Free Tools Every Small Business Should Use to Check Their Website

These free online tools let any small business owner check their website's speed, security, SEO, and GDPR compliance without hiring a developer.

You don't need to hire anyone to find out if your website has problems. These tools are free, most don't need an account, and they'll tell you more about your site in ten minutes than most agencies will in a month. I use every single one of these in my own audits.

How can I check my website's speed?

1. Google PageSpeed Insights — Run your URL through this and you get a score out of 100 for both mobile and desktop. Below 50 on mobile? Your site is slow enough to lose customers. Google also uses this data to decide where you rank in search results.

2. GTmetrix — More detailed than Google's tool. Shows waterfall charts of what loads and when, so you can see exactly which file is causing the bottleneck. Good for finding the one massive image that's slowing everything down.

3. WebPageTest — Lets you test from different locations and connection speeds. Good for seeing what your site looks like on a bad phone signal. If your customers are on mobile in rural areas, this is the one to run.

How can I check if my website is secure?

4. SecurityHeaders.com — Grades your security headers from A to F. Takes two seconds. Most small business sites score D or F. If yours scores A, your developer actually knows what they're doing.

5. Qualys SSL Labs — Tests your SSL certificate and encryption setup. Gives you a letter grade. Anything below A means your HTTPS isn't configured properly, which can trigger browser warnings and erode trust.

6. Mozilla Observatory — Another security scan that checks for things the others miss, like Content Security Policy and cookie security flags. Run all three for the full picture.

How can I check my website's SEO?

7. Google Search Console — Free, from Google, tells you exactly what search terms people use to find you and where you rank. If you only set up one tool from this entire list, make it this one. It also flags indexing problems and mobile usability issues.

8. Bing Webmaster Tools — Same concept but for Bing and Copilot. Increasingly important as AI-powered search grows. If you're ignoring Bing, you're ignoring the search engine that feeds Microsoft's AI answers.

9. Ahrefs Free Webmaster Tools — Shows your backlinks, broken links, and basic site health. The free version is limited but enough to spot the problems that matter most. You'll need to verify ownership of your site.

How can I check if my website is GDPR compliant?

10. Cookiebot Scanner — Scans your site and lists every cookie and tracking script it finds. Shows you exactly what's loading before a visitor gives consent. Free for sites under 100 pages. If scripts are firing before the cookie banner is accepted, you have a compliance problem.

11. GDPR Checker tools — Various free tools check for privacy policy presence, cookie banners, and consent mechanisms. Search "GDPR website checker" and run a couple. They won't replace legal advice, but they'll flag the obvious gaps.

How can I check my website's accessibility?

12. WAVE (WebAIM) — Paste your URL and it highlights accessibility issues directly on your page. Missing alt text, poor contrast, missing form labels — all flagged visually. One of the clearest, most practical audit tools available.

13. Google Lighthouse (built into Chrome) — Press F12 in Chrome, go to the Lighthouse tab, run an audit. Gives you scores for Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO all in one go. No installation needed. It's already on your computer.

What about checking my Google presence?

14. Google Business Profile — Check if you've claimed your business listing. Search your business name on Google and see if the panel shows up on the right. If it doesn't, you're invisible in local search. If it does but the information is wrong, that's costing you customers too.

15. Google Rich Results Test — Paste your URL to see if Google can read your structured data. That's the behind-the-scenes markup that helps you show up in special search results — star ratings, FAQs, product prices. If this test comes back empty, you're missing out on visibility.