs a decision | Changes to the platform, hosting or design system |
When the list turns up more than your team can handle in-house, a speed and tracking audit covers the same ground and ends with a prioritized plan.
After the fixes
Re-run the pages in PageSpeed Insights straight away to confirm the lab improvement. Field data covers the last 28 days, so it takes up to a month to reflect a change. To follow it, open the issue in Search Console's Core Web Vitals report as soon as the fix is live and click "Start tracking". Search Console then monitors the affected pages for 28 days and reports whether the fix worked.
Next steps
Repeat this audit every quarter, and whenever a new tool or major campaign template is added. If your tracking needs the same kind of review, our Google Tag Manager and GA4 tracking audit checklist follows the same format.
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