You invested in a GetOiling or AttractWell website because you wanted a place to bring your business together. Your offers, your email list, your booking link, your resources—all working together so you can show up and share what you do. But now, even logging into your back office feels overwhelming.
Where do you start? What needs updating? Which pages are people actually seeing? And what happened to that freebie you added six months ago? If that sounds familiar, this is something I see often in my client work.
I would estimate that about 75% of my clients come to me after they’ve already invested in GetOiling or AttractWell. Some need a new website from scratch, but most already have the platform. They need help making sense of what’s there and connecting the pieces. And that involves a lot more than knowing which button to click.
There is more to a website than learning the platform
In my experience, GetOiling and AttractWell are user-friendly platforms with so much you can do inside them. But having access to those possibilities doesn’t mean you immediately know how to use them for your business. You’re also making decisions about your branding, copy, graphics, formatting, offers, and the path you want someone to follow.
What belongs on your homepage? What should your menu include? Where should that button send someone? What happens after they sign up?
Then there are the templates, resource bundles, duplicated pages, and campaigns you’ve collected along the way. Maybe you claimed a bundle—or two or five—with every intention of coming back to customize it. Over time, your back office can become a collection of things you’re using, things you used to use, and things you haven’t quite figured out yet.
That’s why an audit has become one of the first things I like to do when I start working with someone, including previous clients returning for a refresh. Before we build more, we need to understand what’s already there.
Just because it is in your back office does not mean it is private
During this week’s Elevate Weekly work session, one participant had 11 screens of custom pages, with room for 16 pages on each screen. That’s potentially more than 160 pages to sort through. Some may be useful. Others may be duplicates, old offers, unfinished templates, or pages that no longer reflect her business.
Here’s the part I want you to remember: If a page is published and publicly accessible, someone can visit it—even if you haven’t linked it in your menu.
Your menu is not the boundary of your website. Someone might reach a page through an old email, a saved link, a shared post, or a search engine. If Google has discovered and indexed it, that page can potentially appear when someone searches for your name, business, or something you offer. Imagine someone’s first impression being a template you never customized, an outdated offer, or a page with someone else’s placeholder copy. You may have forgotten it was there. Your visitor doesn’t know that.
Having a lot of pages doesn’t automatically hurt your SEO. But keeping outdated, duplicate, or unfinished content publicly available can create entry points that don’t represent your business well. A thoughtful cleanup helps you make clearer decisions about what visitors should find.
Start with a trim before you start a redesign
Your first step doesn’t have to be rewriting your entire website. Start by reviewing your custom pages and deciding what you want to do with each one:
- Keep: It serves a purpose and reflects your current business.
- Update: You’re using it, but the content, branding, or links need attention.
- Unpublish: You may want to use it later, but it isn’t ready for visitors.
- Remove: You no longer need it, after checking whether anything still depends on it.
You don’t have to let go of every resource you might want to customize later. You can keep a page without leaving it published. Before unpublishing or removing an active page, check whether your emails, buttons, booking links, or other pages still send people there. If you’re replacing it, update those connections and consider a redirect where appropriate.
Also, changes don’t disappear from Google immediately. Search results can take time to catch up after a page is unpublished or updated.
This initial trim gives you a more manageable starting point. You can see what deserves your attention instead of treating every page as equally urgent.
An audit follows the connections
When I audit a website, I’m looking beyond how the homepage looks. I want to understand what someone experiences as they move through it—and what happens after they take action.
Your pages and presentation
- Does the copy speak to the people you want to reach today? Are you still promoting something you no longer offer? Do the graphics, formatting, and branding feel consistent?
- We also look at page titles, link paths, meta descriptions, and sharing descriptions. A meta description can help explain a page in search results; a sharing description helps present it when the link is shared on social platforms.
- Meaningful images should have useful alt text, too. That supports accessibility and gives search engines more context about what the image shows.
These details support a clearer website, but they don’t replace useful, relevant content or guarantee search rankings.
Your buttons and next steps
- Are your buttons working? Where do they send people? Is the next step what the button promised?
- Is your menu easy to follow, or does someone have to sort through too many options before they know where to go?
A visitor should be able to understand what you offer and find the next step without having to figure out your entire business.
Your lead magnets and email campaigns
- If someone requests your free resource, do they receive it? Is the correct email campaign attached?
- How many messages are in that campaign? Are the links still working? Are the emails introducing current offers, or sending people toward something you’ve retired?
Each message should have a purpose. We want to know what you’re inviting someone to do and whether the sequence helps them get there.
Your offers, booking, and everyday links
- We review free resources, paid offers, and booking connections. We also check the places you regularly send people from, including your email signature.
- An old link in your signature can keep directing people to an outdated page long after you’ve refreshed your homepage.
The goal is to see how the pieces work together and identify what needs attention first.
You do not have to fix everything at once
An audit is especially helpful if you’re rebranding, returning to your business after a quieter season, changing your offers, or feeling overwhelmed by content that has accumulated. You may discover that you don’t need an entirely new website... you need to enhance, elevate, and brandify what you already have.
An audit isn’t usually an activity that produces income immediately, but it can uncover broken paths that prevent people from subscribing, booking, or buying. It also gives you a practical list of priorities. Start with what affects your visitors most: unfinished public pages, broken links, resources that aren’t being delivered, or booking steps that don’t work. Then work through the remaining updates at a pace you can manage.
Grab the free DIY Website Audit Guide
I created my free DIY Website Audit Guide to help you start this process without wondering what to look for. It walks you through your pages, links, lead captures, campaigns, offers, and customer journey so you can document what’s working and what needs attention.
Use the guide alongside a working document in Google Docs to keep your notes and priorities in one place. As you make updates, you can return to those notes and track your progress. Although today’s post focuses on GetOiling and AttractWell—the platforms I work in with my clients—the guide can be used with any website.
Want a fresh set of eyes on your website?
After you grab the free guide, look for the discount code in your email. It lets you save 50% on my personalized Get Unstuck Website Audit if you’d rather have me review your website for you. Within 72 hours of purchasing, you’ll receive your audit by email, including findings, recommended next steps, and priorities to help you decide where to begin.
At checkout, you can also add a 55-minute audit follow-up and strategy session for 50% off. We can go over your audit together or use that time to look strategically at your back office and the connections behind your website.
That discounted session is available only when you purchase the personalized audit, so keep it in mind if you know you’d like time together to work through your questions. And if you’d like a place to start alongside others, come to an Elevate Weekly work session, every Friday at noon Central Time. Bring your questions and something you’re ready to work on.
You’ve already invested in your website. Let’s help you get clear on what’s there so you can use it with more confidence.
AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER:
I’m a proud affiliate for some of these tools and products that are suggested on this page and throughout my site. Meaning if you click on a product and make a purchase, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. My recommendations are based on knowledge and experience and I recommend them because they are genuinely useful and helpful, not because of the small commission that I may receive.
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