
South West-Based Service Provider
An audit that told the full story, not just the technical one.
Project Context
This didn't start as client work. Before a potential business engagement with a South West-based service provider, a significant regional player backed by substantial private equity and government investment, I ran the same audit I'd run for any client. It's my process. Before I engage with any organisation in a meaningful capacity, I want to know what their digital foundation looks like. What came back wasn't just a list of technical problems.
Tags
What the Audit Found
The infrastructure is fine. Solid hosting, good uptime, reasonable server response. Everything above the infrastructure is a problem. By the numbers:
- 14,447 broken internal and external links
- 6,000+ accessibility failures
- 2,947 images with missing alt text
- ~30 technical errors per page average
- No H1 heading structure across key pages
- Missing Open Graph and meta tags throughout
- Invalid schema markup and Core Web Vitals failures
Why It Matters
The site is built on WordPress, WooCommerce with Elementor as the page builder, a combination that produces div-heavy HTML that screen readers struggle to interpret, unless you know what you're doing. This isn't a minor housekeeping issue. Each failure category has a specific consequence:
- Missing alt text at scale = WCAG 2.2 AA failure = Equality Act 2010 exposure
- Broken links at volume = lost revenue pathways, degraded crawlability, AI search invisibility
- No semantic structure = poor screen reader experience = the same digital exclusion they claim to be fighting in their marketing materials
- Invalid schema and missing OG tags = invisible to AI-driven search, social sharing degraded, brand credibility eroded
What This Demonstrates
The audit numbers are one thread. But an audit is a starting point for questions, not just a score. A website audit isn't just a performance report. In the hands of someone who knows what they're looking at, it's a risk assessment, a compliance gap analysis, a due diligence tool, and a competitive intelligence piece.
- Certification at Risk: This organisation is a certified B Corp facing mandatory recertification in 2026 under B Lab's revised standards. Under the new JEDI2.m requirement, B Corp recertification now requires companies to confirm their public website meets WCAG Level AA or AAA, verified through manual testing.
- Accessibility Failures: A site carrying 6,000 accessibility failures is not a WCAG AA site. It isn't close. Automated scans won't pass that bar. A self-certification won't fly.
- The Bigger Picture: The 14,447 broken links and 6,000+ accessibility failures don't exist in isolation. They exist inside a business with investors to satisfy, a certification to maintain, and competitors building cleaner, faster services.
- The Cost of Ignorance: The value of knowing your site is carrying legal risk, failing a certification you've publicly committed to, and quietly handing your competitors an advantage?
For a paying client, a review of this scope would typically fall in the £200–£400 range.
Visual Highlights
