When a client comes to us asking why their website is slow, underperforming in search, or running into technical issues, we don’t guess. We put their site through a set of trusted tools that quickly uncover what’s working and what’s broken.
These are the tools we use in our own audits, from SEO to performance to security. Some are free, some are paid, but all of them are battle-tested.
The List
Here are the 10 tools we use to analyze every website.
1. Google PageSpeed Insights
Google’s own tool for checking Core Web Vitals, page load speed, and performance across desktop and mobile. It highlights render-blocking scripts, unoptimized images, and opportunities to improve load times.
2. GTmetrix
A deeper dive into performance. GTmetrix provides a waterfall chart to see which scripts, files, or requests are slowing down your site. It’s excellent for diagnosing caching issues and pinpointing bottlenecks.
3. Google Search Console
Formerly Webmaster Tools, this is the go-to for SEO and indexing. It shows how Google crawls and interprets your site: indexing errors, keyword queries, structured data, and even mobile usability problems.
4. Screaming Frog SEO Spider
This desktop tool crawls a site just like a search engine would. It finds broken links, duplicate content, missing metadata, redirect chains, and more. A must-have for technical SEO audits.
NOTE: alternatives include Ahrefs, SEMRush, and Moz. We like Screaming Frog because it’s free up to index up to 500 pages.
5. MX Toolbox
Web performance is not just about speed and SEO. Email deliverability and domain health matter too. MX Toolbox lets us test SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, DNS configuration, and whether a domain has landed on blacklists.
6. W3C Validator
A classic tool for checking if your HTML and CSS are valid. While not every error is critical, validation helps ensure cross-browser compatibility and fewer rendering issues.
7. SSL Labs (Qualys SSL Test)
Security is foundational. SSL Labs runs a full check on your SSL/TLS configuration, flagging weak ciphers, certificate issues, or vulnerabilities that could put data at risk.
8. WAVE Accessibility Tool
More companies are paying attention to accessibility, and rightly so. WAVE is a quick tool for identifying missing alt text, low contrast issues, or navigation barriers for users with disabilities.
9. SecurityHeaders.com
Beyond SSL, modern websites should use proper security headers. This tool checks for missing HTTP headers that can protect against clickjacking, XSS, and other vulnerabilities.
10. Tag Assistant / Tracking Validation
Analytics often gets overlooked during an audit. Using Google Tag Assistant or similar tools, we confirm that Google Analytics, Tag Manager, and other tracking pixels are firing correctly so you can trust your data.
Conclusion
Analyzing a website goes beyond just SEO or speed. By using this set of tools, we get a full picture of how a site is performing, where the weak spots are, and what to fix first.
If your website feels slow, invisible in search, or just “off,” running it through these tools can be a great first step. And if you’d like a deeper dive, we’d be glad to walk you through a full audit and action plan.