The barrier to entry for "website audit company" is low. Run a free scanning tool, drop the output into a branded template, and charge a few hundred pounds for it. That doesn't make every paid audit worthless, but it does mean the burden is on you to work out what you're actually buying before you commit.
Ask What Tool They're Using, and What They're Adding to It
Every audit, paid or free, is built on some kind of scanning or crawling tool underneath. That's not a red flag by itself - AuditCrow is exactly this, as a free automated scan. The question that matters is what a paid provider adds on top: do they manually check anything, do they interpret the findings for your specific business, or is the entire deliverable the tool's raw output with a cover page? A straight answer to "what does a human actually do here that a tool wouldn't" is a good sign either way.
Ask to See a Sample Report
A legitimate provider should be able to show you an anonymised example of a finished report. Look for whether it's specific to the site it was written about, or whether it reads like it could apply to any small business site with the domain name swapped in. Generic findings ("optimise your images," "improve page speed") that never reference anything concrete about the actual site are the tell of a repackaged automated output with no real review behind it.
Ask How Long It Will Take
An automated scan takes seconds. A genuine manual review of a meaningful site takes real time - days, not minutes - because a person is actually reading pages, checking context, and writing findings specific to what they found. If a quote for a "comprehensive audit" promises same-day turnaround on a large site, work backwards from that: either it's automated with a light manual pass, or the manual review is thinner than the pitch suggests. Neither is necessarily wrong, but you should know which one you're paying for.
Ask What Happens After the Report Lands
A report that lists problems and stops there puts all the implementation work back on you. Ask directly: does the price include any help prioritising, any follow-up call, or any support implementing fixes - or is the report the entire deliverable? Neither model is wrong, but the price should match which one you're getting, and it's a common source of disappointment when a client expected ongoing help and got a PDF.
Watch for These Red Flags
- Vague or shifting scope - if what's included changes depending on who you ask, or the provider can't describe up front exactly what they'll check, that's worth pausing on.
- Scare-tactic urgency - "your site is losing you thousands in missed sales" claims with no methodology behind the number are marketing, not findings.
- No willingness to explain findings - a provider who can't explain in plain English why something matters probably doesn't fully understand it themselves, which limits how useful their prioritisation advice actually is.
- Pressure to buy a bigger package before you've seen any findings - a legitimate audit should stand on its own; if it's positioned mainly as a foot in the door for a larger retainer, treat the "audit" itself with more scepticism.
Freelancer or Agency?
Neither is automatically the better choice. A freelancer is usually cheaper and more directly accountable to you personally, but has less capacity if the audit turns up a lot of implementation work. An agency has more resource behind it and often a broader range of specialists, but the audit itself may be handled by someone junior while a senior name sells the pitch. Ask directly who will actually be doing the audit work, not just whose name is on the proposal.
Try the Free Version First
Before paying anyone, run AuditCrow's free scan. It's the same category of automated check most paid providers start from, at no cost, with plain-English findings and no sales call attached. If what it finds is more than you can act on alone, you'll go into a paid conversation already knowing your site's baseline issues - which makes it much easier to tell whether a quote is offering genuine additional value or just repeating what you already know for free.