How Do You Review Your Existing Website?

We have a goal. Now let's look at the website.

In Lesson 1, you wrote a goal for ClearFlow Plumbing. The owner wants more relevant water heater repair enquiries from homeowners in Austin. We now have a reason to look at the website, but we don't yet know what needs changing.

Imagine the owner asks, “Should we write more articles, rebuild the homepage, or change our service pages?” It would be easy to make a suggestion. But before spending time or money, wouldn't you want to see what the website already does well?

That's what a website review is. We look at the pages people can use, notice anything that helps or gets in the way, and write down what we still need to check. We aren't changing the website or running a full technical audit today.

Start at the homepage

Let's open ClearFlow's website, just as a customer might. Its pages and inspection evidence are part of our fictional course case study. Look at the homepage first, then choose Water Heater Repair in its navigation.

The homepage tells us ClearFlow helps homeowners in Austin with water heater repairs and drain cleaning. It also gives people a way to find the service pages and the Contact page.

That's already useful. The wording is brief, and there may be ways to make it clearer, but we haven't seen evidence that the whole homepage needs replacing.

A website review isn't about finding something wrong with every page. It should also recognize what's already helping visitors.

Now let's follow Water Heater Repair, the service the owner cares about most.

The page opens normally. It has a title, a short explanation, and a Contact link. But imagine you're the homeowner trying to decide whether to get in touch. The service description tells us almost nothing about the repairs ClearFlow can help with.

That's something we can see. We can say, “This service page has very little information for someone deciding whether ClearFlow can help.”

What we can't say is, “ClearFlow provides same-day emergency water heater repairs.” The owner hasn't told us that. A good reviewer notices missing information and asks for the facts instead of filling the gaps with guesses.

Here's how we'd record the finding in everyday language:

What we noticed: The water heater repair page explains very little about the service.
Why it matters: A homeowner may not have enough information to decide whether to contact ClearFlow.
What we'd ask: Which water heater problems does ClearFlow actually handle?

This is a useful review note, even though we haven't written any new page content yet.

Some problems need more than a quick look

So far, we've looked at ClearFlow's website the same way a customer would. We've opened its pages, read the information, and checked whether it's easy to find what we need.

But not every website problem is something we can see.

Some problems are hidden in the way a website is built or configured. To find them, SEO professionals use tools to check how the website works and whether search engines can access its pages. This is called a technical SEO check or technical SEO audit.

For our ClearFlow example, we've already carried out a technical check and prepared a short report for you to examine.

You don't need to know how to use these tools just yet. We'll learn more about them and how to investigate technical problems in Lesson 9.

Let's look at something the report found.

What does noindex mean?

noindex is an instruction that tells search engines not to include a webpage in their search results.

ClearFlow's Water Heater Repair page has this instruction, and Google reports that it has excluded the page from its search index.

But here's the interesting part: the page still works normally. Someone can open it through ClearFlow's website or by following a direct link. They just won't find that particular page in Google's search results while Google is applying that instruction.

This is a problem for ClearFlow because the business wants homeowners searching for water heater repairs to discover that page.

It can also affect visibility in Google's AI search features because a page needs to be indexed to be eligible as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Other AI services have their own rules, so we shouldn't assume that every AI assistant is prevented from mentioning the business.

What should we do with this finding?

Now that we've identified the problem, we know what needs attention.

The next step is to confirm that the setting is unintended and arrange for it to be corrected with the owner's approval. Depending on the website, that correction may need a developer.

Removing the instruction would remove a known barrier to appearing in Google Search. However, it wouldn't guarantee that Google will index the page or show it near the top of the results.

We've now found two different things about ClearFlow's website.

By reading the Water Heater Repair page, we noticed that its service information could be clearer. By carrying out a technical check, we discovered a setting that's preventing Google from indexing it.

Both findings matter, but they require different improvements.

And that's why a website review is such an important part of SEO. Before deciding what to change, we need to understand what is working, what isn't, and what the available evidence tells us.

As you progress through this course, you'll learn how to carry out these checks yourself and use the findings to make better SEO decisions.

Now look at one more page

Let's practise with ClearFlow's Drain Cleaning page. Here it is in the same website layout, so you can review it without scrolling back.

The page already names the service and area. That helps. It also gives a way to contact ClearFlow. But there is not much detail about what a homeowner can expect from the service.

Rather than guessing what ClearFlow offers, let's record what we can see and what we'd ask the owner.