Quick Tech Audit
A fast review of the most important technical foundations. Target time: under 1 hour.
For a comprehensive audit, see the full Tech audit.
1. Technology Stack
Install the Wappalyzer browser extension and visit the site. Wappalyzer detects what technologies a site is built with — framework, CMS, analytics tools, hosting, etc. Click the extension icon to see the full list with version numbers. Note any outdated versions, as these can have security vulnerabilities and missing features.
2. HTTPS
Check that the site uses HTTPS (look for the padlock icon in the browser address bar). Try visiting the HTTP version (http://example.com) — it should automatically redirect to HTTPS. Also open the browser console (F12 → Console) and look for “mixed content” warnings, which mean some resources (images, scripts) are still loaded over insecure HTTP.
3. Responsive Viewport
Right-click → View Page Source and search for <meta name="viewport". It should be set to width=device-width, initial-scale=1. Without this tag, mobile devices will render the page as if it were a desktop screen and then shrink it down, making text tiny and unreadable.
Test the layout at a few widths: resize the browser window or use Chrome DevTools device mode (F12 → click the device toggle icon).
4. Console Errors
Open the browser console (F12 → Console tab) on the homepage and 2–3 key pages. Look for red error messages — these indicate JavaScript crashes or failed network requests. Note them down; they’re easy wins to flag since they’re clear, concrete problems.
5. Semantic HTML
Right-click → Inspect on the page and look at the HTML structure. Well-built pages use meaningful elements like <header>, <nav>, <main>, and <footer> to describe the page layout, rather than wrapping everything in generic <div> tags. Semantic HTML helps screen readers, search engines, and overall code maintainability.
6. Third-Party Scripts
In the DevTools Network tab, reload the page and look at all the requests. Filter by domain to spot third-party scripts (analytics, chat widgets, ad trackers, etc.). Too many third-party scripts slow the site down and can be a privacy concern. Flag any that seem unnecessary or that load synchronously (blocking the page from rendering).
7. Favicon and Basics
A few small things that matter:
- Favicon — does the site have an icon in the browser tab?
<html lang>— right-click → View Page Source and check the<html>tag has alangattribute matching the page language (e.g.lang="en"orlang="sv")- 404 page — visit a URL that doesn’t exist (e.g.
example.com/thispagedoesnotexist). It should show a “not found” message and return a404status code (check in the Network tab). Some sites show an error page but return200, which confuses search engines