The Wellness Website Audit: 20 Questions to Ask About Your Site Right Now

Most wellness practitioners have a general sense that their website could be better. Very few have a specific sense of which problems matter most. This audit gives you that specificity. Work through it with your website open and a notebook beside you. Answer honestly, the value is in finding what's broken, not in confirming that everything is fine.

For each question, the scoring is binary: yes or no. "Sort of" counts as no. At the end, your answers will tell you which category of problems to address first.

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First Impressions (Questions 1–5)

1. Does your homepage headline describe what you do for your specific client, not just what you do?

A headline that says "Yoga and Mindfulness Studio" describes the business. A headline that says "Yoga for people recovering from injury, taught by practitioners who've been there" describes an outcome for a specific person. If your headline would fit on any competitor's site, it is not doing its job. Why it matters: visitors make a stay-or-leave decision in under three seconds, and the headline is the primary text they read in that window.

2. Is there a real photograph of your studio, your face, or your actual clients, not stock imagery?

Open your website. Look at the hero image. If you reversed-image-searched it and found it on twenty other websites, it is stock. Stock photography registers as generic at a subconscious level and undermines the authenticity that wellness clients are looking for. Why it matters: research consistently shows that authentic photography outperforms stock in both time-on-site and conversion rate.

3. Is there one clear call-to-action button visible without scrolling on mobile?

Test this by opening your site on your actual phone and looking at the screen without touching it. Is there one button that clearly tells you what to do next? If there are three competing options (Book, Learn More, Contact) that counts as no. Why it matters: decision paralysis is real. One clear action always outperforms three competing options.

4. Is there any social proof visible on the homepage without scrolling?

A specific testimonial, a metric, a recognisable client or press mention. Something that answers the implicit question: "is this place as good as it looks?" before the visitor has committed to reading anything. Why it matters: visitors form trust judgments within the first view, and a homepage with no social proof visible early is asking for trust it hasn't earned.

5. Does your homepage load in under three seconds on a phone?

Test at pagespeed.web.dev and look at the mobile score. Below 50 means your visitors are experiencing significant delays. Why it matters: 53% of mobile users abandon a site that takes more than three seconds to load, according to Google's research. Speed is not optional.

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Copy and Messaging (Questions 6–10)

6. Does your homepage copy speak to the visitor's situation, not just describe your services?

Read your homepage as if you were a potential client with a specific problem. Does it acknowledge what they're going through? Or does it describe your philosophy and your qualifications and your approach, leaving the visitor to work out for themselves whether any of it applies to them? Why it matters: copy that addresses the reader's situation creates recognition. Recognition creates trust. Trust creates bookings.

7. Does your services page describe outcomes, not just session lengths and modalities?

"60-minute massage, £85" is a transaction listing. A services description that explains what changes for the client after the session is an outcome frame. Why it matters: clients buy outcomes, not inputs. Describing inputs and leaving the client to infer the outcome is an unnecessary step that reduces conversion.

8. Could your homepage headline belong to any of your three closest competitors?

Read your headline and genuinely ask this question. If the answer is yes, the headline is not specific enough to create differentiation or recognition. Why it matters: generic copy creates generic results.

9. Does your about page tell your story in terms of why it matters to the client, not just your chronological biography?

Read your about page. Count how many sentences begin with "I" or are primarily about your history and credentials, versus how many are about the client, their situation, or why your background is relevant to them. Why it matters: the about page is visited primarily by people deciding whether to trust you. What they want to find is evidence of understanding, not a CV.

10. Is your copy free of wellness clichés, "holistic," "your journey," "transformational," "safe space"?

These phrases appear on so many wellness websites that they have lost all meaning. They do not differentiate; they homogenise. Why it matters: clichés make copy invisible. Specific language creates recognition. Generic language creates noise.

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Technical Performance (Questions 11–14)

11. Does your site have an SSL certificate, does the URL begin with https?

If your URL shows as http:// without the S, every modern browser displays a "Not Secure" warning to visitors. Why it matters: for a wellness practice built on trust, a "Not Secure" flag in the address bar is catastrophic. Fix this immediately, most hosts include SSL for free.

12. Does your site display correctly and function fully on iOS Safari and Chrome on Android?

These two browsers handle CSS and JavaScript differently from desktop browsers, and layouts that work perfectly on desktop frequently break on one or both. Test on actual devices, not a browser simulator. Why it matters: the majority of your visitors are on mobile. A site that breaks on mobile is broken.

13. Does Google Search Console show your site as indexed with no critical errors?

Set up Google Search Console if you haven't already. Check the Coverage report for errors. A site with indexing errors may not be appearing in Google at all for some pages. Why it matters: you cannot rank for searches that Google cannot index.

14. Does your hero image load visually in under 1.5 seconds on mobile?

This is the Largest Contentful Paint metric. Test it at PageSpeed Insights, look specifically for the LCP figure on the mobile report. Why it matters: LCP is one of Google's Core Web Vitals ranking signals. A slow hero image suppresses both rankings and conversions.

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SEO Basics (Questions 15–17)

15. Does your homepage title tag include your primary service and location?

Check what appears in the browser tab when your homepage is open. "Home | Studio Name" is a missed opportunity. "Yoga Studio in [City] | Studio Name" tells Google and search users exactly what you offer. Why it matters: the title tag is the single most important on-page SEO element and the first thing users read in search results.

16. Have you claimed and optimised your Google Business Profile?

Search your studio name on Google Maps. If a profile appears, is it claimed by you? Does it have accurate hours, real photos, a keyword-rich description, and recent reviews? Why it matters: the Google Map Pack (the block of local results that appears for "near me" searches) is where the majority of high-intent local search clicks go. Without an optimised profile, you are invisible to this traffic.

17. Does your site have at least one blog post targeting a specific question your clients search?

"What to expect at your first yoga class," "yoga for lower back pain," "how to choose a therapist." Each of these is a genuine search query that brings prospective clients to sites that have answered it. Why it matters: each blog post is a new page that can rank, a new entry point, and a demonstration of expertise that builds trust before a client ever contacts you.

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Conversion Architecture (Questions 18–20)

18. Does your booking or contact form require fewer than four fields?

Count the required fields in your initial contact form. More than three (name, email, and one open question) is friction. Each additional field reduces completion rates. Why it matters: the person who has decided to enquire should encounter the minimum possible resistance between intention and action.

19. Does a clear call-to-action appear at least three times on your homepage?

In the navigation, in the hero, and at the bottom, at minimum. The visitor who scrolls past the hero and reads your content for two minutes should encounter an obvious next step when they are ready to act, not have to scroll back up. Why it matters: conversion intent peaks at unpredictable moments. The CTA needs to be wherever the visitor is.

20. After submitting your contact form, does the visitor receive a confirmation that feels human?

Test this yourself. Submit your own form. What do you receive? A generic "your message has been received" page? A confirmation email that reads like it was auto-generated by software? Or something that sounds like it came from a person? Why it matters: the confirmation is the first communication you send to someone who has taken a significant step. It sets the tone for the relationship.

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Your Results

18–20 yes: Your site is well-optimised. The remaining gaps are refinements rather than fundamental problems.

14–17 yes: Your site has a solid foundation with meaningful gaps. Prioritise the no answers in the First Impressions and Conversion Architecture categories, they will have the most immediate impact on bookings.

10–13 yes: Your site has structural problems in multiple categories. Start with the Technical questions (11, 12, 13) if any are no, these have floors below which everything else doesn't matter. Then address First Impressions.

Below 10 yes: Your site is working against you more than for you. The most impactful decision is to rebuild from a sound foundation rather than patch individual problems.

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This audit identifies problems. Addressing them requires prioritisation, not everything can be fixed simultaneously, and some fixes require more resource than others. The questions in the First Impressions and Conversion Architecture categories have the highest leverage; they are worth fixing before the others.

If working through this raised more questions than it answered, or if you'd prefer an expert to do this systematically, with the context of knowing what the benchmark looks like across dozens of wellness sites, a GladeForm audit does exactly this, and tells you not just what is broken but what to do about it in what order. See our therapist website design → or yoga studio web design → overviews.