Is your Drupal site running slower than usual?

Do updates make you nervous because something always seems to break?

Has your SEO or traffic taken a dip and you can’t figure out why?

Or maybe you’re gearing up for a Drupal migration and wondering if your current setup is even ready for it.

If you’re battling with questions like these then it might be time for a Drupal website audit.

An audit ensures your Drupal site remains healthy, SEO-friendly, secure, and performs well. Moreover, there's always an opportunity to improve and make the website more user-friendly. 

If you’re managing a Drupal website, this quick guide will walk you through what to check, why it matters, how it is done by professionals and how you can attempt one yourself!

What is a Drupal audit?

A Drupal audit is a detailed review of your Drupal website to check how well it’s performing, how secure it is, and how cleanly it’s been built. It is typically performed by Drupal experts like Drupal development agencies (like Specbee), in-house Drupal teams, or sometimes even third-party security or SEO agencies. Not a Drupal expert and still want to run a basic Drupal site audit? Don’t worry, we’re discussing this at the end, so keep reading!

Why do you need a Drupal audit for your website?

Think of a Drupal audit as a regular health check for your website. Most teams do it quarterly or before a major upgrade to make sure everything is running smoothly.

• It is important to audit your Drupal site regularly to improve performance and to prepare for future enhancements.
• If you’re migrating your Drupal 7 (or 6) website to the latest version (Drupal 10/11), a migration audit is absolutely necessary for a successful migration. Read this article for a handy checklist before you migrate to Drupal 10 or 11.
• Beyond technical fixes, an audit also reveals competitive insights and growth opportunities, guiding your website toward better digital performance and user experience.
• Since Drupal frequently rolls out new updates, security patches, and performance improvements, regular auditing ensures your site always aligns with the latest best practices.

What is (or should be) included in a comprehensive Drupal audit?

A good Drupal audit should look at how every part of your site will behave during and after the migration. Right from content to code. Here’s what it should include:

1. Content Structure Audit
2. User Roles and Permissions Analysis
3. Backend Architecture Audit
4. Frontend Architecture Audit
5. SEO Audit
6. Performance Audit
7. Security Audit
8. Site Building & Configuration Audit
9. Code Quality and Best Practices Audit

Content Structure Audit

Your content architecture forms the backbone of a successful migration. The audit starts by analyzing the different content types in your CMS. It looks at what each content type is used for, how they differ, and whether some of them can be consolidated or simplified. Many older Drupal sites have redundant content types that can be merged into one without losing flexibility.

Next, it evaluates the fields within each content type by identifying which ones can be reused or standardized across multiple types. This step helps reduce duplication, improve consistency, and makes future updates easier to manage.

The audit also reviews taxonomies and vocabularies, including how terms are structured and where they’re used across different entities. Understanding these relationships ensures that tags, categories, and other classification systems migrate cleanly and continue to function as intended.

User Roles and Permissions Analysis

Over time, websites accumulate redundant or overlapping roles and permissions. A user audit ensures that access and permissions are clean, secure, and migrate smoothly. It starts by reviewing user entities and profiles, including their fields and usage.

The audit then catalogues existing user roles, evaluates the permissions assigned to each, and identifies any overlaps or unnecessary access. It also checks views tied to user data to make sure they function correctly post-migration.

The goal is to build a simpler, safer, and more manageable user system that’s ready for your new Drupal setup.

Backend Architecture Audit

The backend audit reviews your site’s modules, custom code, and configurations to ensure they’re efficient, compatible, and migration-ready.

It starts by analyzing all contributed modules, their purpose, stability, and availability in newer Drupal versions. Unsupported or outdated modules are flagged for replacement with newer or alternative options.

Next, it examines custom modules to assess how they use Drupal APIs, hooks, and database tables. The goal is to determine whether these can be modernized or replaced by contributed solutions or core functionality.

The audit also reviews configuration management practices, including how features and settings are handled across environments, and evaluates the content authoring experience to recommend improvements suited for the newer Drupal setup.

Frontend Architecture Audit

Your site’s look, feel, and behavior depend heavily on its frontend setup, like themes, templates, and libraries. The frontend audit reviews your site’s themes, templates, and assets to ensure a smooth design and UX transition to the newer Drupal version.

It starts by evaluating the current theme and its dependencies (like Bootstrap sub-themes) and mapping how regions, custom templates, and preprocess functions are used. This helps identify what needs to be updated or restructured for compatibility.

The audit also checks CSS preprocessors (like SASS or Less), JavaScript implementations, and any page-building tools in use to ensure they align with modern Drupal standards. Where needed, alternative approaches are suggested for a better and more flexible authoring experience.

SEO Audit

SEO takes years to build, and a careless migration can undo it overnight. An SEO audit ensures your Drupal site is fully optimized for search engines and users before migration.

It starts by checking if robots.txt and sitemap.xml are properly configured so crawlers can easily discover your site’s key pages. The audit verifies that clean URLs are enabled, and that meta titles, descriptions, and tags are optimized for relevance and clarity.

It also reviews structured data setup, canonical URLs, and H1 tag usage to prevent duplicate content and improve indexing accuracy. Tools like Rabbit Hole are checked to ensure only the right content types are indexed.

Finally, the audit confirms that analytics tools (like Google Analytics or Tag Manager) are active and tracking correctly, giving you visibility into how your site performs in search.

Performance Audit

A performance audit focuses on how efficiently your Drupal site runs, both for users and for search engines.

It begins by verifying CSS/JS aggregation, Drupal Cron intervals, and caching configurations to ensure your site is optimized for speed. The audit checks for any aggregation modules (like AdvAgg) and whether the site serves static assets through a Content Delivery Network (CDN).

It also looks at image optimization, recommending modern formats like WebP or AVIF, and evaluates server response times to ensure the backend isn’t slowing things down. Techniques like Redis or Memcache are suggested to reduce database query times and improve overall responsiveness.

Security Audit

A security audit ensures your Drupal site is protected against vulnerabilities and unauthorized access.

Start with the basics. Always keep your Drupal core and contributed modules up to date. Outdated components are the most common entry points for attackers. Use the Security Kit module to strengthen common security headers and reduce web application risks.

Next, review file permissions. Move sensitive files from the public directory to the private folder and verify access restrictions. Weak file paths or permissions can expose critical data to attackers.

Enforce strong password policies using the Password Policy module, ensuring users create secure credentials that can’t be easily guessed.

Finally, run the Security Review module. It scans your site for known vulnerabilities and provides an actionable checklist to tighten your defenses before migration.

Site Building & Configuration Audit

The site building audit focuses on cleaning up, organizing, and stabilizing your Drupal setup.

Start by uninstalling unused modules, fixing any errors or warnings in your Status Report, and making sure Security Updates for all modules are applied.

Review your Configuration Management setup, confirm that the configuration sync directory is properly defined and that all configurations can be safely exported and imported.

Make sure your Git setup follows best practices:

• Use a proper .gitignore file.
• Exclude directories like /vendor, /contrib modules, /contrib themes, and /core.
• Manage dependencies through Composer, not by manually committing them to Git.

These checks ensure your Drupal site remains clean, maintainable, and ready for continuous development or migration.

Code Quality and Best Practices Audit

High-quality code makes your Drupal site easier to maintain, extend, and secure.

Follow Drupal’s coding standards and run audits using the Coder tool, which scans custom modules and themes for standard compliance. It’s a quick way to detect potential issues and improve code consistency.

For a more Drupal-specific report, use the Site Audit module. It generates an analysis across multiple areas. From best practices to performance and security, and provides practical recommendations for each.

Quick Drupal Site Audit Steps for Non-Developers

While a non-Drupal expert can definitely run a basic Drupal site audit, it is highly recommended to reach out to Drupal experts for a full technical Drupal site audit. 

But if you want to catch obvious issues and get a general sense of site health without diving deep into code or architecture, here’s what you can do to spot performance, SEO, and security red flags:

1. Check your website health 

• Go to /admin/reports/status in your Drupal admin panel.
• You’ll see alerts about missing updates, security issues, or configuration errors.
• Fixing these usually takes minimal technical know-how (like applying module updates).

2. Run a performance check

• Use free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or WebPageTest.
• Look for slow load times, large images, or unoptimized scripts.
• Even non-developers can act on many suggestions, like compressing images or enabling caching.

3. Do a basic SEO review

• Run your site through Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, SEMrush, or Google Search Console.
• Check for broken links, missing meta tags, duplicate titles, and mobile-friendliness.
• You can also inspect URLs to see if they’re long or full of random characters. That’s a Drupal config fix worth flagging.

4. Check Security Basics

• Make sure the Drupal core and contributed modules are up to date (visible in the admin reports).
• Verify HTTPS is active.
• Remove any unused modules or themes. These can be entry points for attacks.

5. Review UX and Accessibility

• Ask a few people to try your site and share what confused or frustrated them.
• Use tools like Lighthouse for accessibility checks.

How long does a Drupal audit take to complete?

That’s a tough one. The time it takes to complete a Drupal audit depends on the size and complexity of your website.

• A basic audit (checking performance, security updates, and SEO setup) can take a few hours to a couple of days.
• A comprehensive audit like the one that reviews code quality, configuration management, security practices, custom module performance, and content structure, usually takes a week or two.
• For enterprise-scale or highly customized Drupal sites, it can stretch to 3–4 weeks, especially if documentation and remediation plans are part of the deliverables.

When is the right time to get a Drupal website audit?

Auditing your Drupal site is a smart habit for keeping your site healthy and future-ready. You’ll want to schedule one:

• Before a migration or upgrade: To spot potential issues early and ensure a smooth transition.
• After a redesign or major update: To confirm performance, SEO, and security are still on track.
• When your site slows down or breaks often: To identify what’s causing the lag. Is it outdated modules, caching issues, or hosting limits?
• If security updates have been skipped for a while: To check for vulnerabilities before they turn into risks.
• At least once a year: Even if everything looks fine, an annual audit helps prevent surprises and keeps your Drupal site performing its best.

How much does a Drupal audit cost?

Again, tough one :) because the cost of a Drupal audit depends on your site’s size, complexity, scope of review, Drupal version, and ofcourse the expertise of the team conducting it. For smaller sites, you can expect to spend around USD $400 to $600 for a full audit of a Drupal site’s performance, security, and upgrade readiness. Medium-sized sites with multiple content types, integrations, or moderate customization usually fall in the $2000 to $2500 range. For large or enterprise-level sites with extensive custom modules, heavy traffic, or complex infrastructure, a full-scale audit can cost around $3500 to $5000 or sometimes more. The final price also depends on the depth of the audit, like whether it’s purely diagnostic or includes recommendations and implementation support. Interested in a Drupal site audit? Let our team dig into your site’s health, uncover hidden issues, and hand you a clear roadmap to better performance, stronger security, and smoother upgrades.

Final thoughts

Are you preparing for a migration, troubleshooting performance or SEO issues? Then we highly recommend a regular audit to help you stay proactive instead of reactive. Want our Drupal experts to audit your website for free? Send us a message today and someone will contact you asap!